NEW CASTLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Fred Draper may have liked the ice cream more than the social part of an ice cream social at Twin Oaks Assisted Living in Henry County.

"Vanilla, I guess or chocolate," he said with a smile when asked about his favorite flavors.

Like a lot of people from his generation, Draper will tell you all you need to know in a few words. That includes about his time in uniform.

"They drafted me," Draper explained.

He flew a chopper during some of the bloodiest conflicts the United States has ever been through.

“He was a veteran from the Korean and Vietnam era,” Leanne Yancey, the Director at Twin Oaks, said.

WDRB asked Draper if he lost any friends during the wars. "Quite a few, yeah," Draper said, with a heaviness in his voice.

Through it all, he always thought, there had to be something good to come from the trauma of war. It came from one of those ice cream plates, that he caked in paint.

The helicopters he flew, the planes he saw, the brothers in uniform he got to know so well are represented in impressive works of art. Fred was behind the brush.

"When Fred moved in, his granddaughter said he liked to paint, but we didn't know it would be to this extent," Yancey said.

He isn’t tracing or using a photo to do all of this, he’s mostly just using his memory.

"It is very unusual for his age," Yancey said.

The 95-year-old didn’t have the luxury of forgetting what he's always been reluctant to talk about for years, so he made remembering a way to heal. Not only for the talk of those ice cream socials, but for his neighbors fighting their own battles.

"She liked it," Draper said about a neighbor at Twin Oaks. "So I said, 'how much is it worth to you?' She says, '10 dollars?' I said, 'you got it.' She ain't gonna pay no 10 dollars."

Draper is giving it to her for free.

The solider turned skilled senior added a flare of color the people at Twin Oaks didn't know they needed.

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