Local Vietnam veteran delivers holiday cheer to fellow vets

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- It's the season to spread joy and kindness and a Vietnam veteran from the area is doing just that.

For the 35th year in a row, the annual "Christmas with the Vets" took place Friday, Dec. 16 -- delivering a truckload of donated holiday gifts and other items to the Milwaukee VA Medical Center. The gifts will then be distributed to inpatient veterans. 

During the winter of 1988, Jeff "Doc" Dentice, a local then Army medic along with another veteran, put together a Christmas show for others who served and now at the VA Medical Center. They intended for it to be a one-time event but given its success, it lives on till this day. 

"Posttraumatic, you know, all of the stuff they got going, well I deal, I deal, my way of healing is doing everything for veterans, so this is my biggest event," said Dentice. "Everything is all new clothing, it's all holiday treats, it's for the spinal cord injury unit, it's for the hospital."

Dentice receives no government funding, it is all donation-based thanks to the fundraising events he hosts.