Author

Phil Newman 5 posts 0 comments

Phil Newman is a Farragut High alum and a UT-Knoxville journalism graduate. A lifelong lover of the written word and storytelling, he now makes his home in Franklin, Tennessee. He also enjoys hiking, playing piano, refereeing soccer, and hanging out with his shih-tzu, General Bear.

Sep/Oct 2021

“Fight’s On”

Phil Newman Aug 25, 2021 0

Kevin Thompson’s 30-year Air Force career lifted him from Knoxville to the Pentagon and back home again In 1981, when the Cold War was at its peak and Ronald Reagan had just begun his presidency, north Knoxville native and Central High…
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Jul/Aug 2021

Into the Fray and Back Again

Phil Newman Jul 1, 2021 0

Schyular Branum experienced the horrors of war in Afghanistan but kept on serving The dates and details are seared into the soldier’s memory, and they roll off his tongue as easily as what he ate this morning for breakfast… August…
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May/Jun 2021

Tip of the Spear

Phil Newman Apr 29, 2021 0

Service as a U.S. Marine helped Bob Sparks rise from rural Appalachia to a life of business and personal success When Bob Sparks enlisted in the U.S. Marines in 1961, the 17-year-old out of southwest Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains…
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Mar/Apr 2021

Welcome Home

Phil Newman Mar 5, 2021 0

Jim Petress shares how service to country led him on a path through medicine Standing in the shadow of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., Jim Petress notices another graying man a few steps away and recognizes the…
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Jan/Feb 2021

Shaped By a Letter From War

Phil Newman Dec 30, 2020 0

Norris Hill’s battle for peace beganwith an encounter in Iraq It is early 1991, the height of the 42-day Persian Gulf War, in the Iraqi desert on the road to Baghdad. Some of the first U.S. Marine Corps infantrymen to enter through…
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