Veteran Belinda Van Fleet
SAMVO Director Communication Operations
Executive’s Objective;
The SAMVO Director Communications is responsible for determining, proposing and implementing policy that SAMVO and its Time Zone Entities should follow in order to project a favourable public image, ensure Member satisfaction and to record our history.
Every veteran related opportunity of consequence that SAMVO Entities are involved in, should be recorded and reported through our digital media channels.
For this purpose, she will have a staff function to all four National Public Communication Officers. The Director will also liaise with similar styled organisations and other South African support organisations around the world. She will participate in the layout and content of the SAMVO Website.
South African Army, Western Province Command HQ at the Castle. First woman in the Cape Town Highlanders, where she served in a Personnel Support capacity. Joined SAMVOTA August 2022 - Located Salt Lake City, USA.
Belinda was born and raised in Cape Town, with family roots in Namaqualand and Italy.
After matriculating in 1982 from Groote Schuur High School in Newlands, she travelled around Europe for 6 months and then volunteered for one year of voluntary national service in the South African Army in July 1983. She completed 2 months of basic training at the S.A. Army Women’s College in George and was trained in the Personnel mustering, after which she was briefly transferred to South Cape Command HQ in Oudtshoorn.
Another transfer took her to Western Province Command HQ at the Castle, where she completed the balance of her national service. After clearing out from the S.A. Army, she enrolled in the University of Cape Town, from which she graduated with a Bachelor’s degree. Still feeling that her duty towards her country was not complete, she voluntarily joined the Cape Town Highlanders as the first woman in its then, 100 years of existence, where she served in a Personnel Support capacity for another 8 years, finally resigning her post in 1992 when she married a United States Marine and moved to the West Coast of the USA.
Belinda currently resides in the greater Salt Lake City, Utah area and holds the position of President for a construction staffing and recruiting company.
Belinda joined SAMVOTA on the 31st August 2022 and was appointed to her SAMVO position in October 2022. We wish Belinda every success in this role and a long and rewarding membership of this global military veteran organisation.