Operation Battle Buddy was started in 2019 by Sergeant Jeff Weatherman with the full support of Sheriff Eddie Cathey and the Command Staff of the Union County Sheriff's Office.  The idea was born from a mission by the UCSO Honor Guard team.  The Honor Guard was asked to conduct a ceremony on November 11, 2019 at Brookdale Monroe Square.  The facility had an American flag in front of the building and wanted to take down the old flag and replace it with a new flag.  The ceremony would also honor the Veterans that were residents in the facility.  The ceremony was conducted and honored eight Veterans from WWII, Korea and the Vietnam War.  There were very few people in attendance to honor these brave men and women, which profoundly impacted Sergeant Weatherman who is a US Army Veteran.  The Operation Battle Buddy program started with the goal of pairing every Veteran in a long-term care facility with a Sheriff's Office employee - in other words, a Battle Buddy.  The employee would meet with their assigned Veteran and develop a friendship and let them know that their service was not forgotten.  The program started with 82 Veteran / UCSO employee partnerships.  The goal was to have a Veteran's Day ceremony at all 13 nursing home facilities in Union County that had Veterans as residents.  Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic struck shortly afterwards and the UCSO employees were unable to visit in the nursing homes.  Not to be deterred, the UCSO found another way to honor our local Veterans and hosted a breakfast on Veteran's Day of 2020.  Due to the success of this breakfast event, the UCSO's Salute to Veterans ceremony has now become a longstanding tradition for our agency and is hosted every November. Deputies are also now back visiting with their assigned veterans at local care facilities and these relationships continue to flourish. The Union County Sheriff's Office remains committed to remembering, honoring, and supporting all of our local military veterans.