Hero's Bridge 2022 Veterans Day Recognition

Veterans Day is our biggest day of the year and shone brightly this year. From Middle Schools to offices, we celebrated our veterans throughout the day. During the week prior, we visited with our veterans with care packages in hand to thank them for their service and sacrifice. Below is a summary of our events.

Embrace Home Loans has spent this year raising funds to benefit Hero’s Bridge. To date, they have raised $10,100 for our heroes. We are very grateful for their efforts!

On Veterans Day, they welcomed veterans and guests to Old Bust Head Brewery where we enjoyed lunch from Mission BBQ and paid tribute to our veterans.

Hero’s Bridge conducted a pinning ceremony at Poet’s Walk Warrenton. Fourteen veterans live at Poet’s Walk including one female Navy veteran. Veterans served in four branches of the military, Navy, Army, Air Force, and Marines, during the Vietnam and Korean wars. Two served in both wars. The ceremony began with a presentation of colors from the Liberty High School Junior ROTC.

A pinning ceremony was also held at The Arbors at Culpeper for resident veterans.

During the week leading up to Veterans Day, we hit the road delivering care packages to 25 of our veterans.

The administration and staff at Auburn Middle School welcomed Hero’s Bridge Paw Patrol coordinator, Kayla Johnson and Col. Rick Koehnke, one of Hero’s Bridge Guardians of Freedom portrait subject, to their assembly. Col. Koehnke shared some of his experiences from his time in Vietnam as an air force pilot. Koehnke survived 284 missions during two Vietnam tours and retired after a career in the Air Force. He retired after a career spanning 31 years.