When 1st Lt. Phillip Smith handed a Valentine’s card to a Korean War veteran, he got back something he wasn’t expecting – encouraging words.
“When you got that one bar, you know it won’t be long, you’ll have two,” said Russell Dority, who everyone calls “The Deacon” at the Georgia War Veterans Nursing Home in Augusta.
Dority, 87, was referring to Smith’s rank, the one black bar that shows he is a first lieutenant. Two black bars are for captains, which Smith hopes to pin on this summer.
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On Thursday, Smith and 1st Lt. Jessica Long handed out more than 150 Valentine’s cards at the Blue Goose, the nickname for the veterans’ nursing home located in the medical district of Augusta. The cards were filled out last weekend by students and staff of the 551 Signal Battalion at Fort Gordon.
“We wanted to thank them for their service. We wrote things like, ‘We are eternally grateful,’” Long said.
The Army soldiers who made the cards are not allowed to leave Fort Gordon because of COVID-19 restrictions. They are assigned to 551st to learn their jobs in communications equipment as part of their Advanced Individual Training courses.
But they still wanted to do something for people in the Augusta community as part of a volunteer project, Long said. She saw a TikTok video of soldiers giving Valentine’s cards to veterans and decided it was something the soldier/students could do on base. She and other staffers pooled their money, bought the cards and asked students to come in on their time off to fill out the cards. About 70 students did.
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Because Long and Smith are permanent party members of the 551st Signal Battalion, they are allowed off post and were able to deliver the cards.
The two lieutenants went through the common areas of the Blue Goose Thursday, talking to elderly veterans and thanking them for their service and handing out cards.
“Oh, thank you,” Lofton Reeves, 79, said when Long handed him a card.
Heather Nichols, the activities director at the veterans home, said residents were isolated for so long during the pandemic, they are thrilled to see young soldiers and other visitors.
“The residents, we feel like they are family, but they like seeing new faces,” Nichols said. “They eat it up.”
Joshua B. Good is a staff reporter covering Columbia County and military/veterans’ issues for The Augusta Press. Reach him at joshua@theaugustapress.com
