How We Called in the Cavalry
When I first saw his image in our social media designer Stephanie Rivas’ video, I felt an immediate connection to CW3 Ron Killingworth.
Being a Veteran, I’d seen his face before at VFWs, Veterans Day parades and in our stores. I asked Stephanie where she found the image that told of countless stories. She pointed me to the Defense Video Imagery Distribution System (DVIDS). From there, the team created a “Welcome Home” ad for Military Times, letting our Nation’s Veterans know about the new online shopping benefit.
I showed the proposed ad to a few fellow Veterans at HQ and the common sentiment was, “That’s one tough looking Vet!” All agreed that his image would resonate with our returning Veterans.
We agreed that Killingworth’s likeness would be used on ShopMyExchange.com to point Veterans in the right direction to get verified to start shopping on Veterans Day.
Chief Killingworth saw his image on our website and wanted to talk to the Exchange. Corporate Communication Chief Sandi Lute and I were given his number, and moments later we were speaking to the man himself.
I was picturing a gravelly John Wayne-esque voice to come booming through the phone line, but was instead was greeted by a slow, Louisiana gentleman’s drawl. He was proud that we used his image, but wanted more information on how, where and when the photo was taken and why we chose to use it.
The chief was excited about the upcoming Veteran online shopping benefit and would share the good news with his fellow 1st Cavalry Veterans at their annual reunion in Fort Hood later in the week. He wanted us to share the news about Veterans online shopping benefit, so we quickly made the trek 150 miles to Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas, for
the reunion.
We produced a poster of the ad that ran the week prior, along with a plaque displaying Director/CEO Tom Shull’s coin and a personal note from him. We headed down to Fort Hood to meet the chief face to face.
At Fort Hood, Mr. Killingworth greeted us quite warmly. His presence in person was just as impressive as it was in the photo taken at a Veterans Day parade a few years back. He stood at least 6-foot-3 and wore the exact Cavalry hat as in the photo we used.
Killingworth introduced us to his fellow 1st Cav Warriors, proudly displaying his Exchange mementos under his arm. His friend called out, “Hey Chief, you’re a celebrity!” The humble smile on his face couldn’t hide that he was proud.
The smiles on our faces showed how much we honored this hero who’d been there and done that, all in the name of serving.
Click to view Ron Killingworth’s interview.
