FEEL GOOD FRIDAY: Vets ’n Vettes connects Corvette, military communities in Bowling Green
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Corvette owners and military veterans gathered at NCM Motorsports Park on Thursday for an annual tradition built around cars, camaraderie and service.
The National Corvette Museum’s ‘Vets ’n Vettes’ event brings veterans, active-duty service members and Corvette enthusiasts together for three days of activities across southcentral Kentucky.
“There’s a huge connection between the Corvette community and the military community,” National Corvette Museum President and CEO Bryce Burklow said.
Museum officials say that relationship traces back to the Corvette’s origins. After World War II, American service members returned home with an interest in the sports cars they had encountered in Europe. That interest helped inspire an American counterpart when the Corvette debuted in 1953.
The museum has celebrated that shared history through Vets ’n Vettes since 2008.
Thursday’s activities included touring laps at NCM Motorsports Park, where local veterans rode alongside fellow veterans behind the wheel of their Corvettes.
Burklow said the rides may last only a few minutes, but the interactions make the event worth continuing each year.
“The smiles and the time they get to spend together,” Burklow said. “It makes every single year worth it.”
This year’s banquet featured retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Steven L. Basham, a Western Kentucky University graduate who is from Bowling Green.
Basham served more than 36 years in the Air Force before returning to the community. He said the connection between veterans often becomes even stronger after their military careers end.
“The camaraderie after you take the uniform off, in many ways, it actually gets stronger,” Basham said. “It can be someone you served with or someone you’ve never, ever met. And because you are cut from the common cloth of serving the United States as a part of the military, you quickly become lifelong friends.”
Basham said events such as Vets ’n Vettes also provide veterans with an opportunity to share the experiences behind their service.
“We appreciate so much when people come up to a vet and they say, ‘Thanks for your service,’” Basham said. “But you know what? I would really like to hear people say, ‘Hey, by the way, thank you for your service. And can you tell me your story?’ Because everyone has a story. We just need to take a little bit of time to hear their story.”
Vets ’n Vettes continues Friday with scenic road tours across southcentral Kentucky. Participants will also join Bowling Green’s Veterans Day Parade on Saturday.
