McGriff is Veteran of the Week

Published 4:10 pm Tuesday, November 21, 2017

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 Petty Officer Second Class Ronnie Malcolm McGriff 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. Ronnie McGriff was born in Dothan in 1944. He entered service in 1964 and went to boot camp at Nimitz Field, San Diego, CA. He attended Electronics School in Milton, TN and Radar and Aircrew Training in North Island, San Diego. Ronnie was assigned to Patrol Squadron 42, Whidbey Island, WA. In 1967 his service took him from Sangley Point, Philippines to Tan Son Nhut Air Base, Saigon in the Vietnam War. In 1968 he was detached to Cam Rahn Bay, Vietnam. Stateside, he flew submarine, shipping and fishing patrols off Washington’s coast. Ronnie finished his service as a Petty Officer Second Class. He now lives in Columbiana and is a volunteer at the American Village’s National Veterans Shrine.

In His Own Words: “I flew as an Air Crewman aboard a P2V7 Neptune aircraft as First Tech (Electronics) and operated an anti-submarine system called JEZEBEL. Earned National Defense, Vietnam Service, Vietnam Campaign, Two Air Medals.”