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 Lance Corporal LaTresa Yvette Cardwell as Veteran of the Week,” American Village founder and CEO Tom Walker said. “She 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:

Lance Corporal LaTresa Yvette Cardwell was born in Montevallo in 1968. She joined the United States Marine Corps in August of 1986 and served proudly for eight years. In 1994 she was honorably discharged from military service. However, she continued serving her country as a law enforcement officer for the next 25 years. LaTresa retired in 2017 and still lives in her hometown of Montevallo.

In Her Own Words: “Never stop giving your best, even when you won’t receive a thank you.”