By Mike Steely
steelym@knoxfocus.com
You probably saw them at Rose’s Mortuary on Broadway and Kingston Pike last Wednesday. Both locations had members of the East Tennessee Veterans Honor Guard present and people were pulling into the parking lots to visit and donate on the Day of Giving.
At the Broadway location WATE TV personalities were present to help out and cover the event.
The Veterans Honor Guard are volunteers who take their free time to attend various events for veterans and perform military service at veteran’s funerals. They are not paid and it can be very expensive to keep up uniforms and rifles for a 21 gun salute, not to mention the expense of traveling to the site of a funeral or memorial service.
It can cost as much as $800 to outfit a volunteer and the Honor Guard was hoping to raise about $25,000 last week. At the end of the day they found they had actually raised more than $40,000.
Capt. Reid Gerhardt is president of the group, which also helps the various veterans groups in the region. If you are interested in donating or finding out more about the Honor Guard, you can email etnvhg@gmail.com or call 865-223-3825. The mailing address is East Tenn. Veterans Honor Guard, P.O. box 22802, Knoxville, TN. 37933.
Members of the East Tennessee Volunteer Honor Guard are made up of people who served in all five of the military services. They are:
Army: AR Marines: MA Navy: NA Air Force: AF Coast Guard: CG
CG- Fred Adomat
AF- Ralph Almon Tech Sgt
AF- Jack Bradshaw Sgt
MA- Elizabeth Carr Sgt
NA- Noel Cotton CPO
NA-George Deichert
AF- Mark Fellows Ssgt
AF- Earl Fortner Msgt
AF- Bob Freels Msgt
AR- Reid Gerhardt Captain – ETVHG President
AF- Stewart Hall Ssgt
AR- William Hams Ssgt
NA- Butch Houston CPO
NA- Patrick Hudson
AR- Bob Hutchins Ssgt
AF- Dave Johnson Msgt
AF- Mark Jones Ssgt
MA- Tony Joyce Sgt
MA- Gary Kaplan Sgt
NA- Mark Kohring Captain
NA Herb Kraehmer CTI
AR- Mark McDonald Colonel
MA- Nancy McEntee Cpl
NA- Adrian Marsh CPO
NA- Michael Metzner CPO
AR- Jack Palmer Sp4
AR- Jay Palmer Sp4
AF- Gene Patton Ssgt
AF- Roger Phillips Lt. Colonel
AR- Don Roland Msgt
AF- Gordon Smith Tsgt
AR- Scott Smith Cpl
NA- John Speck CPO
AF- Paul Trotter Tsgt
AR- Fred Vitto Ssgt
CG- Steve Wickizer Captain
AF- Wayne Wolf Msgt
