John Paul Rader, a former radio telephone operator who served for three years during the Vietnam War, wants to thank someone he knows only as Delaine M., who left a star-spangled quilt for him during a stay last year in the Mountain Home VA Medical Center.

During one of his recent visits to the veterans hospital for open heart bypass surgery, necessitated, he said, because of his exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange during his service, Rader’s prognosis was not favorable.

“The nurses though I didn’t have long to live,” the vet said during an interview last week. “That may be why she left the quilt.”

When he was discharged, Rader swept up a gold fabric bag with the rest of his belongings, believing it to be a pillow. In his home in Greene County, he said the bag was stored away in a corner and not really examined during his at-home recovery.

But when he upturned the bag a few weeks ago, more than a year and a half after his hospital stay, a red, white, blue and gold quilt dropped out, much to his surprise.

“I saw it come out of the bag, and I just said, ‘Now look at this here,’ ” he said. “It’s wonderful. I don’t usually get very emotional, but somebody who would do something like this for a stranger — it’s so nice.”

Along with the quilt was a typed journal explaining the quilt and telling a little about its creator.

The “Delaine M.” who signed the letter calls it a Quilt of Valor, and said the 48 blocks were pieced together as she sewed for at least an hour each night, watching her favorite quilting shows.

“I saw the pattern and fell in love with it,” she wrote. “I immediately went to my ‘stash’ to see what I could come up with.”

The Quilts of Valor Foundation was started by a Delaware mother as she waited for her son to return from a deployment in Iraq.

The volunteers under the program make quilts that may go to military hospitals to be distributed to service members, may be awarded to entire service units returning from deployments or may be awarded at VA’s or awarded individually.

According to the organization’s website, more than 100,000 quilts have been donated to service members and veterans.

Rader is now looking to track down the stranger who made his specific quilt.

“Us guys in Vietnam, we didn’t get a lot of support when we came back,” he said. “This was just a very honorable thing to do.”

The Press is trying to help Rader get in touch with Delaine M. If you made the quilt, or know who did, please contact Assistant News Editor Nathan Baker using the information below, or in the email address in this story’s byline.

Follow Nathan Baker on Twitter @JCPressBaker. Like him on Facebook: www.facebook.com/jcpressbaker.