Our Story
The Birth of Veterans Honoring Veterans Inc
as told by M. E. 'Bart' Bartholomew, U.S. Navy Vietnam Veteran
In 2017, my wife(Dot) and I attended the 47th Reunion of the USS Valley Forge, the U.S. Navy ship I served on in the late 1960’s during Vietnam. These reunions were for any sailor who had served on the Valley Forge during its service designations of CV-CVA-CVS45/LPH8.
My wife and I were at the Saturday night banquet, where different individuals were being recognized for their accomplishments while serving aboard the USS Valley Forge. At one point that evening, shipmate Jerry Miller approached the podium in his Naval dress blues. He called one of the former crewman to come up to the podium where Jerry presented him with a statue of a sailor carrying his sea bag. Jerry shared why this sailor was deserving of the statue. When Jerry finished, he called another shipmate up and presented another statue for this sailor’s accomplishments.
I was very moved by what I had seen that night. My wife and I got to visit with Jerry and his wife later that evening about what he had just done honoring those two sailors with a statue for service to their country. Jerry explained that presenting statues was something that he did for the local veterans where he lived in northern Arkansas. I asked Jerry if this was a franchise, but he assured me that it was not. He had set up a non-profit with the state of Arkansas to be able to honor these shipmates.
When I got back to Colorado, I met with six different individuals: five former military and one civilian. I shared with them what I had experienced at my ship’s reunion banquet, and said I would like to try it here in Colorado. They wholeheartedly agreed and thought it was a great idea.
We came up with a name and logo, set up a board of directors, applied and received our EIN number and non-profit 501 (c) 3 status from the State of Colorado, to become qualified to start presenting statues in Northern Colorado, and Veterans Honoring Veterans Inc was born.
The first veteran to receive a statue from Veterans Honoring Veterans on August 18, 2018. was WWII Army Air Corps Captain Lee Bashor who flew B-17s in the European Theater.
Captain Oliver Lee Bashor
Meet THE VHV TEAM
