By MELANIE POOLE / Special to the Reporter

The Veteran of the Week is sponsored by the National Veterans Shrine and Register of Honor at the American Village — honoring America’s veterans and telling the stories of their service and sacrifice for the cause of liberty.

“The American Village is pleased to join the Shelby County Reporter in recognizing Petty Officer Shannon E. Hollon as Veteran of the Week,” American Village founder and CEO Tom Walker said. “He is representative of the hundreds of thousands of Alabamians who have risked it all for the sake of our country and its freedom. To all veterans we owe a debt we can never fully repay.”

Visit the website, Veteransregisterofhonor.com, today and add your loved ones to the Register of Honor. Help us honor, recognize, respect and remember our country’s veterans.

Here are highlights about this week’s Veteran of the Week: Shannon Hollon was born in Bessemer in 1969. He served as a Petty Officer (First Class) with the U.S. Navy Seabees from 2003 until 2012 with the 20th Seabee Readiness Group and Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Group. In 2010-2011 during Operation Enduring Freedom, Shannon served as a Provincial Equipment liaison for Helmand and Kandahar provinces in Afghanistan, attached to the U.S. Marine Aviation Logistics Squadrons 16 and 40.

In His Own Words: “After the attacks on September 11th, I felt the obligation to answer my country’s call to arms so I volunteered at the age of 33 for the Navy Seabees. Being a crane operator at U.S. Steel Fairfield Works, the Seabees seemed like a natural fit.”