Iraq vet honored in Colfax

A veteran of the Iraq war, Ben Farmer of Colfax, was gifted with a quilt hand-stitched by a member of the Colfax Assembly of God Sunday.

Farmer, 23, of Colfax, was presented with the hand-made patriotic piece by Tami Drader during the church service.

Farmer served eight months in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2008 and 2009 as a company clerk in the Marines. He is the son of Teresa and Dave Farmer of Colfax and is member of the Colfax High School class of 2005.

“It made me feel that a lot of the work that I did wasn’t in waste,” said Farmer.

Two groups of women, five from the Colfax Assembly of God and more than 25 from the local quilting guild, the Whitman Samplers, have been stitching together free quilts for Quilts of Valor.

A national organization, Quilts of Valor, takes donations of quilts from around the U.S., then gives them to injured veterans of the U.S. wars in the Middle East.

The organization also encourages members to give their hand-made Quilts of Valor to local veterans; this is the idea these Colfax women are pursuing.

“Just a thank you here and there is very uplifting in our spirits,” Farmer said in a phone interview with the Gazette Tuesday.

He is now at Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Farmer attended the ceremony during a week’s leave in Colfax and left for Camp Pendleton the next day.

In Iraq, Farmer worked as a fire marshal and helped run the mail delivery system. His unit spent a large part of its time providing support services for other Marine units, he said.

His mother said she was proud of her son’s service to the U.S.

“I was nervous, but I was praying the whole time that he’d come home safe. I was thankful he had a chance to protect our country,” said Teresa Farmer, who attended the ceremony.

Farmer broke his ankle during a training maneuver in California several months ago. His future in the military is now uncertain as he could be deployed again or given a medical discharge.

Drader, a member of the Colfax Assembly of God and a member of Quilts of Valor, is leading the effort to donate the quilts. With her special quilt-finishing machine, a long-arm quilter, Drader will do the final sewing on each quilt the groups produce.

Shirley Walker, a member of the church, made the quilt given to Walker.

The Whitman Samplers began two years ago, putting together sections of the final top for a quilt. They have one quilt finished and ready for Drader to do the final sewing.

Church members started working on their own quilts a year ago and now have four quilts ready for Drader to finish.

“Everyone that’s been at war is wounded in some way or another from what they’ve seen or gone through,” Drader said.

The groups are still searching for more Whitman County Middle East war veterans, injured or not, to award them with a quilt.

Drader herself served in the Navy for 24 years. She did not serve in any wars, but said she feels very deeply for her fellow military members who have experienced war. Part of her compassion for this, she said, is driving her efforts to make the quilts.

“I wanted to support them out there. My heart is still with the military,” she said.