Governor Bill Haslam Recognizes Tennessee Veterans
November 12, 2018
Five Military Veteran Tennessee State Employees Honored for Exemplary Service
Nashville, TN -Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam and First Lady Crissy Haslam joined Tennessee Department of Veterans Services Commissioner Many-Bears Grinder and Major General Terry “Max” Haston from the Tennessee Military Department to recognize five veteran state employees and more than 470,000 Tennessee veterans of all ages and eras.
The Governor’s Veterans Day event was held on the second floor of the State Capitol in downtown Nashville.
(Top: L to R) John Briggs, Don Coleman, Angelo Giansante, (Bot: L to R) William Houser, and Paul Nielsen.
Remembering American Heroes
May 30, 2011
Written by State Senator Roy Herron
Dad got to England in July of 1944. Soon after he landed, he was on a landing craft headed for Normandy. As they crossed the English Channel, over the loudspeaker came the familiar voice of Roy Acuff singing, “The Great Speckled Bird.”
Years later, Dad would remember that no son of the South, and few from anywhere else, had dry eyes as Acuff sang that Grand Ole Opry favorite and their thoughts returned to home.
They hit Omaha Beach and before long were fighting in the hedgerows. A few days into combat, Dad was wounded, but it could have been much worse. For thousands, it was. So on he fought with his buddies, all part of the Ninth Infantry that famed war correspondent Ernie Pyle once called “a beautiful machine.”
Army troops on board a LCT, ready to ride across the English Channel to France. Some of these men wear 101st Airborne Division insignia. Photograph released 12th June 1944. (Official U.S. Navy Photograph, National Archives.)
