Local Men Receive Veterans Awards

Two veterans’ representatives in the have won top statewide honors for stand-out employment-related services to veterans in Bartow and Paulding counties.

Ricky Lanham, a native of Bartow County, was named Disabled Veteran Outreach Program representative of the year for mid-sized or Class II labor department offices throughout the state and, Richard Murphy, a native of Columbus, was named the most outstanding Local Veterans Employment Representative for Class II career centers in the state.

The awards are given annually to the labor department’s veterans’ representatives who provide the most stand-out services to veterans in their area. The awards were given recently at the Georgia Department of Labor’s annual Veterans Conference in Savannah.

Among the services provided by the labor department to veterans are individual case management, vocational guidance, labor market information, job development and referral to supportive services.

A 1977 graduate of Cass High School in Cassville, Lanham holds a bachelor's of Science in Criminal Justice from the U.S. Army. He served 20 years in the U.S. Army from 1979 to 1999, retiring as a first sergeant. He has served as a DVOP in the Cartersville Career Center since 2004.

In 2007 and 2011, Lanham was named the DVOP of the year by the Georgia Veterans of Foreign Wars for his stand-out service to veterans. And, he has been awarded a Certificate of Appreciation from the American Legion for similar activity.

Murphy is a graduate of Spencer High School in Columbus and holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. He served in the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division during the Vietnam War and received the Bronze Star, the fourth-highest combat award of the U.S. Armed Forces. He has been an LVER in the Cartersville Career Center for the past two years, and is a member of American Legion Post No. 296 in Marietta.