Former Hempstead County Veterans Service Officer Leon Prince speaks in the Hempstead County Courthouse's rotunda at Thursday's ceremony.

A ritual of transition was enacted at the Hempstead County Courthouse Thursday morning as Leon Prince was honored for his years as the county’s Veterans Service Officer. Gold Star mother Donna Rosenbaum is now in that office, having acceded in June. County Judge Jerry Crane hosted yesterday’s ceremony.

The Veterans Service Officer is responsible for helping county veterans receive benefits for their service and for scheduling bus service from here to the Little Rock Veterans Administration hospital.

Among those present for the ceremony were the Secretary of Arkansas’ Department of Veterans Affairs Colonel Nate Todd, Assistant Director of Veterans Services Gina Chandler, District Veterans Service Officer Sue Harper, Chief of Voluntary Services with the US Veterans Administration Micheal Dobbs, Veterans Service Officer from Nevada County Josh St. Clair and American Legion Post 427’s Herbert Ross. 

Prince, who served as a Veteran Services Officer for seven years, was honored with a plaque from Colonel Todd and a certificate from Chandler.

Having been in training for the post for weeks, Donna Rosenbaum, whose son Army Sergeant Thomas Chad Rosenbaum was killed in Iraq in 2004, has succeeded Prince. “It's a complicated job to know all the right forms to fill out for the veterans,” she said. “But I'm going to do all I can do to help them. Yes, because they deserve everything that everybody can do. Because they gave so much for our country.”

Rosenbaum will be available at her office in the Hempstead County Courthouse on Mondays and Tuesdays from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and on Wednesdays from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Her number there is 1-870-359-0181.