STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Charles Cox never served in the military, but his father did. Young Charles followed him to bases throughout the world, including Spangdahlem Air Force Base in Germany where he met his future wife.

Rebecca was 13 at the time and he was 14; they would marry eight years later.

Now the couple lives in Hailey where Charles is a lieutenant with the Hailey Police Department and his wife, the director of the Blaine County Historical Museum. And on Veterans Day Charles was honored for his service as a police officer with a lunch of brisket, macaroni and cheese, potato salad and cornbread served up by The Senior Connection.

Instead of a fly-by, The Senior Connection had a drive-by for veterans picking up their free meals.

Joining him in take-out duties was his boss Hailey Police Chief Steve England and Hailey’s newest officer Zach Croxford whose dad, it turns out, trained at the POST police academy  with Cox.

“Charles told him, ‘You can call me anything you want—just don’t call me Dad,’ ” quipped England.

The Senior Connection Chef Sky Barker served up the Veteran’s Day meal, continuing what has become a longstanding tradition for The Senior Connection. It used to involve Thanksgiving-style turkey dinners served in the dining room but pivoted to take-out meals during the COVID pandemic.

After barbecuing hamburgers in snow showers the past few years, Barker elected to take a different tack with the brisket this year only to be met with unseasonably warm temperatures climbing into the lower 60s.

“It’s a fun day, and I love giving back to veterans,” he said, as a boombox serenaded those picking up meals with Sousa marches.

“Working for The Senior Connection has been a very fulfilling job because of things like this,” he added. “We serve about 70 diners a day—sometimes as many as a hundred--who come for lunch, in addition to Meals on Wheels.  I feel like I’m giving back to the community, like I’m a big part of the community.”

There are about 400 veterans in Blaine County, estimated Gary Vinaigre, a volunteer with Higher Ground, which provides therapeutic recreation for vets.

Among those who was proud to say he was a vet was Hailey Police Chief Steve England, who served in the U.S. Navy during the mid-90s, as an aviation tech on the George Washington carrier.

“I had to keep my head on a swivel,” he said, referring to how he had to constantly monitor his surroundings for approaching aircraft. “And now I have to keep my head on a swivel as a police officer because of everything going on in the community all around me.”