Jim Shull speaks to the Times Free Press at his home on Thursday, Oct. 11, 2018 in Hixson, Tenn.BIO
Name: Jim ShullAge: 72Branch of military: NavyYears of service: Served from January 1966 to October 1969 in Vietnam; and December 1991 to May 1992 in Operation Desert Storm. Counting all of his time in the Naval Reserve, he retired in July 1992 with 26 years of service.
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Jim Shull has been honored in several ways for his 26 years of service as a navy medic in Vietnam and Operation Desert Storm. He’s been named Legionnaire of the Year in Tennessee, received the Charles Coolidge Veteran of the Year award.
But some of the 72-year-old petty officer first class’ proudest moments came in the later years he spent honoring dying, sometimes bitter, veterans in hospice care who’d never received a simple “thank you” from their government.
“I did the basics,” Shull said from his home garage in Hixson. “First, present them with a lapel pin with their branch of service. If their wife was present, sometimes I would hand it to her. I would provide them with a blanket to give them some hope, some comfort. Then I would step back and say, ‘On behalf of the United States and our grateful nation, it’s my honor to salute you.”
Shull, or “Doc” as he’s often been called, can’t perform that service anymore because of his own health problems. But just talking about it eases the trauma Shull buried deep within himself over the years.