music >> This is awesome.

If you had to describe it as a Star Trek spaceship, this would be the new enterprise.

[MUSIC] >> The military community celebrates a new addition to Southcentrxal Kentucky.

[MUSIC] >> We've been in the top ten several times over the past few years, but this is the first time we've been at number one.

>> The category where a Kentucky University is tops.

[MUSIC] >> Were caught with their pants down.

[MUSIC] We didn't even have guns.

>> And a 100 year old survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack tells us what he remembers.

85 years later.

[MUSIC] >> It's a way for them to look at this monument and say, women have come a long way.

>> Plus, see one of the few monuments for women veterans.

>> Production of Kentucky edition is made possible in part by the KET Millennium Fund.

>> Good evening and welcome to a special Kentucky edition.

I'm Kelsey Starks.

Thanks for joining us.

Tonight we are honoring our veterans and military members.

A new skilled nursing facility, decades in the making has opened in Bowling Green.

The facility offers long term care for veterans.

Our Laura Rogers gives us a look.

[MUSIC] >> Gave proof through the night.

>> Today is a dream come true.

It's a dream that has taken almost 30 years, maybe a little over 30 years, to come to fruition.

>> That dream is the official opening of the Robert E Spiller Bowling Green Veterans Center.

>> It's a story of hope, faith, hard work, perseverance for a whole lot of obstacles.

>> State Representative Michael Meredith of Oakland has championed this project for many years, but the origins of it date back to the 1990s, when Colonel Robert E Spiller began advocating for a veterans nursing home in Bowling Green.

>> We have a lot of veterans in Warren County, and of course, surrounding counties.

>> It's a testament to what can be achieved when all levels of government federal, state and local work with community partners and set partizanship aside for the greater good.

>> That includes navigating a budget shortfall of $16.63 million.

Meredith's House Bill two and 2023, signed by Governor Andy Beshear, closed that funding gap.

>> The veterans deserve the very best in this community, and I'm glad that after a lot of work, we delivered.

>> This is awesome.

If you had to describe it as a Star Trek spaceship, this would be the new enterprise.

>> The $53 million facilityx has 60 private suites and 152 employees.

>> I have some amazing people, team members.

We're going to live out that mission, which is to care for our veterans and who deserves it more than our veterans.

>> The center's first hire was Administrator Jason Gum, who's operated long term care facilities for 30 years.

>> We're using ratios like our ratio would be 6 to 1 patients in the private sector.

You might see ten or 12 to 1.

So we're probably going to have more people, more staff to be able to provide the quality service that we're looking for.

>> It is beautiful inside.

There's going to be so much dignity living here.

All, everything modern that you would want in a facility to make sure it can provide for everyone's medical needs.

>> Those needs include rehabilitation and physical therapy, but also recreation and social engagement.

>> It's more than community.

It's family.

It's family.

>> We asked the commissioner about the importance of Long-Term care for the Military community.

>> Our veterans serve, you know, three years, 30 years.

The years of combat, peacekeeping, mission and training really takes a toll on the body.

And many of them come back and serve in their community and live full lives.

But then there's a point in life where mama, sisters, friends can't take care of grandpa anymore.

>> They're excited that if the time comes when they need this level of service, that their loved ones are going to be close by, and that's what we should be delivering.

>> The center will accept private pay, Medicare and Medicaid.

And once 20 veterans are admitted, they can become VA certified.

>> This is a promise made and a promise kept to the veterans of South Central Kentucky.

>> For Kentucky edition, I'm Laura Rogers.

>> Kentucky now has five skilled nursing facilities for veterans.

The others are located in Hanson, hazard, Radcliffe and Wilmore.

As the nation commemorated the 25th anniversary of the nine over 11 attacks, a new monument honoring nine servicemen killed post 911 in the World War on Terror was unveiled at Veterans Park in Lexington.

Family, friends and other Kentuckians gathered at the unveiling to remember their sacrifice.

>> Lance corporal Chase Jay calmly was a Lexington native.

The United States Marine, a gifted athlete and a young young man remembered for his unforgettable smile, enthusiasm and love of life.

>> When Chase came to our unit, he was one of my younger Marines, and when I first met him, he was.

He was quite a character.

Full of life, full of energy.

Just this new marine.

And everybody took notice of him and everybody was like, who is this guy?

You know, just such character.

And then shortly after that, we deployed to Iraq in 2005.

>> We're here to dedicate Lexington's global war on terrorism Memorial and inscribed on this memorial are the names of nine sons of Lexington, nine men who wore the uniform of our nation, nine men who answered its call during a time of war, and who gave their lives for our nation.

Security in Iraq and Afghanistan.

>> The Marine Corps tradition in honor reigns supreme.

And so in the Marine Corps, we have a saying that Marines never die.

We live on through each other.

And that's pretty much the premise of after.

Why, after two decades of his death, the Marines every year we still gather here in Lexington.

We still meet up with his family.

We make sure we honor him, honor them, honor his service and his sacrifice to this country.

>> Staff Sergeant Delmer Dale white, Sergeant Robert W in was United.

>> States very important that the younger generations coming up in this country remember what happened?

Just like we're taught in history, we're we're taught about the history of this great country and the sacrifices that it took to, to get to where we are today.

We still have a long ways to go.

We're never stopping.

And it's just important that we pass that knowledge on to the younger generation.

>> It's important to recognize the significance of what we as a community are doing here today, because a hundred years from now in this place, when someone walks by and sees these nine names and reads them, they will know that these men lived here.

But they were part of us.

They had families.

They had friends who loved them dearly.

Futures planned and lives they willingly placed in service to something larger than themselves.

It's our commitment from a grateful community and Commonwealth to nine families that the names of their loved ones and the price they paid for our nation will not be forgotten.

>> It's not just a word we say.

Never forget the way we never forget is by talking about it, by sharing it, by constantly remembering nine over 11 and everyone who paid the ultimate sacrifice, including my good friend Lance corporal Chase Johnson, calmly.

>> A new partnership in Kentucky is giving veterans the opportunity to explore careers in the tourism and hospitality industry.

Sazerac, the parent company behind brands including Buffalo Trace, has partnered with the nonprofit initiative Kentucky Valor as our Mackenzie.

Spink reports.

Its leaders say Moore military skills apply to the hospitality industry than you may expect.

>> Kentucky Valor was founded to help families that are transitioning out of the military to find licensed occupations in Kentucky and accelerate the licensure process for those veterans.

Its new initiative, called Industry Connections, targets fields that don't require those certifications.

>> We noticed that a lot of our participants were interested in fields that didn't necessarily require a license, but they still needed help identifying what those industries entailed and needed to be connected with hiring employers within those industries.

>> Sazerac is the first employer partnership in the industry.

Connections initiative, allowing the opportunity for veterans to find careers in tourism and hospitality.

Tourism in Kentucky is a growing industry.

2025 was the fourth straight year of record growth in tourism, generating roughly $14 billion in economic impact, according to the governor's office.

Kentucky valor says there's a diverse range of tourism careers that could interest those with military experience.

>> A lot of people, when they think of the bourbon industry, think of distilling.

But there's so many jobs behind that, that go into that from customer relations to marketing to technology and cybersecurity.

And there's a lot of management and leadership roles that are behind the scenes in that industry alone.

>> We know that men and women coming out of the military or their spouses have some real skills, both hard skills, whatever they learned in the military.

And we know the military has every imaginable occupation, but they also know soft skills.

>> They know how to lead teams.

They are very disciplined.

They perform well under pressure, and they care about people.

To me, that is hospitality.

Whether you're running a hotel or you're in charge of a visitor experience at a distillery or even just a large event, all of these skills are necessary.

>> One of the challenges facing service members who are transitioning to the civilian workforce is how to translate their military experience into a resume.

>> It's hard for a service member to know how to translate their education and experience in a way that is understood and valued by the civilian employer.

So we do a lot of work with that on both sides.

>> Kentucky valor says taking the time to work with veterans and their families ensures long term careers that benefit both the service member and their new employer.

>> Typically, less than half ofx transitioning military veterans stay in their first role a year.

Valor has been around for years now.

We're at 94%, so 94% of the people we place in a job stay in those jobs at least one year.

That's because of that personalized nature.

We get to know you.

What do you want?

What does your family want?

Where do you want to be?

The type of role.

>> Kentucky valor is looking to expand the Industry Connections program to more industries down the line.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm Mackenzie Spink.

>> Kentucky Valor has 44 different pathways for transitioning service members to become licensed or certified for different occupations across Kentucky.

A Kentucky institution has landed on a list of the top military friendly universities across the United States.

Our Emily Sisk takes us to Eastern Kentucky University to learn about its support for military students.

>> Eastern Kentucky University is home to nearly 2000 military affiliated students, which represents about 12% of the total student body.

The resources offered to those students led the university to be named the number one military friendly school in the country for the first ever time.

>> We're really honored to get the distinction.

>> Josh Maynard works as the Director of Veterans Upward Bound at EKU, serving military students is a profound mission for him as an Army veteran and two time EKU alum.

>> A lot of people in our office are veterans or military members, so we kind of have firsthand knowledge on how that experience goes.

>> But this month, the Office of Military and Veterans Affairs learned their support, earned the university.

National recognition as the number one military friendly school out of all large public universities in the country.

Military friendly gave out that ranking.

It's an organization that evaluates employers and universities based on their resources for veterans and active duty military members.

>> They ask questions about retention, graduation rates, services that we provide for military students.

>> EKU had received recognition as a military friendly school before, but this year's distinction marked a first.

>> We've been in the top ten several times over the past few years, but this is the first time we've been at number one.

>> So what sets the Colonel's apart when it comes to their support for military students?

The Office of Military and Veterans Affairs has a handful of full time staff members to help students navigate many facets of college life.

>> Help applying to the university, navigating benefits like financial VA benefits that they might have, or applying for scholarships.

>> This has been especially helpful for students like Mackenzie Doyle, who started her first semester at EKU, then learned she'd have to take a leave to fulfill her service to the National Guard.

>> I get to my unit, and within the first drill, they tell us that we're deploying.

>> The Owensboro native spent nine months deployed in Iraq.

She's now in her second semester at EKU and said the Office of Military and Veterans Affairs helped make the transition smooth.

>> It's actually quite common for a National Guard member or a member of the reserves to get activated while they're in college.

Whether it's helped withdrawing from the class at no penalty or resuming where they left off once they come back.

Our office can help facilitate that.

>> Now that Mackenzie is back on campus, she's been able to transfer credits from basic training to go toward her degree.

>> So I'm military police and my degree is in criminal justice.

And a lot of my classes in that stage of my training were transferable to the school just by like bringing up my joint service.

Transcript.

I think it was like 18 to 22 credit hours that I got from basic training alone.

>> Receiving these types of general education or degree specific credits is not uncommon at EKU.

Maynard says.

>> We offer more military credit than any other school in the state for for military training.

>> And Eastern offers discounted tuition for military spouses.

Active service members and those in the guard or reserves.

The special military rate is $250 per credit hour, about $100 less than the regular tuition rate.

>> A lot of universities nationwide are going away from that due to rising costs.

Or maybe it's less of a discount than it has been, but EKU has kept that discount steady for the past few years.

>> For Kentucky Edition, I'm Emily Prince.

>> EKU also offers counseling services and academic advisors who are trained to support military veteran students.

Well, this year will be the 85th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack in Hawaii.

Kicking off direct U.S.

involvement in World War Two, one of the few living survivors of Pearl Harbor lives in Madison County.

Our Mackenzie Spink talked to 100 year old Frank Blankenship about his memory of that historic day.

>> Frank Blankenship was born in Letcher County.

When he enlisted in the Army and left home for Hawaii, it was the first time he had ever left the state.

>> I was really 15 when I enlisted.

I turned 16 in the military, xand it was it was quite.

An adventure for a young mountain boy.

>> Blankenship was only there seven months when the war came to Hawaii.

>> I got on the boxing team in Hawaii.

I had one fight before the.

War hit.

And after that it was.

A soldier all the time.

>> As an Army soldier, Blankenship was stationed on land.

On December 7th, 1941, he says at first his fellow soldiers thought the attack was part of a practice maneuver.

>> We didn't even know they were Japanese fighter planes attacking the island.

We had been on maneuvers up until that weekend, and everybody thought it was the end of the activity.

That was we were going on.

And when it turned out that they were the Japanese.

We were caught with their pants down.

We didn't even have guns.

We had our guns locked up.

We we locked up the guns and the ammunition.

We never kept it in the barracks with us.

We kept the guns there, but the ammunition was stored somewhere else.

We were caught with their pants down.

Really?

>> After the Pearl Harbor attack, Blankenship's duty was to protect the island's only form of communication with the mainland.

U.S.

>> My position was KU radio station in Hawaii.

We had to protect the radio station because it was the main communication to the States.

I protected it for about three weeks.

>> For the rest of the war.

Blankenship was in a tank battalion where he rose to the technician.

Fourth grade rank.

>> I kid driving a tank was a big thing.

Other soldiers kind of looked up to me.

Me, I was a big shot.

And I loved it.

I'll have to say, I loved being at Tinker.

I stayed.

Four years,x a little over four years.

In Hawaii and in the Pacific.

And on those islands, the islands I fought on was small.

>> While he was still stationed at Pearl Harbor, Blankenship was a guard for the first Japanese prisoner of war taken in World War Two.

>> One of my duties were.

Was guarding this Japanese Admiral.

They called him Admiral, but he was really just a commander of a two man submarine.

And he ran aground on the north shore of Hawaii.

He wrote a letter to all of us GIS.

>> Blankenship held on to the letter throughout his combat in the Pacific and kept it safe until 2021, when his son, Mark, and his family delivered the letter to the Pearl Harbor National Memorial in Honolulu.

For Kentucky edition, I'm Mackenzie Spink.

>> Frank Blankenship returned home after World War Two, but later re-enlisted in the Air Force, where he served for 18 years.

Frank turned 101 years old in October.

Well, there has been a growing effort in recent years to share the stories of military women and to bring more awareness to their service and sacrifice.

Morgan County was on the forefront of that effort by putting up one of the few monuments in the country dedicated to women veterans.

Almost two decades ago.

>> At a club meeting in 2007, we were going to start our plans of work for the year, and we always do a veterans program.

And I had read an article in the Herald-Leader newspaper about how few monuments there are in Kentucky that honor females.

And during our conversation that evening, it just came up with the idea that it would be really nice for us to do that in Morgan County.

>> The reason that there are very few monuments for women is because, well, the ratio of men to women.

And of course, it had always been the men that had gone to war and the women that had stayed back and done the more feminine jobs, such as the clerical and also the medical jobs that that are needed.

I think it's just the the numbers that had always been in the military.

And of course, that is growing like everybody else.

Back in 1977, I joined for a job.

And then, you know, it becomes a way of life.

And so I was only in four years, two months and 11 days.

And I was my first duty station was Hawaii.

I was an electronics technician.

>> I love to sculpt.

I love to create.

And I'm a veteran also.

And so to honor female veterans seem really special.

There aren't that many bronzes that that do that life size bronze that contained as much detail as possible about women in the military.

Their dress, their role, what they did, and obviously trying to incorporate as many symbols that that would support where they were, where they are, where they might be.

>> We started out with the idea of just one, because we figured that was all the money that we could raise, and Steven had the idea of, oh, let's do three, let's do past, present and future.

So that's what they depict.

Sergeant Morgan is her name, and of course, she's back with World War Two era.

There were women could only be medical field being the medical field or being a bookkeeping type field.

And so that's why she has a clipboard in her hand.

Then the statue that is down on her knee, we call her commonly call her the combat girl because in the present, you know, we have a lot of females that are over in combat or other ones standing saluting the flag here in the park is the future.

And of course, she's dressed big officer.

And you know, she might, she might be a chief of staff.

You know, on these days.

So that will be exciting.

>> It seemed that the women have changed or the military has changed their attitude towards women over time.

So it seemed really nice to be able to go back in time, come up to the present and sort of project how far a woman could go in the military, which to the very top.

>> Is a way for them to look at this monument and say, women have come a long way from the turn of the century, 1900.

That is not the 2000, but we have made great progrxess.

We still need to make more progress.

But yeah, this is this is a way to say, hey, she did it.

I can too.

>> Nowadays, when people walk by and they say, oh, thank you for your service, I say it was my privilege.

And it was it became my privilege because I was doing something great for my country.

And that's how I felt.

>> Like.

>> Really ahead of its time there.

The monument was dedicated back in 2009, and it's one of only 16 in the entire United States that is dedicated to military women.

Well, thank you for joining us for this special edition of Kentucky edition, and we do hope you'll join us again tomorrow night.

We'll be here at 630 eastern, 530 central.

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Have a great evening.