For one local veteran, giving back to his community means helping soldiers and their families while teaching younger generations what it means to fight for what you believe in.

In this week's Hometown Hero, we met up with Lieutenant Colonel Bobbie Pedigo, who served his country for more than fifty years.

"Even as a youngster, I'd always play soldier around and wanted to go in," said Pedigo.

When Lieutenant Colonel Bobbie Pedigo saw his chance to join, he took it.

"I started out with the Kentucky National Guard here in Bowling Green, and I was in the Guard for ten years, from 1951 to 1961 when we were activated on a Berlin build-up," said Pedigo.

From there he had two tours in Vietnam.

The army took him many places all over the world.

While in the army, Pedigo flew fixed wing aircrafts and helicopters.

With his army history spanning more than fifty years Pedigo has a lot to share, and he does.

"To these kids here, I realize that these are still ancient history to them: World War II, Korea, even Vietnam," said Pedigo.

For several years now he's spoken to students at Warren East Middle School on Veterans Day.

"Once they hear him speak and they know he's speaking from the heart, they can just tell he has a commitment to the service," said David Cloyd, Assistant Principal at Warren East Middle School. "They begin to really listen and really ask a lot of questions."

He's part of many organizations to help veterans and current soldiers, like Operation Home Front to assist spouses and children of deployed soldiers.

"Car breaks down and they don't have the money to fix it, our organization will have it fixed for them, or it'll help them pay the rent or help them buy food," said Pedigo.

He also helped organize students at Warren East Middle to gather items like DVD's the past few years to send to soldiers overseas.

"What was happening was the guys that were coming back out of Iraq into Landstuhl Army Regional Medical Center at Landstuhl, Germany were over there, and they had a lot of time on their hands," said Pedigo.

Through reaching out to the students, he's able to share what soldiers are going through.

"What I'm trying to impart to them is some of the values that we as Veterans have to each other, what we bring back to the community," said Pedigo.

We honor Lieutenant Colonel Bobbie Pedigo as this week's Hometown Hero.