Veterans Spotlight

Knoxville’s Gerald McGinnis looks back on his service in Vietnam From Rambo to Heartbreak Ridge, Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now, and even Forrest Gump, Hollywood writers have worked hard to out-script each other in portraying the…
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Jesse Hawe is taking the fight to the epidemic of suicide among his fellow military veterans My hope is gone.I can’t see anything left to live for.No one understands this battle.They’ll be better off when I’m gone. These are among…
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Knoxville’s Dale McCurry reached the pinnacle of US Coast Guard service while saving lives and training others Standing waist deep in the gently flowing waters of the Little River in Townsend, Dale McCurry is intent on making a perfect…
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Retired US Army Major Tom Amidon is most proud of the cadets he trained and mentored for battle across the globe On November 11, 2020—Veterans Day—Tom Amidon awakens to a familiar blend of thoughts and emotions, rooted in his…
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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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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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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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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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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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Army veteran carries lessons from 18-year military career into life When Cadet Matthew Holbrook earned his wings at Fort Benning, Ga., in 2000, his grandfather surprised him by attending the ceremony. The World War II paratrooper who…
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