Today, we salute 95-year-old Kansas Veteran Billy Joe Holden. Billy Joe faced adversity at an early age. Losing his mother when he was 6, working on the family farm in Oklahoma, and homelessness as a teenager. At 14, he faked being 18 and joined the military. When he officially turned 18 and received his honorable discharge from the Marines, he returned home, taught himself math, and got a job at Boeing, where he worked for about 30 years. During that time Billy Joe worked very hard to build the home he dreamed of. His motto was always, first we work, then we play. Through all of this, one thing Billy Joe never officially received was his high school diploma. Thanks to Operation Recognition, it was presented to him in his home courtesy of American Legion Post 136 in Mulvane brought the diploma. Congratulations on your diploma, Billy Joe, and THANK YOU for your service.
