When Byrnes Mill Police Sgt. Doug Zwetow answered a call for a disturbance at a Byrnes Mill home two years ago, he couldn't have known the difference he would make in a former Marine's life.

He met a 78-year-old former Marine, Robert Belk, who was eating just one meal a day, suffered from bedsores and wasn't taking his prescription medications.  A relative and a neighbor had moved into Belk's home to help him after Belk's wife had died.  But, instead of caring for him, his helpers had neglected him and depleted his bank account.

Zwetow had grown up in a home where “we're supposed to take care of the elderly.”  He approached his boss, Byrnes Mill Police Chief Ed Locke, and said, “We have to do something.” Locke agreed.

Zwetow, Locke and Patrolman Joseph La France often checked in on Belk.  When Zwetow discovered that Belk had been a Marine, he felt even more of a connection – Zwetow's father also had been a Marine.

Zwetow made Belk his special cause.  He contacted agencies for assistance, but nothing ever seemed to materialize.  Finally, Zwetow remembered another friend and former Marine, William Fischer, who lives in Washington, D.

Fischer contacted Mike Pate, a member of the American Legion Post 297 in Union, MO, to tell him about Belk on August 20, 2011, which also happened to be Veterans Assistance Day.  During that day's event at the American Legion Post, Pate spoke with a representative of Claire McCaskill's staff.  Pate also contacted the Marine Corps League, which helps veterans to receive funding for medical care.

Pate called Zwetow, who filled him in on Belk's needs and past.  “They took over from there and were out here to see him every day,” said Zwetow.
“The situation was deplorable and appalling,” said Mike Pate.

Pate then involved Administrator Tracy Copeland of Willow Brook Assisted Living Facility, who visited Belk and performed an assessment. “We went back, packed him up and moved him here,” said Pate.  “We took matters into our own hands, got others involved and moved Belk to a better place.”

Belk, now 80, has been living at Willow Brook since mid-September.  He was initiated into the Union Legion Post on Sept. 22, in a special ceremony honored him and all those who had helped him along the way.

Belk's health has greatly improved.  “This is the most wonderful thing to ever happen to me,”  says Belk. “He's a new man,” says Zwetow.  “He doesn't even look like the same person.”

Chief Locke says, “This is the kind of thing a small community needs to do for one of its residents.  We can look in the mirror and feel like we did something special.”