From careless youth to honored service. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps veterans who served our country and continue to give back to the communities they live in and, in many cases, their fellow veterans.

Of course, sharing these stories wouldn’t be possible without the generous support of our sponsors. Weston Kia stepped up to be this year’s “hero sponsor,” joined by “partner sponsors” Hillside Chapel & Funeral Services, Fir Lawn Memorial Park & Funeral Home, Mt. Hood Community College, Caring Places, and TEC Equipment.

I never served in the military, but I have the utmost respect for those who did. It would be nice to think that perhaps someday, the need for a military would no longer be there, but as a student of history, I know it would be naïve to do so.

Edmund Burke, an eighteenth-century statesman, once said, “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”