Roper native Samuel Roberson Jr., served his country faithfully as a member of the United States military for over 20 years. However in the years since his retirement, he has served his community in a new way, offering hope and support to his fellow disabled brothers and sisters courtesy of his Mobile Man Ministry initiative.

The son of Louise and Samuel Roberson Sr., the young Samuel came from humble beginnings. His parents were both heavily involved in their local church and were well respected as pillars of their faith. Roberson Sr., would become an elder while Samuel’s mother would be a prominent evangelist, something that seemingly makes their son’s later foray into the ministry inevitable.

“I was brought up in the church…right there in the Pentecostal Temple…it was the Holiness church at that time…but I never thought about going into the ministry and being as serious about it as they were,” he says. “I never thought I would eventually be involved in the ministry like I am…Things had to happen to me first…a lot of things.”

Despite having little intention on following his parents into the cloth, Roberson says that he expected to lead a fairly normal and rural life the same as them.

However, living a simple life in the countryside would be the furthest from his experience.

After graduating from Washington County Union School in 1965, Roberson joined the United States Army and in December he was promptly sent to begin training for the Vietnam War.

“After I got in around December 1965, I started out taking my basic training in Fort Jackson, South Carolina,” he recalls. “Then I did my AIT in Louisiana and after that I went straight into Vietnam.”

As one might imagine, Roberson’s experiences in Vietnam mirrored most of the accounts from other veterans of that conflict. In fact, Roberson describes it as one of the most difficult and surreal moments of his long life.

“It was terrible man, it was a real hardship,” he reflects. “It was an awful thing to go through for a young man that was right out of high school. I was so young, and really, all the guys like me, we didn’t know no better… so we did the best we could in those circumstances… it was definitely a trip, going straight to Vietnam…the experience of a lifetime...”