2025 VETERAN OF THE YEAR

Colonel John F. Kilpatrick has been selected as the 2025 Mobile Bay Area Veteran of the Year. John was selected for his more than thirty-nine years of outstanding, patriotic service to our nation as a United States Marine and as a U.S. Army Officer, as well as for his numerous contributions to the Mobile Bay Area veteran’s community and to the community at large. 

John began his military service by joining the U.S. Marine Corps in 1986, where he served for ten years, and more than twenty-seven years as a U.S. Army Medical Service Corps officer in the U.S. Army National Guard and Army Reserve. He is a combat veteran of Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm – Saudi Arabia/Kuwait (1990-91), a deployment to Panama (1999), and three tours in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He served in Kosovo (2005-06), Kuwait (2015-16), and had an 18-month tour at the Pentagon in the office of the Surgeon General at Headquarters, Department of the Army. 

John is the Founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Vets Recover, which is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) community-based substance abuse and mental wellness program developed specifically for veterans, by veterans. John’s deepest passion has been to accelerate veteran well-being by removing barriers to mental health care and providing a unique recovery program for veterans and their families. John recently stepped down as the CEO, but will continue with Vets Recover as the Director of Clinical Services.

He is an active member of many veteran service organizations, including the South Alabama Veterans Council, American Legion Post 3, Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW), and the South Alabama Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA).

John has been actively engaged in veteran advocacy and was awarded the University of Alabama Outstanding Student-Led Community Engagement for his work at Vets Recover. He is active in the recovery community and served on the Alabama Task Force on Veterans and Opioids (2018) and is a founding member of Faces and Voices of Recovery (FAVOR) Coastal Alabama. He is also a founding board member of Mobile Youth Lacrosse and has served on the Parish Council of St. Mary Catholic Church.

John earned a B.A. degree from Springhill College in 1999, completed the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in 2013, and earned a Master's in Social Work (MSW) from the University of Alabama in 2018. He lives in Mobile with his wife Laurie and their three children, Owen, Henry, and Kate.  

  Whether in the Marine Corps or as a civilian, Tom has continued to serve his country and community in various capacities.  Among these are serving in the P.L. Wilson Detachment of the Marine Corps  League. He has served as the Junior Vice Commandant, Senior Vice Commandant, and Public Relations Officer.  

Throughout his tenure in the League, Tom has used his leadership and expertise in community relations to improve contact with our local veteran community at a grassroots level and beyond.   Using his extensive network in the community, his efforts have resulted in improved relations with the local news media, creating improved coverage for veterans in need and increased donations for projects such as Toys for Tots.  He created and promotes a “News from the Front” program, which relays information about local soldiers and Marines from the frontlines to the headlines. He has worked with local racetracks to recognize our veterans and their sacrifices and has worked tirelessly to promote fundraising for our veterans and active-duty personnel.  Additionally, he has played a pivotal part in securing a role for our veterans in the “Stars with the Shows” program, which has appeared at Bayfest and the Wharf on the Eastern Shore.  

Since its inception, Tom has chaired the Detachment’s Veterans Helping Veteran’s Kids Wishin’ to Go Fishin’ rodeo, which provides a day of fishing and fun for more than 30 children of local veterans who are currently or recently been deployed.  

Tom is the co-founder and co-host of The Scuttlebutt Network radio program.  The one-hour radio program and its companion website cover the Gulf Coast and the Nation on issues important to the Veterans community.  

Dave Riley is a veteran of the US Army and the US Coast Guard. During his Army service from 1976 to 1982, he was a radar repair technician with tours of duty in the Continental United States and the Republic of Korea. Dave joined the US Coast Guard in 1983 and volunteered for training as a Rescue Swimmer.

He was the twelfth Coast Guardsman qualified as a Rescue Swimmer and is therefore considered a "pioneer" in that field. Officially known in the Coast Guard as Aviation Survival Technicians (ASTs), their day-to-day activity is Rescue Swimmer. Rescue Swimmers are charged with the assessment, rendering of medical aid, and rescue of persons in distress, in the sea, on the land, or in the air. They jump from helicopters or are lowered into raging and sometimes icy seas to rescue people in dangerous situations. They also rescue people from other perilous circumstances, such as from cliff faces, rooftops, ice flows, glaciers, from crashing surf, and ocean caves, in the daylight, at night, and in very bad weather. Rescue Swimmers require the highest level of mental and physical toughness and must be in excellent physical condition.

In 2016, Dave was elected as the National Commander of the 1.3 million member Disabled American Veterans organization during its National Convention in Atlanta, GA. Dave was the first quadruple amputee to lead that large veteran's organization. In Dave's address to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs at the US Senate and US House of Representatives he praised the DAV.   

Dave is a member of the South Alabama Veterans Council and he was named DAV's Outstanding Disabled Veteran of the year in 2010. He has also served as Chairman of the DAV' s Convention Committee on Legislation and Veterans Rights. He continues to be very active in local DAV activities in DAV Chapter 7 in Mobile.  

Dave and his wife Yvonne of thirty-two years reside in Semmes, AL. They have four children and one new grandchild.