By Josh Davis, Red Cross volunteer

“The best volunteers are not there to make their resume look better,” says Steve Peth, a U.S. Army veteran and longtime volunteer with the Red Cross Service to the Armed Forces (SAF) program. “You're not there because it's all about you. You're not there because you want to tell war stories. You're there because you want to be there to do something of value to help be of service – whatever it takes.”

Over 20,000 American Red Cross volunteers are veterans like Peth, a retired lieutenant colonel and Purple Heart recipient. Veterans comprise 14% of the Red Cross workforce and hold many positions at the Red Cross, from nurses to logisticians. There are also many veterans in leadership roles at local Red Cross chapters across the United States.

Peth served during Vietnam and went on to a nearly three-decade career in the U.S. Army. In 2006, he became involved in the SAF program at the original Walter Reed Army Medical Center and later transitioned to what would become the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda.

“My career in the Army started as a medical evacuation pilot in Vietnam (also known by the callsign DUSTOFF – flying Army helicopters with the red cross painted on the side), which turned out to be one of the most dangerous jobs in the army,” he said. “And after 11 months of doing that over Vietnam, I finally got shot.”

Peth spent six months in a cast and nearly a year before returning to flight status.

“The most satisfying thing I ever did was flying medical evacuation … and saving people's lives by getting them off the battlefield and back to medical care,” he said.

Years later, after retiring from military and civilian work, Peth had an itch to once again help service members who had been wounded in combat.

“I thought, these guys are coming back all beat up. And I remember how the Vietnam vets were treated when they came back,” he said. “I've got quite a bit of experience. I've been in combat with two tours in Vietnam, and I’ve been shot and wounded – I know what it's like to be a patient. Maybe I have something to offer at Walter Reed.”

Peth approached the hospital and was told all volunteers come through the Red Cross, so that’s where he went too.

“The first couple of years, I was in a kind of miscellaneous ward changing beds and doing whatever the nurses needed me to do,” he said.

He later moved over to the Military Advanced Training Center that serviced amputees. Then, in 2012, he was asked to help populate the new Walter Reed facility with Red Cross volunteers – a prestigious and difficult task.

Today, he helps to oversee 55 Red Cross volunteers in the Department of Rehabilitation at Walter Reed that includes physical therapy, occupational therapy, prosthetics, physical medicine and the Military Advanced Training Center. He interviews each incoming volunteer and places them in a role that’s most needed and a good fit for the individual.

Peth said the best volunteers are the ones who think about who they’re serving.

“[We are serving] the patients and the staff,” he said. “With the patients, it’s pretty easy to understand why they're important. With the staff, if you can do something to help them, that gives them more time to work with the patients.”

Peth remembers a patient named Dave who was involved in an explosion in Afghanistan. Dave ended up at Walter Reed, where Peth offered a sympathetic ear.

Years later, Dave was back at the hospital to have his prosthetics looked at, and he discovered that Peth was a decorated combat veteran with a Purple Heart.

“He said, ‘you never told me you were in the Army!’ And I just looked at him and I said, ‘mission accomplished,’” Peth said. “That's the kind of story that, in my opinion, makes a good volunteer. You're always there for them, and it was never about me.”

What Peth does take away, he said, is the satisfaction of knowing that he helped other service members during a time when they most needed it.

“When you get to be my age and you're retired, it's really easy to become irrelevant,” Peth said. “And I go up to Walter Reed and I'm doing things that are appreciated and – oh my gosh – the staff is wonderful at expressing appreciation for the volunteers. And I get to hear it more than anybody else because I'm the Department of Rehabilitation group leader for the Red Cross.

“When Red Cross volunteers do just about anything for a patient or a staff member – no matter how small or insignificant it might be ­– the staff are just blown away and thank you profusely,” he continued. “Hearing that just makes you want to do more. And that's what gets me going back every week.”

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Find out more about how the Red Cross supports veterans, members of the military and their families at RedCross.org/SAF