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 Isaac Conrad Brown 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: Isaac Brown was born in 1926 and grew up on Blount and Walker county farms. He came of age during World War II and joined the Navy. He was the middle of five brothers, all of whom would end up serving in the military. Just months after Isaac set sail for the first time, WWII ended. Over the next 20 years Isaac would serve on various Navy ships. His worst day of service was when his ship the USS Pirate, the vanguard of a Pacific fleet, was blown up by a Chinese mine during the Korean War. He was thrown overboard as the ship tilted and sank. Many of his shipmates were lost. Later he served on Atlantic patrol ships during the Cold War. In the Cuban Missile Crisis he was stationed on the USS Dailey as it observed a Soviet ship removing missiles from Cuba. He and other U.S. sailors were on the deck of the USS Dailey as the Soviet ship passed – so close the tense U.S. and Soviet sailors looked into each other’s faces. Isaac served in the Navy from 1944 to 1964, earning the rank of Electrician’s Mate First Class. Isaac’s 3x great grandfather Jacob Lollar is an American Revolution veteran from Alabama.

In his own words: “I enjoyed my years of service. Most of them were good times. I gave some of my best years to our country and I’m proud of that decision.”

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