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 William Lewis Clinkscale 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: William Clinkscale was born in Bessemer, AL in 1929, the son of Lewis Embry Clinkscale and Gladys Irene Parrish. He made his home in Vincent, AL. He served in the United States Navy from 1948 to 1952, and was a Radarman 3^rd Class on the USS Philip during the Korean War. In 1952 he married, and had four children – Mike, Mark, Rene and Wanda. A lifelong member of the Electronics Union BOEW, he was able to construct anything of interest to him. Petty Officer William Lewis Clinkscale died in 2002 at the age of 73. His family says he was “a good and loyal man, husband, father both to his own children and step children, and faithful supporter of the church.”

Melanie Poole is Communications Officer for the American Village and can be reached at MPoole@americanvillage.org.