This Veterans Day, Saturday, Nov. 11, CBN's Operation Blessing (OB) is honoring all veterans who have served, supported, and protected our country.
The Virginia Beach, Virginia-based nonprofit, humanitarian organization said it is privileged to work with many retired service members.
In a recent interview, three of those brave veterans shared with OB about their time in the military.
"I believe in this 100%," said former U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Anthony Lloyd, Sr., who now serves in the position of OB director of U.S. Disaster Relief. "Everybody that's served in our military—they have strong service DNA."
"Back in high school, I felt like I wanted to serve my country because I wanted to keep the spirit of 1776 alive," he continued.
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Former U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Jeff Westling, who's now OB's current Chief of Staff, said he started thinking about the military as a career in the sixth grade.
"I was part of a Boy Scout unit at the time. Most of my leaders were veterans from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam," he said.
OB Accounting Specialist Yudith Buck, a former Electronics Technician Third Class in the U.S. Navy, recalled how recruiters came to her school to talk about serving in the military.
"Recruiters came to tell us about all the possibilities that you will have when you go into the military. I said, 'Oh, I would love to do that. I would like to see different cultures, different languages, and help.'"
"When you join the military, it's life-changing," Lloyd noted. "It has to change who you are into somebody that's driven to serve. I believe this 100 percent, everybody that served in our military, they have strong service DNA. Right out of the bat, I was doing disaster-related operations."
"I got to experience a lot of wonderful memories in the Navy," Buck told OB. "And during that time, I saw the reward. The reward when you help someone else is not what you do for that person, it's the blessing that you receive by helping out."
Westling recalled how his relationship with God had a major impact on how he made his decision to join the military.
"I wanted to have a career where I could really make a difference during people's greatest times of need," he said. "I think over the 31 total years that I wore the uniform from Cadet at the Coast Guard Academy through a career retiring as a Coast Guard Captain in '06. I had the opportunity to be a pioneer in so many different aspects. Those of us who are Christians are called to be ambassadors for Christ wearing the uniform of the United States."
"I am so blessed and so grateful to have served this country. It has opened so many opportunities for me and for my family," Buck said. "I always wanted to be part of God's plan to help out people in any way that I can. I wanted to be able to one day look back and tell my grandkids I did what I could with what I was given."
Anthony said he was really proud of his service in the Coast Guard and how it prepared him as a humanitarian to serve the country.
"After I retired, the position for the senior director of disaster relief came up. It was almost as if God had been preparing me to come to Operation Blessing to use the leadership, the proficiency, the competencies, and the staff skills that I had picked up in the military, he said.
Buck said she sees a lot of similarities in serving in the military and the mission of Operation Blessing.
"Coming from the Navy and then coming into Operation Blessing as an accountant specialist, I can see a lot of similarities in the mission that we have in the military to go and help serve, to honor our country with the mission that we have in Operation Blessing," she said.
Westling said he knows God is using him and other vets in their positions at Operation Blessing.
"As the chief of staff for Operation Blessing, I'm very privileged to be able to use the totality of my career experiences in the military," he said. "I know that God is using me. He's using all of us. He's using Operation Blessing to meet the needs of all of those who are suffering, who are lost, who are hungry, who are sick in the U.S. and around the world."
"We have this opportunity that we have been entrusted with to do all of this for God's glory to make the name of Jesus known throughout the nations," Westling added.
Watch the video 'Operation Blessing Honors Veterans' below:
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