Dwight DeLoach is a veteran, a graduate of The Citadel, and a member of the SC Air National Guard. He has served in Afghanistan and Poland. His last tour of duty was in 2023 in Kuwait.  

Last Thursday, DeLoach was given a Quilt of Valor by Gail Sullivan and Leesa Stout of Lexington County’s Quilts of Valor chapter. The quit was presented during a meeting of Dominion Energy’s Employee Resource Group for veterans. 

DeLoach’s National Guard unit, the 228th Theater Tactical Signal Brigade, meets in Spartanburg. In March, two soldiers, Spc. Carol Santiago and Spc. Kristal Lopez were killed in a car crash after leaving drills. DeLoach dedicated his Quilt of Valor to their memory. 

How did the Quilt of Valor end up with DeLoach? 

Sullivan explained that she came to see her son, Joe Whipple, at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, MD in 2003. He had been injured in Iraq. 

“The only thing he had with him was his boots and a quilt that had been given to him,” Sullivan said. The quilt was blood-stained and Sullivan took it to wash. She noticed that the name of the woman who made the quilt, to distribute to wounded soldiers, was sewn at the bottom of it. Sullivan called the woman, who lived in Charleston. The woman cried when Sullivan called her to thank her. 

Sullivan’s son eventually recovered and Sullivan became a member of the Sewrority Sisters. The group meets at Creative Sewing Center on 12th Street in Triangle Center in West Columbia. Sullivan also became associated with a group that put together quilts for veterans. Because of her son’s experience, Sullivan established the Lexington County “Quilts of Valor.” 

“I want the quilts we make to stay home,” she said. 

Stout, who is in the Human Resources Department at Dominion Energy, is also a quilter who works with Sullivan. She researched DeLoach’s military service record before he was selected as a recipient of the Quilt of Valor. Her father has a military history and her grandfather was a WWII D-Day soldier who she interviewed when she was a middle school student. Stout said veterans hold a place in her heart. 
“It’s really special,” Stout said of her respect for veterans.

Dwight DeLoach, Leesa Stout below: