A dedicated community servant, Jack ministers to local veterans as a chaplain at Dublin\’s Carl Vinson VA Medical Center and to readers of The Courier Herald through the encouraging words he pens in regular columns. He is a veteran of two different military branches, having served as a U.S. Marine in the Korean conflict and later a U.S. Army chaplain in various parts of Europe and Asia, including with the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam. He has also worked as a pastor and dean of students at two Baptist colleges. Since moving to Dublin in 1991, he has ministered in various ways to former service members and others in need, particularly at the VA and in local hospitals and nursing homes, where he regularly visits and brings smiles to faces by playing tunes on his harmonica.
Stuart Hamblen is now with his Lord, but his beautiful songs of faith live on and continue to bring blessings to those who hear them, play them and sing them.
As a young Marine stationed in North Carolina in the early 1950s, I tuned in to those radio messages that were delivered with conviction and with power.