For 19-year-old U.S. Army Pvt. Vincent Hancock, the past few weeks have seemed like a dream.

“I just found out a few weeks ago,” Hancock said.

What he found out was that his image was going to be placed on an envelope available from the U.S. Postal Service to commemorates his achievements in the areas of skeet shooting and shotgun proficiency.

Hancock, an Eatonton resident, won his first world championship title in 2005 at the age of 16.

That was followed by setting a skeet world record at the World Cup event in Italy in 2007, winning the Bronze Medal at the 2007 World Champion and being named “Shotgun Shooter of the Year” that same year.

None of that, however, compared to his accomplishments earlier this year when Hancock pulled double duty in representing his country as he journeyed to the 2008 Beijing Olympics and won a Gold Medal in Men’s Skeet Shooting.

“We’re proud to call Eatonton the home of Joel Chandler Harris in the 19th century, Alice Walker in the 20th century, and now the home of Vincent Hancock in the 21st century,” Eatonton mayor John Reid said Friday.

A ceremony at the Lake Oconee Shooting Club found Hancock, his wife, his aunt, his parents, local dignitaries, Central Georgia residents, the Putnam County High School JROTC, U.S. Postal Service representatives and Master of Ceremonies Sam Crenshaw from WXIA-TV in Atlanta all in attendance to recognize the official unveiling and releasing to the public of the envelope featuring Hancock’s likeness.

“We never could get him to stop. He never has stopped. He never stopped when he made it to Beijing and he hasn’t stopped now,” Wayne Grier of the U.S. Postal Service said in referring to Hancock and his accomplishments.

The recent unveiling ceremony didn’t happen overnight, however.

“This has been a three and a half month process. We actually have to write for permission in Washington, D.C., but this also goes before the U.S. Congress,” Jerry Herringdine, Eatonton postmaster, said.

When asked to speak at the unveiling, Hancock, described by many at the ceremony in words like “humble,” provided a good example of how that description came about.

“Being on an envelope or stamp never even crossed my mind. It is far and beyond what I expected. My aunt, parents, wife [ … ], they’re the ones who pushed me along. They knew what I was there for [in Beijing].”

An initial order of 2,000 envelopes was placed by the postal service, though the possibility exists of creating more if those 2,000 run out, according to Herringdine.

That’s a good thing for someone like Skipper Hudson of Eatonton, who was present Friday to have Hancock autograph two envelopes — one for Hudson’s son Joshua and one for Hudson’s son Peter.

“I’m getting them for my two boys as a Christmas present. My youngest boy goes to the same school [Gatewood] that Vincent did,” Hudson said.

The cachets (limited-edition commemorative envelopes) are available for sale for $7 each from the U.S. Postal Service in Eatonton.

More information may be obtained by contacting Jerry Herringdine at (478) 485-5636 or by E-mailing Jerry.t.herringdine@usps.gov.