WWII vet Herman Hudson to receive Quilt of Valor on April 19

By Dean Rhodes

Smoke Signals editor

Tribal Elder and World War II veteran Herman Hudson will receive a Quilt of Valor at 11:30 a.m. Friday, April 19, in the Governance Center Atrium.

Hudson, 94, was nominated to receive the honorary quilt by Tribal Council member Steve Bobb Sr., a Vietnam War-era Marine Corps veteran who previously received one and then was asked to nominate a worthy veteran to receive one.

Quilts of Valor are individually made and World War II veterans are currently being prioritized to receive them because of their advancing age.

Hudson went to high school in Keizer and Salem until his junior year at Salem’s North High School, when he joined the Navy in 1942. He served in the South Pacific aboard a ship that escorted fleet oilers. He served throughout the war, being discharged in 1945.

The Quilts of Valor Foundation was founded in 2003 by Catherine Roberts, whose son was serving in Iraq. The first quilt was awarded in November of that year at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to a soldier from Minnesota who lost his leg in Iraq.

Since then, the foundation has awarded almost 213,000 quilts to military personnel and veterans, according to its website, www.qovf.org.