Staff photo by Tim Barber/ Dane Snowden has served in both the U.S. Army and the Georgia National Guard with a combined 40-years of service.On weekends, 62-year-old Dane Snowden likes to run at Collegedale’s Veterans Memorial Park.
He’s measured out a two-mile loop, over the park’s bridge, through grassy fields, circling the 50 state flags and passing the marbled structure that reads “All gave some, some gave all.”
When Snowden’s finished, he stops by the statue of a conscientious objector from World War II and a statue depicting a medic rendering aid to a fellow soldier. He pats each of their heads and says a prayer.
For more than two decades, this was Snowden’s ritual each time he was deployed and had to leave home.
A member of the Georgia Army National Guard since 1980, Snowden spent more than 17 years on active duty, deployed overseas for the first Gulf War, the war in Afghanistan and the Iraq War.