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 Lieutenant Colonel Robert Terrell Usry 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: After completing basic training at Ft. Chaffee, AR, Private Robert T. Usry of Gadsden served as a medical lab technician from 1961-1965 at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, D.C. and Brooke General Hospital, Fort Sam Houston, Texas. After attaining the rank of Specialist-5, he received a direct commission into the U.S. Army Medical Services Corp (MSC) in September 1965. Usry served as a clinical laboratory officer until his retirement in 1985. His last assignment (1972-1985) was as a laboratory/blood program staff officer (consultant) for U.S. Army Health Services Command which included 38 medical centers and 22 FDA-licensed blood banks. Other duty assignments included: USAH Ft. Jackson, SC; 6th Convalescent Center, Vietnam; 279th Station Hospital (USAH), Berlin; Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C.; and Madigan Army Medical Center, Tacoma, WA.

In His Own Words: “Just because it isn’t broken is no sign that it shouldn’t be fixed.”