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 Master Sgt. Otho Harding Machen 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: Otho Harding Machen was born in Attala, but called Sylacauga home. He joined the Army and was assigned to the 3187th and 3160th Signal Service Battalion. He served in the United States and in Germany for about 19 months between 1944 and 1946. He supervised the work of 10 men in the installation and repair of telephone and teletype repeater and carrier systems for Army communications. He made periodic tests on tubes, cables, filters and teletype machines to determine that they were operating properly. He installed and maintained equipment for the transmission of facsimile maps and diagrams by wire, and instructed new men in the installation and repair of various types of equipment used in the repeater stations.

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