Each year the Claude Pepper Center and Florida State University together with the Claude Pepper Foundation recognizes citizens who have demonstrated acts of outstanding acts of humanitarian service. The Spirit of Pepper Award is a means for distinguishing these outstanding citizens.
Master Sergeant Dan Hendrex and his wife, Christina, were awarded the First Annual Spirit of Pepper Award for demonstrating acts of humanitarian service.
While serving in Iraq, Master Sergeant Dan Hendrex befriended an Iraqi boy who assisted U.S. forces with peacekeeping operations in the troubled Al Anbar region of Iraq.
The boy lost his family to the insurgency during these operations and he turned to his new friends with the U.S. Army for aid and assistance. Along with his wife, Hendrex spearheaded an effort to provide the boy with political asylum and bring him back to the United States.
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