Hons Receives Quilt Of Valor Honor
Scobey’s Fitch Hons was honored with the Quilt of Valor during a presentation held in Laurel on Sept. 6.
In 2023, Catherine Roberts, the Quilt of Valor Foundation founder, created the concepts that underpin the organization’s mission statement to cover service members and living veterans touched by war with comforting and healing quilt. From November 2003 until July 31, 2026, the foundation has awarded 454,200 quilts.
The Quilt of Valor group, Montana Treasured Piecemakers, also awards a pillowcase with every quilt.
Hons graduated high school in Pennsylvania during the spring of 1963. He joined the U.S. Air Force on Aug. 19, 1963, and was sent to the Lackland Air Force Base in Texas for basic training. Upon completion of basic training, he was sent to Sheppard AFB for training as a communications specialist. After his technical training, Hons was assigned to the Opheim Air Force Station, a USAF General Surveillance Radar Station. On Jan. 2, 1964, he got off the train in Glasgow and started work in Opheim. His service was extended at Opheim so he spent two and a half years there. When phones came in, Hons was no longer needed in Opheim, but he had a year of service remaining.
As a single man, he volunteered to go to Vietnam for his final year. Instead of being sent overseas, he was sent to Tyndall AFB near Panama City, Fla., for his final year of service. Tyndall had a radar installation on base where Hons worked. On Aug. 19, 1967, he separated from the Air Force.
He received the National Defense Service medal in recognition of his continued service to veterans and his community. He was awarded the governor’s veteran commendation in 2023.
