While serving as U.S. Sen. John Boozman's military and veterans liaison, retired Lt. Col. Steve Gray presented more than 800 Arkansas veterans or their families with medals the veterans earned in past conflicts.
He traveled across Arkansas and into surrounding states -- racking up more than 100,000 miles on his car in less than two years -- to recognize veterans such as Mammoth Spring native James Robinson Risner, a highly decorated pilot who was held as a North Vietnamese prisoner of war for more than seven years; or Eugene Holmes of Fayetteville, a survivor of the Bataan Death March during World War II.
On the way to Utah for a family vacation, Gray took a 200-mile detour to a nursing home in Wahoo, Neb., to present medals to an Air Force veteran who served during the Korean War.
In fall 2013, he took a replacement set of medals to Wyandotte Nation in Oklahoma and handed them to the 96-year-old sister of a man who died on a Korean battlefield at age 19. The sister died less than two weeks later.
Gray always wore his pressed, blue U.S. Air Force uniform -- "It means something to them," he said -- and told the histories of each veteran's time in service. He carried a chunk of the Berlin Wall in his pocket and told each veteran and their families it was a symbol that "they and other Americans risked their lives so we could remain free."
Often, gathering the medals required digging up the correct documents and getting them to the right people to prove what each person had earned.
"We have done what we can to make sure these folks are provided with what they earned," Gray said. "We go to the ends of the Earth to try to prove it, and we've won that battle many times."
Presenting military awards to those who earned but never received them was one of Gray's duties as military and veterans liaison for Boozman's office -- a position he retired from at the end of January.
Gray, who lives in Fayetteville, said he and his wife, Sharon, are planning to hitch a trailer to their car and take off for the southern coast. The two will catch a flight to Germany, where they'll revisit some of the places they lived when Gray was an adviser to the chief of the Air Force in Europe.
"It's really been a great ride. It was a joyous, joyous chance to recognize our veterans," Gray said. "Maybe it's time for somebody else to be able to experience the joy and the reward that I have."
Gray, 66, served in the U.S. Air Force and then the Air National Guard for a total of 24 years before starting in 1998 as military and veterans liaison for then-U.S. Rep. Asa Hutchinson.
When Boozman won a special election to the House of Representatives in 2002, he kept Gray on staff. Gray followed Boozman to the U.S. Senate in 2010.
On Jan. 29, Boozman spoke on the Senate floor about Gray, whom he called a "champion of veterans" who would not "fade from sight."
Based out of Boozman's office in Lowell, Gray helped handle "piles" of cases related to active-duty military or veterans -- anything from addressing one veteran's problems with navigating the Veterans Affairs system to helping establish a task force to reintegrate servicemen into civilian life.
He's spoken at numerous military gatherings, shaken the hands of servicemen when they deployed or returned home, and represented Boozman at Arkansas National Guard ceremonies and at Little Rock Air Force Base.
A longtime veterans advocate, he also is chairman of the Northwest Arkansas Veterans Day Association and has served in leadership of Arkansas' Military Officers Association of America. He's active in the Arkansas Veterans Coalition, and he continues to sing at military-related events with his men's choir, the Singing Men of Arkansas.
People who have worked with Gray, including Missy Lambert, a staff member at Boozman's Lowell office, said they "learned from the best."
Maj. Matt Snead, a spokesman for the Arkansas National Guard, was the Guard's legislative liaison when he first met Gray in 2008. Snead said Gray has acted as a mentor, showing him that building relationships meant "meeting people, looking them in the eye and shaking their hands."
"He was constantly on the road, many times away from his family, many times on his own dime, doing what he felt was right by veterans," Snead said. "There's not another military or veterans liaison I've ever dealt with that had as much energy, as much passion to help veterans and help military members. The 250,000 Arkansas veterans -- I imagine they do not realize what that man has done for veterans in the state."
Gray grew up in Glenview, Ill., a suburb of Chicago, and graduated from Coe College in Iowa with a commission to the Air Force. He served in active duty and then transitioned to the Air National Guard, based at times in Virginia, Vietnam, California, Utah, Florida, Colorado, Kansas and Iceland.
Before his assignment in Germany, Gray was the national director for the Air National Guard recruiting, retention and advertising division at the Pentagon.
Gray retired from the Air Force in 1994, and the family settled in Fayetteville. He ran a flooring business for about four years before accepting the position with Hutchinson's staff.
Now that he's retired, Gray has come up with the idea to grab his guitar and perform John Denver tunes at each of the approximately 160 veterans nursing homes in the nation. It's on his bucket list, he said.
"We've had the thrill of our lives," Gray said. "We really have known nothing but military and veterans all of our lives, and I don't anticipate that's going to change."
Metro on 02/09/2015