{"id":88485,"date":"2017-05-30T08:08:48","date_gmt":"2017-05-30T13:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=88485"},"modified":"2017-05-31T08:57:00","modified_gmt":"2017-05-31T13:57:00","slug":"lloyd-named-first-ever-vw-county-veteran-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2017\/05\/30\/lloyd-named-first-ever-vw-county-veteran-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Lloyd first county ‘Veteran of the Year’"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent staff writer<\/em><\/p>\n

VENEDOCIA — John Lloyd has been named Van Wert County\u2019s first ever Veteran of the Year.<\/p>\n

\"Shown
Shown at the Venedocia Memorial Day service are (from the left) Van Wert County Veterans Service Officer Barry Johns, Jeff Lloyd, Jeffery Fuller, and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 6772 Commander Eric Pugh.<\/strong> Scott Truxell\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The special announcement was made by Van Wert County Veterans Service Officer Barry Johns during Monday\u2019s Memorial Day service in Venedocia.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn did a lot over the last few years, especially last year with Memorial Park, and with getting the weapon that\u2019s down there as a memorial,\u201d Johns said.<\/p>\n

Johns was referring to a refurbished 105-mm howitzer anti-tank gun that was used by U.S. Army airborne and artillery\u00a0units during World War II. The weapon was dedicated last year, and is on display at the Venedocia Cemetery.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther guys helped him out, but John was the big lead on this one, and that\u2019s why he was the best choice,\u201d Johns added.<\/p>\n

Lloyd, an 82-year-old U.S. Army veteran of the Korean War, was unable to attend Monday\u2019s presentation, but a special plaque was presented to his son, Jeff.<\/p>\n

Johns urged local veterans organizations to submit names\u00a0at the end of each year for future Veteran of the Year awards.<\/p>\n

The speaker during Monday\u2019s service was Jeffery Fuller, who entered the U.S. Army in 1983 and served as a light infantryman during Operation Urgent Fury\u00a0—\u00a0the invasion of Grenada. After leaving the service in 1987, Fuller spent 11 years in law enforcement, then eventually became director of cyber and physical security at AES Corporation.<\/p>\n

Fuller said the real meaning of Memorial Day has been lost on many Americans.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor many, Memorial Day has come to signify a three-day weekend, the opening of the local swimming pool, or the start of summer vacation,\u201d he\u00a0noted.<\/p>\n

Fuller also said the over 1\u00a0million men and women who have died during American military service were real heroes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were brothers and sisters who fought alongside us, whose deaths left holes in their families and communities,\u201d Fuller said. \u201cTheir bravery and their commitment to duty will never be forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lincolnview High School marching band also performed, and a luncheon was held after the service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent staff writer VENEDOCIA — John Lloyd has been named Van Wert County\u2019s first ever Veteran of the Year. The special announcement was made by Van Wert County Veterans Service Officer Barry Johns during Monday\u2019s Memorial Day service in Venedocia. \u201cJohn did a lot over the last few years, especially last year with Memorial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 03:47:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88485\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}