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DAV gets new van for LR, Memphis VA visits

Johnathan Reaves, KASU News

Credit Johnathan Reaves, KASU News
Credit Johnathan Reaves, KASU News

 Almost 700 veterans from Northeast Arkansas are taken to the Veterans Administration hospitals in Little Rock and Memphis.  Disabled American Veterans is getting a new van to replace one that had over 170-thousand miles.  Vans take veterans to Little Rock on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and to Memphis on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Lloyd Davis has been volunteer driving for six years.  He says the service is one that is needed in this region.

"This is a way for us to be able to give back to those who have served us," said Davis. "Some of these veterans would not have any other way to get to their critical appointments without us."  

He says there is a need for new drivers to help in taking veterans to the appointments.

"Right now, we have 3 or 4 drivers,"  said Davis.  "If we had 20 drivers, one driver would have to go once a month to take the veterans to their appointments.  We need more drivers."

Lloyd Davis.  The new van was made possible through donations, as well as funding from the City of Jonesboro and Craighead County.  He says the service helps provide veterans a way to get to their appointments when other means are not possible.  

Johnathan Reaves is the News Director for KASU Public Radio. As part of an Air Force Family, he moved to Arkansas from Minot, North Dakota in 1986. He was first bitten by the radio bug after he graduated from Gosnell High School in 1992. While working on his undergraduate degree, he worked at KOSE, a small 1,000 watt AM commercial station in Osceola, Arkansas. Upon graduation from Arkansas State University in 1996 with a degree in Radio-Television Broadcast News, he decided that he wanted to stay in radio news. He moved to Stuttgart, Arkansas and worked for East Arkansas Broadcasters as news director and was there for 16 years.