As the Samford University community joined the national homage to Veterans Day, former U.S. Navy pilot Kevin Patton recalled flying combat missions during the Gulf War.
“The American military has time and again answered the call, opposed tyrants, promoted democracy and protected our freedom and prosperity,” said Patton, who in 1991 flew an A-6 Intruder bomber that sank two Iraqi warships in the Persian Gulf.
For that mission, which dissuaded Iraq from running larger warships in the Gulf, Patton and his co-pilot received the combat “V” for Valor for that flight.
More than three decades later, after a lengthy career as an attorney, Patton is assistant professor at Samford’s Cumberland School of Law and continues his service through supervising the Cumberland Veterans Legal Assistance Clinic (C-VETS) that provides legal aid to veterans.
“We are a free nation because men and women of our Armed Forces fought for it. We remain free because brave service members continue to sacrifice for us,” Patton said.
“Now there is a tremendous need for legal service among veterans, and hiring a lawyer can be a real burden or even impossible for many veterans. That’s where our clinic steps in.”
C-VETS matches a veteran who calls the hotline with a Cumberland law student, who also benefits from the hands-on experience of helping vets through real-life issues. Those include services such as consumer debt and collection, property and landlord-tenant issues, contract disputes, uncontested family law matters, wills, power of attorney documents and advanced healthcare directives and criminal matters such as expungements, driver’s license issues, fines and court costs.
C-VETS also assists with discharge upgrades that ensure veterans receive critical healthcare and benefits.
“As we’ve grown the clinic, our reputation has spread by word of mouth from one grateful veteran to another and by other veteran service groups seeing the impact we’re making in the lives of our veteran clients,” Patton said.
C-VETS now serves more than 200 veterans each semester and has assisted over 1,300 veteran clients and families since 2020.
“I love to watch the growth of students over the course of their semester with C-VETS,” he said. “They all sign up for C-VETS because they want to serve. It is why many came to law school in the first place.
Some of the law students are military veterans themselves, and many have veterans within their families.
“They know the sacrifices of military service and want to support those who have bravely served us all,” Patton said.
Retired U.S. Navy Capt. Kristin Bakkegard, now a professor of natural sciences at Samford, read the poem “In Flanders Fields,” a 1915 soldier's remembrance by John McCrae.
The university’s cathedral brass ensemble performed the national anthem and an armed forces salute, which referenced the fight songs of all five U.S. military branches.
Samford junior Gabriella Hosmer performed “America the Beautiful” accompanied by senior guitarist Zach Foster. Then a moment of silence gave way to the cathedral brass playing “Taps.”
“We are so very grateful for the veterans who have sacrificed more than we can even imagine in humble service to all of us, to our nation,” said university President Beck A. Taylor in his closing prayer. “Lord God, we remember them before Your throne today. Allow the peace of Christ to invade our spirits, to conquer our conflicts, and to win our hearts.”
