Veterans Spotlight

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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Marine Corps training stays with Y-12’s chief of protective forces Christopher Seals has never quite gotten the sound of John Wayne’s voice out of his head. The iconic actor made such an impression on the 18-year-old Hawkins County…
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Small business owner draws values,determination from Air Force experience Michael Laverdure’s journey through life really accelerated with his first car, a 1975 Dodge Dart. But he found the direction he needed from his service in the…
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From Mogadishu and Port-au-Prince to football and wrestling, Jason Bush is giving back. Jason Bush’s enlistment started in a familiar way. At the end of high school, he did not want to attend college, nor did his family have the means…
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Owen Ragland followed his father into the Air Force and led all three of his children along the same path. The frequent moves the military requires can be challenging, especially for the spouse who is organizing them and managing the…
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