Tom Leckinger

Country Representative, Vietnam

Tom rejoined VFA in 2006 as Country Representative in Vietnam and realized a long held ambition to live and work in the country. Tom has a long history with VFA, having previously worked as general counsel, participating in two early VFA delegations to Vietnam and Cambodia in support of reconciliation between the U.S. and Vietnam, and then in the 1990s as the coordinator of the VFA’s project in Cambodia. Since then, he has worked with several international development organizations in Central Asia, Afghanistan and Albania.

Tom has a long history of involvement in veteran issues starting after the completion of his military service in 1971. He and several other veterans started the Veteran’s Outreach Project in Rochester, New York, a storefront self-help group that still exits today and is considered a model for such initiatives. He was a leader in organizing the Rochester chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America and served as an officer and board member at the local, state and national level. Tom chaired the Constitution Committee which drafted the VVA constitution, a document unanimously adopted at the VVA National Convention in 1983. He believes the adoption of the constitution is very likely the only time in history some 500 Vietnam veterans ever unanimously agreed on anything.

Tom holds a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from the Rochester Institute of Technology and a Juris Doctor degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He spent 4 years as a street and tactical unit police officer and 15 years engaged as a criminal defense lawyer.

Tom served with the U.S. Army infantry in Vietnam and Cambodia in 1970. He was seriously wounded twice and received a number of decorations. He is married, has three grown children and a stepson in Sweden, as well as two beautiful grandchildren. Home is a small farming village in the tiny Mediterranean island of Gozo in the history-rich Republic of Malta.

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