San Marcos — When parade grand marshal nominee Alan Cameron takes the microphone as master of ceremonies for San Marcos' Veterans Day parade on Saturday, he is sure to handle it like a pro.

After all, the Vietnam era veteran is not only a dedicated singer-songwriter who has been performing since he was eight years old, but he is also the current president of the San Marcos Toastmasters Club.

The fact is indisputable – Alan Cameron likes to talk.

Born and raised just outside Pittsburgh, Pa., Cameron enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps right out of high school in 1972. After completing 14 weeks of basic training at Paris Island, South Carolina, the young infantryman who had been trained as a rifleman at Camp Lajune, North Carolina, received training as a radio technician.

This was the perfect assignment for the young Marine, who admits he was “born with the gift of gab.” Thanks to his training, he learned not just to talk on the radios but to fix them, too.

From there, he was sent to Camp Pendleton, Calif., where he spent the rest of his service with the First Marine Division.

Upon his discharge in 1975, Cameron bought a motorcycle, and, in his travels, discovered Idaho. Attracted to the mountains, he enrolled at Idaho State University Technical College where he studied tool making. He would be a tool maker for the next 22 years, working five years with NASA to help solve problems after the Challenger crash and later at an Austin-based company that manufactured prosthetic heart valves.

After spending 18 years in Austin, Cameron migrated down the road to San Marcos a little more than a year ago, and he loves it.

His oldest son, Brandon Cameron, a senior at Texas State University, came to San Marcos first. Youngest son Jason is a student at McLennan Community College in Waco but plans to attend Texas State after he finishes there.

Cameron began to share his passion to help young veterans improve their communication skills through the San Marcos Toastmasters. He is passionate about helping veterans and is a strong supporter of the creation of a veterans' service center in San Marcos.

“It's really in my heart to help these veterans,” he said. He is delighted to be living in a university town that has a growing population of young veterans.

He attributes part of his commitment to veterans to his admiration and the respect he has for his father, a Korean conflict Army veteran from whom he also 'inherited” his love for performing. His father, who passed away in 1990, sang and played steel and acoustic guitar in a country western band.

“I particularly think about him on Veterans Day,” Cameron says. “He was drafted but he just did his service and never complained.”

The silver-whiskered Cameron does not limit his volunteer efforts to veterans, however. He is a volunteer for both the Central Texas Medical Center Hospice and the Vista Care Hospice. He talks and listens to those in hospice care, and he sings and plays his guitar for them.

The return on his time investment is pretty simple. “It's a wonderful feeling,“ he says.