South Carolina’s 1st-ever “Veteran of the Year” announced at State House

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — South Carolina’s first-ever “Veteran of the Year” was announced at the State House Tuesday morning.

Of the more than 400,000 Veterans across SC, Army First Sergeant Alvin King (Retired) was chosen for his service, leadership, and impact on the Veteran community.

King was presented the award by Governor Henry McMaster and SC’s Secretary of Veterans Affairs Todd McCaffrey.

“Among these hundreds of thousands of Veterans, we are incredibly fortunate to have a select few emerge as truly phenomenal servants to their fellow Veterans and their state. The SC Dept. of Veterans Affairs realized that we have both an opportunity and an obligation to highlight Veterans that do so much for others,” says McCaffrey.

King’s resume includes eight combat tours, multiple humanitarian missions, and service in conventional and Special Operations Forces during his time in the Army.

“I served my country for 20 years. It was an honor, and in retirement, I decided to continue to serve and give back, not only to my fellow brothers and sisters in arms, but to their family members as well as anybody connected to military service,” King says.

He started the “Range fore Hope Foundation,” helping Veterans with PTSD (and other service members and their families) use golf as therapy.

“When I served, my family traveled with me everywhere I went. And so to not have an opportunity or program or resource available to them in retirement was something we thought we should change. And so that was kind of what caused us to develop this foundation and its grown immensely in the past few years and we’re just humbled and continue to serve the Midlands and the greater South Carolina area,” says King.

“Range Fore Hope” also includes adaptive golf equipment — helping Veterans with disabilities enjoy the game like anyone else.

“In retirement, I just couldn’t stop serving. And I wanted to give back to my community. And I wanted to do something that was impactful and maybe beyond me. And you know it’s humbling to kind of really be given the opportunity to do this on a regular basis, and it’s amazing to see the number of people we’ve been able to impact over the past few years,” says King.

King also says the golf therapy services for Veterans, service members, and their families are free.