Athens veteran selected for Military Veterans Hall of Fame

Fifteen veterans were recently inducted into the Georgia Military Veterans Hall of Fame Class of 2019, including Athens resident Ray R. Fairman.

Fairman, who served in the U.S. Marine Corps and became a Chief Warrant Officer 4, is a veteran of the Vietnam War and Desert Storm.

"I'm sure there are a lot of people more deserving than me, but I do what I can for other people," said Fairman, who not only served in the military, but worked for decades in law enforcement, and continues to serve as a chaplain.

"I put in 40 years in the military between active and reserve duty," he said. "I did a 40-year career in law enforcement and the last 18 years I've done a lot of chaplaincy work with law enforcement and military families."

Fairman serves as chaplain for the Winterville Police Department, the Oglethorpe County Sheriff's Office and is on the board of directors for the Law Enforcement Chaplain Association for the state.

In law enforcement, Fairman worked for approximately nine agencies, including departments in California, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Florida, the latter where he worked for 20 years with the sheriff's office in Sarasota.

Fairman and his wife moved to Athens about 20 years ago, when his wife took a position with the Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center's Health Plan Select.

Fairman said he enjoyed the banquet and inductee service held Nov. 2 in Columbus, where people across the state attended.

"There were a lot of people inducted for valor and some (heart-wrenching) stories came with those people," he said.

He said he especially enjoyed having ROTC units take part in the ceremony.

A framed citation and picture of each inductee will join the previous 100 inductees at the Hall of Fame located in the Floyd Veterans Building in Atlanta.

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