Our leadership
Edward Heckathorn
Ed Heckathorn proudly serves as an Ambassador to the Resurrecting Lives Foundation. He has been a part of the Resurrecting Lives Foundation since 2009, when it was known as Operation Resurrection.
Ed Heckathorn is a military veteran who has served 12 years in the United States Army and Reserves. During his period of service, he was an Army Ranger of the 1st Ranger Battalion in Savannah, Georgia. During his service, he traveled to multiple states and various countries, Egypt and Panama among them, to train with other elite units. While with the Rangers, he completed 28 airborne jumps out of C130s, C141s, and a variety of helicopters.
During his reserve time in the 342nd Military Police, he was promoted to Staff Sergeant and was deployed post 9/11. In 2002, he was stationed in New Jersey from where he would travel to Turkey, Afghanistan, and Cuba as part of a special transport unit. He was part of seven roundtrips that would encompass all these locations in a four-to-five-day period. His specific responsibilities were the supervision and security of the entire transport of the detainees while loading in Afghanistan, inflight, and unloading when they arrived in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In his final year of service, 2004, he served stateside performing military police duties in Fort Riley, Kansas, while the MP units there were deployed overseas.
Ed began his employment with Franklin County starting in 1998. Then in 1999 he got hired into the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office. Throughout his deployments, he has maintained his job with the county, where he is now approaching 25 years of service.
While serving as a Franklin County Deputy, he saw many veterans coming through the court system, a system that lacked the support and understanding of veterans that were coming back from service. In an effort to bridge the gap, he was instrumental in establishing the Veteran’s Court for Franklin County, Ohio, a veteran-specific court that now provides our servicemen and servicewomen services that weren’t available prior. It is through this court that our servicemembers can get the help that is particular to them when entering the legal system. This would not be possible but for the establishment of the Veteran’s Court.
Ed Heckathorn is married to his wife, Michelle, and they have four children. They reside in the Pickerington, Ohio, area, but he and his wife will take every opportunity they can to travel and enjoy the outdoors together with their family.
