FALLBROOK, Calif. — Forty years ago, many disabled veterans of the Vietnam War came home to an unappreciative, even hostile American public.

Back then, Al Ransom — a Marine Corps pilot who flew 400 combat missions in Vietnam — didn’t have the financial means to help his fellow vets. But today, the 76-year-old retired colonel and his wife, Cathie, are devoting much of their time and their good fortune to the disabled veterans of recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Cathie and I never had any children, so the wounded warriors are our children now,” said Ransom, a longtime Fallbrook resident who, with his wife, runs two North County wedding event venues, Los Willows in Fallbrook and Paradise Falls in Oceanside.

Over the past five years, the couple have coordinated all-expense paid dream weddings for three Marine Corps amputees; covered significant expenses for disabled sports programs at Naval Medical Center San Diego (known as Balboa Hospital); and as a board member, organizer and sponsor for local Tee it Up for the Troops golf tournaments, Ransom has helped raise more than $150,000 for disabled military programs.

Marla Knox, a recreational therapist who coordinates activity programs for combat-injured vets at Balboa, said whenever there’s a need, Ransom can be counted on to step up and fill it.

“He’s extremely easy to work with and very compassionate, both to the combat injured and their families,” Knox said. “I just think he and his wife believe in love. They’re always looking for the next service members they can help.”

Ransom spent 30 years in the Marine Corps, racking up more than 5,000 flight hours as a pilot and trainer in the A4 Skyhawk, OV-10 Bronco, F-11 Tiger and other attack and fighter jets. He was working a desk job in Hawaii when he met Cathie and they married in 1983. In 1985, he was appointed the first air station commander at Camp Pendleton and before he retired in 1988, the couple settled on a 10-acre ranch on Stewart Canyon Road in Fallbrook.

The Ransoms had other plans for their property, but friends and neighbors kept asking if they could get married there, so in 1989 Los Willows Wedding Estate was born. Ransom said it was hard on his ego transitioning from colonel to wedding boat driver.

“As a Marine we have this big macho image and I thought this was a big step down, but we became very successful,” he said.

So successful, in fact, that Ransom decided it was time to start giving back to the military.

In 2010, he took part in his first Tee It Up for the Troops golf tournament at Vista Valley Country Club and was immediately hooked on the concept. The organization teams avid golfers with pairs of wounded warriors on the greens. Because it’s volunteer-run, Tee it Up has very low overhead (just 15 percent).

Cathie Ransom said being around the young veterans was addictive for both her and her husband.

“It’s hard to explain. There’s such a wonderful camaraderie,” she said. “Once you’ve been in the military and served it doesn’t matter. The generations melt away and everyone is on the same page.”

Eager to throw himself into programs with the combat-injured at Balboa, Ransom called Knox, who admits she rebuffed his efforts at first. She said she’s protective of her patients, because many businesspeople want to attach their name to wounded warriors in ways that serve themselves more than the veterans.

“She was a hard nut to crack,” Ransom admits. But once Knox said she “grilled him pretty good,” she recognized the purity of his motives and they became a good team.

He wrote checks to buy chairs, jackets and uniforms for the hospital’s wheelchair basketball team, gave $5,000 to equip the disabled archery program and he and Cathie opened up the lake at Los Willows for fly-fishing clinics offered every three to four months to disabled vets.

But more than anything, Ransom threw himself headlong into organizing and underwriting the Tee it Up golf tournaments, which he will expand next year into the lucrative market of Palm Springs.

Ransom’s dedication to the cause has been an inspiration to retired Army Major Don Brumley, who recruits wounded warriors to play in 25 to 30 Tee it Up tournaments statewide every year. Since he retired in 2012, the 51-year-old Crown Point resident said Ransom has been his role model for volunteerism.

“Col. Ransom gave me guidance to figure out what to do with my life,” Brumley said. “He told me that there are many ways to continue serving after you’ve retired. He told me ‘use your talents to find where you fit and go along the lines.’”

Brumley said the tournaments are big self-esteem boosters and relationship builders for the disabled vets.

“It gets them out of the barracks, what I call ‘the cigarettes and sadness,’ for a few hours in the sun with their buddies,” Brumley said.

However, because these young vets have never golfed before, they tend to lose their souvenir sleeve of golf balls before they ever make it off the first tee. When Ransom heard about this, he gave Brumley nearly 3,000 balls for the troops.

“The sheer generosity of this man is really amazing,” Brumley said. “He is active, active, active in helping these guys.”

Back in 2012, Knox asked the Ransoms if they’d be willing to offer Los Willows for the wedding of Marine Cpl. Josue Barron, 22, who lost a leg and eye in Afghanistan. They happily agreed and Cathie, who runs the wedding business, took it a big step further by coordinating with many of her vendors to cover the entire $35,000 cost of the wedding. Since then, they’ve hosted two more all-expense-paid weddings for former Marines who lost limbs in Afghanistan, Lt. Cameron West in 2013 and Pvt. Jorge Ortiz, this past Valentine’s Day.

Cathie said her vendors are more than happy to donate their services for the cause.

“It’s so heartwarming and inspiring and these Marines have such positive attitudes. Everyone wants to be a part of that,” she said.

Cathie said it took six months to coordinate all of the vendors who donated their services for the Ortiz wedding. They included Pro Sound DJ of Murrieta; ShadowCatcher Imagery of Escondido; Justin Hulse Photography of Murrieta; videographer Ashley Zimmerman of Temecula; cake baker Elegance on Display of Fallbrook; Isaac’s Catering of Vista; Blooming Grace Florals of Vista; minister Karen Cartwright; Fallbrook FroYo; and even Krispy Kreme, which supplied its doughnuts (Ortiz’s favorite confection). Food merchants Shamrock Foods, Performance Foods and Allen Meats also donated food for the guests. The Ransoms donated the use of their estate, Los Willows, along with an open bar at the reception and a two-night stay for the bride and groom at the bed and breakfast on the property.

Ransom said he and his wife host more than 120 weddings a year, but he only attends one – the Marines’ dream weddings, where he reads a congratulatory letter from the Marine Corps commandant and has been known to dance up a storm.

“I don’t miss a wounded warrior wedding,” he said. “It’s very meaningful to me.”

By Pam Kragen