Marine colonel retires with 30 years of faithful service

Col. Orlando Michael Valore Jr. was honored with the Legion of Merit award during a retirement ceremony June 8 at U.S. Marine Corps Forces Command in Norfolk, Va.

The award is reserved for senior staff for meritorious conduct and outstanding service and achievement.

Some of his other awards are for Meritorious Service, Combat Action and Humanitarian Service, and he has a Marine Corps Expeditionary Medal.

“People are overcome with awe when I tell them I'm a U.S. Marine,” Valore said. “It's a great institution with a lot of camaraderie.

“I love what it stands for.”

Valore, 52, who is known as Mike, was born in Jeannette and grew up in Slickville.

He wrestled for The Kiski School near Saltsburg, and graduated in 1978.

Valore earned a bachelor's degree in computer science from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1982.

He served in Grenada and Beirut, and was working at the Navy's Information Resources Management Office at the Pentagon when he left regular service in 1991.

Valore had been in the reserves for 10 years when he was recalled to active duty in 2003.

As deployment director for Marine Forces Central Command in Tampa, Valore was responsible for deploying 608,000 Marines and 477,000 tons of equipment using 7,400 planes and 200 ships — more than anyone in Marine Corps history.

Valore served time in Kuwait and Iraq on nine separate occasions during his tenure at Central Command.

His last assignments involved planning and directing amphibious operations, giving him an opportunity he said he'll miss – working with young Marines, doing what they do best.

“Forced entry, establishing beachheads, we need to do stuff like that again,” he said. “We were busy with Iraq and Afghanistan for a long time, so that took a back seat.”

Personal tragedy struck Valore more than once during his long career.

In 1983, while on a ship headed to Grenada, he was informed his brother, Terry Valore, had been severely injured when terrorists drove a car bomb into Marine barracks in Beirut.

In 2005, he was flying from Kuwait to Tampa for his promotion to colonel when his father, Orlando M. Valore Sr., died on the way to the ceremony.

“Yes, I lost my dad, but he was coming to see me in one of my finest hours,” Valore said. “I'll see him again. It just won't be here.”

Terry Valore, who was medically discharged because of the injuries that occurred in Beirut and the brothers' mother, Jan Valore, who still lives in Slickville, attended Mike's retirement ceremony.

“Thank God for her,” Mike Valore said. “She's very, very proud.”

Mike Valore said being a Marine was like being part of a great wall that surrounds the United States, ensuring life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for millions of people.

“I'm going to miss being part of that wall,” he said. “But I'm proud of my accomplishments and I'm proud of what I've done for my country.

“Thirty years is a long journey, but it's been a great ride,” Valore said.

Mike Valore lives in Chesapeake, Va., with his wife, Patricia, and has a stepdaughter, Tara.

His job as a software developer keeps him connected to the Marines, and the sweltering temperatures during a recent business trip to Washington D.C. felt kind of familiar.

“Ten more degrees, I'd feel like I was in Iraq.”

Dawn Law is a freelance writer.