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Voices of Valor: Helping veterans is Venham鈥檚 calling

By Jess Mancini 6 min read

MARIETTA 鈥� Helping vets has helped a Washington County veterans advocate deal with the issues he faced upon his return to civilian life.

Gene Venham, 63, served 31 years in the Army and Army Reserve including almost 12 months in Iraq where he and a group of MPs and engineers set up a compound for Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib Prison at Baghdad.

Venham eventually was assigned to the Joint Personal Effects Depot at Aberdeen, Md., after being flown out of Iraq due to an anthrax exposure. At the depot, the personal effects of soldiers killed and wounded were collected to be returned to their families. At the same time, he assisted in writing the protocol in how the remains were to be escorted to the mortuary at Dover, Del.

"It's the only one of its kind in the United States," he said.

Vanham was then assigned to the team to establish a new $25 million 55,000-square-foot Joint Personal Effects Depot co-located with the Port Mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware in April 2005. He retired in October 2011 while at Dover, but remained for another year as the liaison between the government and military to ensure contractors were meeting terms of their contracts.

"This was a new operation for the country," he said.

He stayed at the processing depot until his contract ended in October 2012, and he returned home to Marietta where he went to work at the New Wiehl Body Shop, writing estimates and doing body work.

Constantly working with soldiers鈥� remains and their personal effects over the years eventually took a mental toll, Venham said.

"It begins to bear down on you, dealing with that all the time," he said. "When I returned home, after being gone for so long, I was lost. I didn't know what to do."

Then in 2015 with the help of his son, Cody, and brother, Richard, a veteran who also owned and managed the New Wiehl Body Shop, he started the Operation Give a Veteran a Car program that collected older model vehicles, reconditioned them to safe and reliable working order and gave them to veterans in Virginia, Ohio, West Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Kentucky until the pandemic in 2020.

"COVID put an end to that," Venham said.

The group gave about 45 cars to veterans in the five years. The last was a female veteran from Chicago at the Dover Downs Speedway in front of thousands of spectators.

However, with the end of Operation Give a Veteran a Car, Venham intensified his involvement to help local veterans.

He joined the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5108, where his father was a member for more than 50 years, and the American Legion. He volunteered to mow yards, build wheelchair ramps and did other things to help veterans.

Venham joined the VFW Honor Guard to participate in the military funeral details in the services for veterans. He remains a member of the Honor Guard and with other members of veteran organizations created the Washington County honor guard team that has assisted in all the military funerals in the county.

Besides creating a community watch group with his son in Lawrence Township in 2021, Venham was a member of the Reno Volunteer Fire Department where he was a squad captain and assistant chief, serving in the department for about 12 years, before he did the watch group.

He also was the president of the Washington County EMS Association for four years at the same time and started the first and only EMS competition team of local EMTs from volunteers of departments to compete in Ohio.

In June 2023, Venham became commander of the AMVETS Post 1788 in Marietta and helped revive and reconstitute the organization. Venham helped recruit eight new members, four of whom became life members. He was re-elected commander in 2024 and continued efforts to recruit members, participated in numerous Americanism projects and community events and helped veterans in distress in Washington County.

Also in 2023, Venham became commander of the Ronnie W. Davis Memorial VFW Post 5108 in Marietta. The more-than-400-member post created a three-member panel, on which Venham served, to identify internal issues and make changes to ensure the post's survivability.

He was commander of the post until November 2024 when he left to become commander of the Pioneer City Chapter 52 Disabled American Veterans, a post he still holds.

Venham has served the community, country and veterans for more than 50 years. Some veterans need help, but don't ask, and others need help, but can't find it, he said.

"There's still a lot of work that needs to be done," Venham said.

Much has changed over the years in how veterans are helped, he said.

Families have become central in helping veterans and most events now are family-centered and oriented, such as picnics, parades, organizational events and other health and welfare programs, he said. Most veterans today have been away from their families for long periods of time and on multiple deployments, Venham said.

It's vital to get more younger veterans involved, Venham said.

"It's a different ball game for the veterans this time," he said.

Venham retired as a first sergeant. During his service, he received a Meritorious Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal (4th award), Army Achievement Medal (5th award), Joint Meritorious Unit Award, Army Superior Unit Award, Army Good Conduct Medal (3rd award), Army Reserve Component Achievement Medal (4th award), War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal, Armed Forces Reserve Medal with M device and the Armed Forces Reserve Medal with 30-year device Gold.

His wife, Sandra, and children Cody, Alisha Venham Edwards and Tessa Venham Winstanley are involved.

"They are the rock of my motivation to continue servicing veterans," Venham said.

Venham received the Washington County Veterans Medal in November 2011. He was honored in a proclamation from the Ohio House of Representatives in November 2021.

He was among 23 veterans in October 2021 to be inducted into the Washington County Veterans Hall of Fame.

Venham was named the Washington County Veteran of the Year in November 2022 and received a certificate of recognition from U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson in November 2022.

He was named a Kentucky Colonel in May 2024. In June, he received a distinguished service medal from the Four Chaplains Legion of Honor.

He also is the liaison with AMVETS Commander Larry Woods for Honor Flight of Columbus. More than 30 veterans have taken the flight and 21 more are scheduled for this fall.

Venham can't see himself doing anything else.

"I've always been someone to be in the foxhole helping others. It's been very rewarding and very honorable," he said. "As long as I'm able to walk and talk, I'm going to do this until the day I die.鈥�

Jess Mancini can be reached at jmancini@newsandsentinel.com.

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