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 Private Joseph Pickens Bridges 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: Joseph Bridges was born in Sayre, Alabama, in 1925. He was the son of Dr. Terrell and Mrs. Eula (Owen) Bridges. By the age of 15, he and his two brothers and three sisters had moved to Montevallo. Joseph attended Marion Military Institute, and was drafted at the age of 18. He trained in Miami Beach, Florida, and served in the Army Air Corps from 1943 to 1945. He was a pilot and a flight engineer, with a thorough knowledge of aircraft, mostly B-29s. Joseph lived in Montevallo until his death in 1994.