WALKER COUNTY, Ala. (WIAT) — As the saying goes, “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.”

Walker County native Jordan Hyche is on a mission to make sure we never forget heroes from Walker County.

One such veteran is 99-year-old Fayette native Wardell Wright, a proud veteran of World War II.

Wright was an ambulance driver and was sent to Europe in November of 1944, spending time in France, Belgium and Holland until the Germans surrendered. His call to serve came when he was just a teen.

”We had to go to the army. and we were nothing but young boys, still in high school,” Wright said.

98-year-old Walker County native Raymond Meeks spent World War II in the South Pacific as a cryptographer. Meeks had the job of decoding messages that were sent to General Douglas MacArthur in Manila. Meeks’ incredible experience began soon after Pearl Harbor.

”I was in high school and I didn’t know where Pearl Harbor was, or what the war was about, but that soon changed,” Meeks said.

Stories like those of veterans, living and passed, are Hyche’s passion to document, using a marker in downtown Jasper to tell the stories for those who can’t.

”I’ve used the document across the street here,” Hyche said. “There are over 390 who were killed in action from World War I to Iraq and I’m just documenting their names and writing their stories on a Facebook page that I have.”

In addition to those on the marker, Hyche has told the stories of Meeks and Wright as well — two men whose memories of war and service are steeped in gratitude grounded in their faith.

For Meeks, he can readily recall his praying father. 

”My father was a devout Christian and I know he prayed for me. I was aware of that,” Meeks said.

Wright, too, is aware of the power his faith played in his finding his way home.

”The Lord has been good to me,” Wright said. “He’s brought me over hills and mountains and valleys.”

To find out more about Hyche’s work, visit his Facebook page Lest We Forget Initiative.