“Serving in Afghanistan for a year as the legal advisor to a training mission was one of the most significant experiences of my life. I had been in the Army Reserve JAG Corps for 21 years and served stateside during Desert Shield / Desert Storm, but this was my first time in a war zone. I lived at the airfield, was rocketed too many times to count, and was on the receiving end of a mortar round once. Whenever we went out in a convoy, I thought, ‘Is today the day? Am I going to be blown up today?’ I never was. I don’t know why. Other people were. There was one month, June of 2008, when it seemed like my unit lost somebody every day. I’ll never forget it because these soldiers, these Marines, these airmen, were young enough to be my children. We’d go to the airfield for the ramp ceremony where the coffins are loaded on the plane, and I often thought, as we stood there watching the coffins pass by with the American flag or the British or Canadian flag, ‘Do their people at home even know yet? They’re dead, they’re in this coffin, they’re going home. Do their families even know?’ I think of men who endured so much more than I did. They were physically wounded, they were maimed, they suffered psychological wounds, and they’ve borne them all these years. People don’t understand what they went through. They’ve made such huge sacrifices; they’ve given so much.
“When I got back from Afghanistan, I promised myself that I would do whatever I could to help meet the needs of veterans. Our corner of Tennessee---Shelby, Fayette, and Tipton counties---has the largest concentration of veterans in the state, and the nearest veterans home is nearly two hours away. There’s a campaign underway now to build a veterans home here [West Tennessee Veterans Home], and we have until July to raise the remaining money to make it happen. Veterans need to be in a facility that is dedicated to their needs, where they can get skilled nursing care and rehabilitation. They need the camaraderie that comes from being with other veterans who have had similar experiences, made similar sacrifices, and suffered similar hardships.
“They deserve our help. They deserve our care. It’s not charity. It’s justice. It’s part of that unspoken contract between citizens and the people who serve them. On some level, we say to them, ‘If you go out and defend us, serve our country, and you come back, we will care for you when you need help. We’ll care for you in your old age.’ And we have to do that. We have to do it. It’s not the responsibility of the government or the President in Washington or the VA. It’s our responsibility as citizens. President Lincoln said we should 'care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan.’ It’s our responsibility, right here in Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee, because they served us, and we owe them more than just a yellow ribbon on the back of a car.”
“When I got back from Afghanistan, I promised myself that I would do whatever I could to help meet the needs of veterans. Our corner of Tennessee---Shelby, Fayette, and Tipton counties---has the largest concentration of veterans in the state, and the nearest veterans home is nearly two hours away. There’s a campaign underway now to build a veterans home here [West Tennessee Veterans Home], and we have until July to raise the remaining money to make it happen. Veterans need to be in a facility that is dedicated to their needs, where they can get skilled nursing care and rehabilitation. They need the camaraderie that comes from being with other veterans who have had similar experiences, made similar sacrifices, and suffered similar hardships.
“They deserve our help. They deserve our care. It’s not charity. It’s justice. It’s part of that unspoken contract between citizens and the people who serve them. On some level, we say to them, ‘If you go out and defend us, serve our country, and you come back, we will care for you when you need help. We’ll care for you in your old age.’ And we have to do that. We have to do it. It’s not the responsibility of the government or the President in Washington or the VA. It’s our responsibility as citizens. President Lincoln said we should 'care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan.’ It’s our responsibility, right here in Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee, because they served us, and we owe them more than just a yellow ribbon on the back of a car.”
WEST TENNESSEE VETERANS HOME CAMPAIGN
Website: West Tennessee Veterans Home
Website: West Tennessee Veterans Home
- High Ground: West Tennessee Veterans Home plans to build new local facility (April, 2014)
- Local Memphis: Local Leaders Come Together For A Cause (Oct, 2015) - includes video
- Commercial Appeal: Shelby County Commissioners commit $145K to W. Tenn. Veterans Home (Oct, 2015)
(Image below from the West Tennessee Veterans Home website)
Kevin R. Rardin, Assistant District Attorney
Shelby County District Attorney General's Office, 201 Poplar, Suite 301
Email: kevin.rardin@scdag.com
Shelby County District Attorney General's Office, 201 Poplar, Suite 301
- Daily News: Rardin Connects Afghan Lawyers With W&L Law School (March, 2010)
Email: kevin.rardin@scdag.com
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