Navy veteran Ray Riley honored in his ‘final fight’
Clinton, South Carolina – A Navy veteran in hospice care and seven other veterans at 
Woodbridge Clinton Senior Living were honored Thursday with a special program presented by Veteran’s Last Patrol, a nonprofit organization founded and based in Spartanburg.
Ray Riley, Sr., a Clinton native and a Navy veteran, spent four years in active duty and two years in the reserves, and retired after 36 years at the Clinton Post Office.
“We cooperate with hospices across the country and here in the Upstate we’re also in contact with some of the facilities where many veterans live,” said Claude Schmid, the founder and CEO of Veteran’s Last Patrol, adding that having additional veterans to honor was a bonus.
“Woodbridge reached out to us and told us about Mr. Riley and that they also had several more veterans, so it was a great opportunity to honor each of them,” he said.
Other veterans honored at Thursday’s program included Navy veterans David Feinstein and Ray Dunham; Army veterans Bennie Latimer and Joe Timmerman; National Guard veterans James Wix and Bobby Meadors; and Air Force veteran Howard Spry.
Fellow veterans and volunteers Jack Horneman and his wife, Anita, and Kim Woods presented the program, as the Woodbridge residents were treated to musical numbers by Woods, and gifts of honorary certificates, packets of Cards of Gratitude created by children and specially-made dog tags for their military service.
All served as “reminders of their country’s everlasting gratitude for their patriotism and service,” read Woods, from the certificates delivered to each of the men.
Riley, a patient with Pathway Hospice, was presented a letter of commendation by U.S. Congressman Tim Scott, a patriotic- themed quilt, a wallhanging 
created by Anita Horneman and a personalized woodcut representing his years in the Navy.
Rossie Hanna, the commander of the Copeland-Davidson, American Legion Post 56 in Clinton, said Riley has continued to be an important part of Post 56 where he served as commander. Riley has also been important in the Clinton community through his work as a scoutmaster, a member of First Baptist Church, a husband to his late wife, Mickey, and father to his five sons, Ray Jr., Tim, Todd, Steve and Alex.
Hanna commended Riley for his military service and his long-time dedication to the lives of other veterans.
Ray Riley Jr. explained that his dad served on the Franklin Delano Roosevelt ship.
“He was in the Mediterranean for six months, two different times,” Ray Riley Jr. said. “He was all over.”
Later in leadership in the Kiwanis, Ray Riley Jr. said, his father traveled to France representing the Clinton group.
The concept of veterans reaching out to veterans was the reason that Schmid founded Veteran’s Last Patrol five years ago.
“Our mission is to befriend, honor and support veterans in hospice care,” Schmid said. “Our veterans know about patrolling land, sea and air. If they are in hospice care, they are facing their final fight and in their last patrol and all veterans understand that tough assignments are best faced together.”
Through its volunteers, programs just like the one held Thursday afternoon have taken place in 31 states, sometimes for veterans in hospice care who have no family or whose family lives states away.
“During my last assignment as an Army colonel in Iraq and Afghanistan, I was chief of the Wounded Warrior flight program, evacuating out wounded soldiers,” Schmid said. “Doing that job I constantly was dealing with these men and women in adversity and trying to help them and their families. The first thing they needed was medical care, and the second thing they needed was friendship and companionship.”
After he retired, memories of his mom’s volunteer work assisting hospice patients when he was a child prompted him to create Veteran’s Last Patrol.
Volunteers can help by visiting and befriending veterans in hospice care, presenting names of veterans for programs such as the one last week, helping financially or by creating Cards of Gratitude and mailing packets of them to the office in Spartanburg
This past Christmas, the Cards of Gratitude program reached 10,000 veterans, Schmid said.
“Americans young and old far and wide write cards and send them to us, and we present them in packets,” he said.
Information on Cards of Gratitude, annual Honor Rides and other fundraising and service opportunities are under the Events link in the website, www.veteranlastpatrol.org. Additionally, cards and donations can be sent to Veteran’s Last Patrol, 140B Venture Blvd. Spartanburg, S.C. 29306.
This story originally ran on Page 1 of the Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025 issue of The Laurens County Advertiser.
This action is awesome. I’d never heard of it. I’ll get some cards together.