Veteran presents flags to VA health care workers
As the COVID-19 pandemic swept through Delaware, a local Veteran found a way to honor health care workers in a very Veteran way. Chaplain Al Kraft, also known as Mr. Positive, began a mission of honoring his new heroes at Delaware health care facilities with framed American flags.
The 72-year-old Vietnam Veteran, who served 18 years (1966 – 1983), wanted to find a unique way to honor those fighting the pandemic on the front lines.
“The way many of the people in the health care field were sending their kids to other relatives so they did not have to go home with chance of infecting them, l was really impressed and motivated to do make something beautiful and inspirational for them,” he said about health care workers who are giving up so much to protect the community and to show them they are American Hero’s.
Mr. Positive honored his military connections by starting his mission by presenting flags the health care workers who care for our nation’s Veterans at Wilmington Veterans Affairs Medical Center and its Delaware Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC) in Kent and Sussex counties – in Dover and Georgetown respectively.
His time serving his country as a Navy Counselor was spent specializing in career and drug and alcohol counseling. Now a chaplain, it is clear helping others is always something he has held close to his heart.
“I have learned, in the short time that I’ve had the pleasure of knowing him, that Mr. Kraft has a strong heart, desire and calling to make the world a better place,” said Chaplin Brynn White, Acting Chief of Chaplain Services at Wilmington VA Medical Center. “While he has already given much to this country, he continues his calling of giving back—but this time by honoring health care heroes working on the front lines. His energy to change the world one person at a time is contagious, and we are thankful for Al.”
After honoring the health care workers at Wilmington VA Medical Center and its CBOCs in Dover and Georgetown, he is working on knocking out his list of other local hospitals with the hopes of starting a trend and expanding into other states.
Wilmington VA Medical Center provides health care services to more than 32,000 Veterans through its main medical center and five Community Based Outpatient Clinics in Delaware and southern New Jersey. For more information, visit wilmington.va.gov.