Monitor Photo/Russell Slaton
Cedar Creek Veterans Foundation honored military veterans Charles Cox (from left), Louis Thomas, Michael Thacker and Jack Feagins following the foundation’s golf tournament Oct. 25.

Monitor Photo/Russell Slaton
CampV Community Engagement Manager Mark Shaw (from left) and CampV Co-Founder Susan Campbell accept a $60,000 donation from Cedar Creek Veterans Foundation President and Director Lyn Thomas.

Monitor Photo/Russell Slaton
Thomas Belflower of the U.S. Navy (USN), Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society-Fort Worth Director Sharon Zacharias, Brice Leonard (USN) and Kacie Jones (USN) show the $20,000 donation from the Cedar Creek Veterans Foundation.

CEDAR CREEK LAKE–Cedar Creek Veterans Foundation (CCVF) hosted its annual golf classic at the Pinnacle Club in late October, capping off festivities by honoring four veterans Oct. 25 and distributing funds to the foundation’s chosen charitable causes.
CCVF honors men and women who have served in the military by providing financial support to agencies responsible for their care and nurture through principal fundraising activities including Thunder Over Cedar Creek Lake airshow and the annual golf classic. The foundation’s core focus is assisting the wounded, injured and disabled – both active-duty and veterans – around East Texas, according to the foundation’s online mission statement.
The three charities supported by CCVF include Fisher House, CampV and the Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society, which also assist with the needs of spouses and other family members, according to the foundation’s website. Oct. 25, Pinnacle Club resident Steve Piero, who served as master of ceremonies, said CCVF has passed out $546,000 in donations since its inception.
The foundation selected four veterans to honor during its Oct. 25 luncheon. Jack Feagins of Athens served in the U.S. Navy with the Naval Construction Battalions, better known as the Navy Seabees. Feagins was aboard the U.S.S. Minnesota and in Vietnam from 1967-69, serving 26 years overall.
“At the time, I did what I was supposed to do – I took orders and carried them out to the best of my ability,” Feagins said. “I was all over Vietnam, the detachments. All over… Everywhere.”
Charles Cox, who lives at the Pinnacle Club, served in the U.S. Air Force from 1974-78. While in the Air Force, Cox developed autopilot systems for B-52 bombers used by the Strategic Air Command. After his service, Cox got his commercial pilot’s license and worked for American Airlines.
“I went into the U.S. Air Force so that I could learn a skill and get experience in that skill that I might be able to use to get a good job when I got out,” Cox said. “I had a wonderful career, very blessed.”
Louis Thomas of Tyler was in the U.S. Air Force from 1956-60. Thomas is involved with the Historical Aviation Memorial Museum and airshows at Tyler Pounds Regional Airport and has helped support aircraft deployment for Thunder Over Cedar Creek Lake. Thomas also served in the Central Intelligence Agency.
“I remember seeing my first airplane when I was about five years old in Columbus, Miss., in the 40s,” Thomas said, “and my step-dad was in the Army Air Corps, he was assigned there and you’d go out there and see all these airplanes sitting there. They were trainers. For some reason, I fell in love with airplanes when I was that young.”
Michael Thacker, who has lived at the Pinnacle Club for 20 years, was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1971 and assigned to the Military Police Corps. Thacker served at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico and was in the Army Reserves from 1973-77.
“At White Sands, they tested the missiles that were just being developed for use,” Thacker said. “So we saw a lot of really strange missile tests and different things that you might, years later, hear about on TV that were put into service.”