The nation owes a great deal of gratitude to its military veterans — those who fought in the wars from World War II through the current Middle East conflicts as well as those who served in the Cold War and in peace-time.

Now many of these same veterans are serving again — this time as hospital volunteers.

These are just a few of their stories.

Harlan Adrick, U.S. Navy

Adrick served during the Korean War as a Navy aircraft engine mechanic. He stayed in the Naval Air Reserves and retired after 36 years of service. He enlisted in 1950.

“I knew what was going on and I didn’t want to go in the Army and I had always liked the Navy and decided that was what I wanted,” he said.

Adrick also retired from General Electric and his son was a Navy pilot who recently retired after 30 years of duty.

He got into volunteering when his friend suggested that he offer his services to the hospital.

“That went on for about a year-and-a-half — she kept bugging me,” he said. “She took me up to (Infusion and Treatment at Atrium Medical Center), and I have been there ever since.”

Adrick seldom interacts with patients — his service consists of making pharmacy and blood runs. “Whatever the girls up there ask me to do,” he said.

Bob Wilson, U.S. Army Security Agency

A veteran of Vietnam, Bob Wilson spends two days a week in Patient Services at Atrium Medical Center. He said his dad, who was chairman of the draft board, was notified that his son’s name was coming up.

“I figured if I was drafted, I would be in the infantry. If I volunteered, I maybe could do something else.”

After training, Wilson spent a 13-month tour at Phu Bai in the Army Security Agency. He then went to Frankfurt, Germany, for another two-and-a-half years. He picked up a purple heart when wounded by shrapnel at Da Nang.

“(Volunteering) gives me something to do and what I do helps others,” he said. “Service to humanity is a Jaycee creed and I believe this. I do just about everything: carry blood, dismiss patients, just anything they need.”

Bill Chalfant, U.S. Coast Guard

Bill Chalfant was drafted into the Coast Guard during World War II.

“The Navy called us ‘landlubbing sailors,’” he said with a smile. “We were on patrol duty off shore — we would be like two or three miles off shore — and we were (there) for submarine detection.”

Chalfant also noted that the shore was in the South Pacific.

“Our ships were spaced like 10 miles apart and we all went the same direction for maybe 10 miles and then we would all turn at the same time and come back. We put a ring around the island to prevent any subs from coming in.”

The ships would be out for 10 days at a time and then come back to shore for 24 hours to refuel.

The native of western Pennsylvania and his wife moved to Dayton because their daughter is a doctor at Miami Valley Hospital. He has been volunteering at MVH for 19 years and had volunteered at a suburban Pittsburgh hospital before.

Dick Furneaux, U.S. Army

Describing himself as a Cold War veteran, Dick Furneaux went into the Army just after Korea and got out just before Vietnam. He was a tank driver in the service and is a retired employee of U.S. Bank.

“A friend of my wife’s daughter worked in the volunteer office in the hospital and knew I was kind of scratching around looking for something to do after retirement,” he recalled. “She said, ‘why don’t you try volunteering at the hospital?’ That was eight years ago.”

Furneaux is assigned to the General Mechanics Shop at Miami Valley Hospital and works in the Sign Shop. “We make all the interior signs and repair hospital beds and those sorts of things,” he said.

He also works with Charlie Zimmerman, a retired MVH employee, who works part-time. Zimmerman was in the combat engineers in Korea.

Furneaux is also heavily involved in the Hospice Veterans Partnership of Ohio along with his friend and neighbor, Hank Williamson, a World War II veteran of the Battle of The Bulge and a former Army sergeant major.

Space limitations preclude listing every veteran who now donates his/her time to the health care industry. But their service — military and volunteer — is deeply appreciated.