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 Airman 1^st Class Jerry Lee Jernigan 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: Jerry Lee Jernigan was born in 1947 In Detroit, Michigan. He served in the United States Air Force as an aircraft mechanic from 1966 to 1972, during the Vietnam War. More than 50,000 Americans gave their lives for our country in the jungles, waters and skies in and around Vietnam. American involvement began in 1961 and reached large scale intervention in 1965. The conflict eventually spread into Laos and Cambodia. Direct American military involvement ended in January 1973 with the signing of the Paris peace treaty which was followed by the return of American Prisoners-of-War. Airman Jernigan received the Air Force Commendation Medal for his service in the Vietnam War. He now calls Helena his hometown.

Melanie Poole is Communications Officer for the American Village and can be reached at MPoole@americanvillage.org.