Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Dee Birkes, who works for BSchoenberg & Company in Winchester, has a distinguished background that goes far beyond his work in the plastics industry. 

Now, the military veteran will take on a new role. 

Birkes, who fought in the Gulf War, was recently named to be a State Board Director for the Kentucky Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, which supports the Kentucky Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Frankfort. 

““I’m surprised and honored…to be thought of,” said Birkes. “It’s very special.” 

Birkes, a former member of the United States Army’s 82nd Airborne Division and more, has a strong family history of military service that played a role in his desire to serve. 

“My grandparents and my father were military…I wanted to do what I could to support my country,” he said.

The Kentucky Vietnam Veterans Memorial, constructed in 1988, recognizes 125,000 Kentuckians who served in the military during the Vietnam War, which lasted from 1962-1975. 

Of those 125,000, 1109 Kentuckians sadly lost their lives. 

The Kentucky Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, a 501(c)(3) organization, features several board members. 

Among them is Winchester resident Jerry Cecil, a former U.S. Army Colonel and Vietnam veteran himself. 

Cecil, who personally nominated Birkes for the position, emphasized that Birkes as a veteran of a younger generation is an ideal fit. 

“There’s nothing better than a veteran to look out for other veterans,” Cecil said. “We’re all getting older, at least the Vietnam crowd is. We’re reaching out to other veterans because we learned how to be a veteran from the generation before us…it’s the time to get younger veterans [involved].” 

“It’s a real honor for him to…think enough of me to do that,” Birkes added. 

As stated by Cecil, he and Birkes will represent the two board members east of Interstate 75. 

Though taking on a new role, Birkes is no stranger to supporting military veterans throughout Clark County. 

He currently serves as a Board Member of the Clark County Veterans Council, and – as such – plays a supportive role in working to complete the World War II and Korean War Memorial located at 14 E. Broadway Street. 

Information about the project – still looking for donations and with an estimated completion date of December 7 – can be found at https://www.clarkcountywarmemorial.org. 

He also spoke highly and humbly of the Kentucky Vietnam Veterans Memorial. 

“It’s very special,” he said. “If you take a look…you’d swear you were in Washington, DC, he said. “ I’ve always looked at Vietnam Veterans as [influences]. The stuff that they went through and the sacrifices they made [helped] pave the way for me. I’ve always held them in high regard.”