Advancing Eyecare (AEC) is proud to be a sponsor for the 2020 Major Rob Soltes Memorial Golf Tournament.
Proceeds for the tournament go to Operation Peer Support which is part of the Blinded Veterans Association (BVA). BVA’s focus is to support the hundreds of men and women who return to the United States blinded or experiencing significant visual impairment in connection with their service. The program helps teach them how to live with their vision loss.
The 2020 Major Rob Soltes Memorial Golf Tournament was held on Veterans Day, November 11, 2020 at the esteemed Tustin Ranch Golf Club in Tustin, California. The tournament was set up in memory of Major Rob Soltes, the first U.S. Army Optometrist to be killed in action, and has been raising money to support eye care services since 2004.
About Major Rob Stoltes
Major Soltes was an optometrist who graduated from the New England College of Optometry in 1994. He moved to Southern California with his wife, Sally Dang, also an optometrist. Scott Shone of AEC helped them equip their first practice in Garden Grove, CA in the year 2000. Major Soltes was army reserve and was deployed to Iraq in 2004. He was killed in action by an IED while traveling in a convoy to a local hospital. Hi wife was pregnant with their son, Ryan, at the time.
Major Soltes also has a department in the Long Beach VA named after him, the “The Major Charles Robert Soltes, Jr, OD Blind Rehabilitation Center” for rehabilitating blinded veterans.
Pictured left to right in the photo: Ryan Soltes (son of Major Rob Soltes and Sally Dang, OD) with AEC representatives, Josh Elliot, Scott Shone, Ryan Harlow, and Matt Bock and Tom Clarke (Husband of Sally Dang Soltes and Tournament Director)