Upon admission to Miami Valley Hospital, all patients are asked about military service. If the answer checked is yes, the patient can expect a visit from a volunteer group of veterans.

“We will visit you for a gall bladder or we will visit you for your last hour with us,” said volunteer Dick Furneaux, himself a former Army tank driver. “We will talk and visit any vet who is honorably discharged — wherever you served and whenever. We pin this little flag pin on them and have a little two- or three-minute ceremony and thank them for their service.”

Falling under auspices of Palliative Care, the group is known as the Hospice Veterans Partnership of Ohio and is comprised of about 12 volunteer veterans. The enameled pin has the American flag crossed with a blue flag that reads “Honored Veteran.” Both flags are superimposed on an outline of Ohio.

“We usually pin it right on their bedclothes,” said Hank Williamson, a World War II vet who fought in the Battle of the Bulge and came out of the Army as a sergeant major — the highest enlisted rank.

Veterans have been “pinned” served in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf Wars, the Cold War — during which Furneaux served — and peace time.

“We are on call every day. If they have a veteran who is terminally ill, they try to get us there as quick as they can,” Furneaux said.

For terminally ill veterans, the group also presents a tri-folded American flag.

“This whole program came into being about a year ago — in November — when they established the veterans’ hospice program,” Williamson said. “I was a volunteer and working in the same-day surgery but I was doing so much with the veterans, honoring them, that I transferred over to a full-time volunteer for Palliative Care.”

At first, they targeted only World War II vets and presented each with the tri-folded flag.

“It got to a point, thank God, that we didn’t have that many so we decided to recognize any terminally ill vet,” he said “Then it expanded to any veteran.”

Because of costs involved, presenting each veteran with a flag became impractical and that is now reserved for the terminally ill.

“We now have the (Veterans of Foreign Wars) Auxiliaries across the state supplying us, free-of-charge, three-foot-by-five foot cloth flags,” Furneaux explained. He added that funding for the program comes partially from the hospital, partially from the VFW and the VFW Auxiliaries.

All branches of the service are represented, both by patients and volunteers.

“We honored a Navy pilot the other day and we always try to bring a little humor to it even though they are in bad shape,” Williamson said. “We told him, ‘We are going to honor you despite the fact that you were in the Navy.’ They get a laugh out of that.”

“(The patients) are not talking to their (family). They are talking to another guy who was there,” Furneaux said. “The nurses tell us it’s good therapy — it’s kind of a release for (the patient.)

“There is a lot of satisfaction in doing it,” Furneaux continued. “We want people to know that this is the only hospital in the state of Ohio that is doing this program.

“We would like to see it grow,” he said.

“(The ceremony) is a humbling experience,” Williamson added.

For World War II veterans, the volunteer group also carries applications for the Honor Flight program, which provides free transportation and lodging for those who have never visited the memorial in Washington, D.C.