This heartfelt Veterans Day tribute comes from one of GOLF’s own

John Sodaro, a senior video producer on our staff, is the kind of guy you wish you could clone many times over.

Call me biased — John has been a colleague of mine for years — but it’s a statement I’m standing by! John isn’t just an incredibly talented producer but he’s also hardworking, humble and well-liked by everyone with whom he crosses paths.

He also rarely talks about himself. But on a shoot in Florida last December, while a trio of us were on a break, I asked John about his career before video. I was amazed to learn he was an NYPD officer in Brooklyn as well as a U.S. Marine.

I was even more impressed to learn that John is a third-generation military serviceman. His grandfather was a B-17 tail gunner in WWII who was shot down and spent the rest of the war as a POW before returning home with two amputated legs. John’s uncle was a Marine in Vietnam who fought during the Tet Offensive, and John’s father earned a Bronze Star for valor as an airborne infantryman, also in Vietnam.

As a Marine himself, John twice deployed to Iraq, in 2006 and ’07.

After returning to civilian life, John landed a video production job at Sports Illustrated, which is where I met him. Work — and golf — provided him some much-needed respite.

“For me and many other veterans, golf was my therapy when I got back from Iraq,” John said. “It’s a chance to get away from everything. Sometimes that’s all a veteran can ask for: tranquility and camaraderie that is far removed from the battlefields.”

Earlier this year, John shot and produced a moving video about American Dunes, a Jack Nicklaus design in Grand Haven, Mich., that Folds of Honor founder and fighter pilot Lt. Col. Dan Rooney brought to fruition. The course’s entrance houses the Folds of Honor memorial, which displays photos and bios of our country’s fallen heroes. All of the course’s profits are donated to the Folds of Honor Foundation, which provides scholarships to the families of fallen and disabled American service members and first-responders.

“I walked away from American Dunes humbled and grateful,” John said, “thinking of those who fought before me, the ones who fought beside me, and the ones who fight for us now and in the future.”

On behalf of all of us at GOLF, thank you for your service, John. And happy Veterans Day to all of those who have served and are serving our country.

To hear more about John’s story and his experience at American Dunes, check out the Instagram video above.

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