By: Summer Kelley, Staff Reporter

It is definitely ironic that as people across the nation and in the Dade County area were preparing to honor our Nation’s heroes and celebrate Veterans Day, one Dade County soldier found himself left with nothing.

Everything has been taken from Specialist Jeffrey Farmer, a soldier from Dade County who is currently serving his third tour in Ghazni. Just three weeks ago, Farmer was informed that he was the victim of a home invasion. Farmer was also told that nothing was left in his Dade County home. 

Items stolen from Farmer include his trucks, tools, welders, automotive tools, tree service equipment, television, compact discs, DVD’s, X-box and clothes. Everything Farmer needed for not only his home, but for his business as well.

With four months left on his tour, Farmer is looking at the prospect of returning to an empty home to begin the work of replacing everything he owned.

“He doesn’t need to come home to nothing,” local veteran Joe Smith said in an email sent to the media and others to help bring awareness to the soldier’s plight.

Farmer was a servant to his community, according to veteran and American Legion member Bill Lockhart. Lockhart said Farmer wouldn’t hesitate to help people who needed their vehicle fixed or had a tree down. Farmer’s plan was to return home after this, his last tour of service, to start his own business.

If there is anything positive that has come out of Farmer’s victimization, it is that Lockhart and other American Legion members can use his situation as an example for other young soldiers.

“This is a tool we can use to help others who are deploying, to help them protect themselves so they don’t come home to nothing,” Lockhart said.

Farmer is joined by other Dade County soldiers in the 1-121st unit out of Milledgeville. Lockhart said the Dade County Sheriff’s Department and other places have already stepped up to assist and that the American Legion will not be able to help Farmer by themselves.

The Dade County American Legion Post would like to partner with other organizations and groups to help raise money and donations for Farmer so that he can return to the county with a good start to putting things back to right. The American Legion can take donations for Farmer that will be tax deductible for donors. 

“He’s going to be home before we know it,” Lockhart said. “All we have to raise is $20,000 and a truck. It won’t be his stuff, but he needs to see that we appreciate the service he has done for his country.”

To help with donations or offer assistance, contact Lockhart at (423) 593-1572 or at southernposeur@yahoo.com or send donations in care of Jeffery Farmer to P.O. Box 305, Trenton, Georgia 30752.  They can also contact Lockhart through any American Legion number, Post 106. The American Legion has also set up a savings account for Farmer at the Bank of Dade as well, but donations for Farmer need to be made directly to the American Legion.