The term Volunteer State began being applied to Tennessee in 1812, when a group of volunteers served so valiantly under General Andrew Jackson, during the Battle of New Orleans. Again when a small group of Texans were fighting the Mexican army, volunteers went with Davy Crockett and gave their lives at the Alamo, to help defend freedom.

Recently, during 9-1-1 volunteers from Tennessee went to New York to assist, with whatever they could, from food, clothing, money, even donating their blood to help. Whenever there are people in need, The Tennessee Volunteers are there to help. This is where we get the name for our organization.

We are a group of U.S. armed forces veterans who were recently serving an internship at the Tennessee State Senate, and House of Representatives. We were in the thirty-fifth anniversary class or that program, which represents schools from all over Tennessee. We had a wide variety of schools, interests as well as military service. We had veterans from various branches of the armed forces who served in during Viet Nam, Iran, Iraq, and Bosnia.

We decided to start some kind of tribute to the veterans who had served our country and our state of Tennessee in particular. We decided that the six of us would be founding members and have the project carried on by the veterans who come after us in the Legislative Intern Program each year. During the research for this project, I was approached by Don Samuels, the Vice Chairman of Veteran's Affairs who asked me about researching a memorial wall for the Tennessee veterans who had been lost since Vietnam. I agreed and added it to my research.

I was serving in the office of Senator Rusty Crowe (R) 3rd district and while taking calls from his constituents, I learned that East Tennessee had suffered a freeze, and even though it was declared a disaster area and qualified for state assistance, before the aid arrived the same area was in a drought. I thought, what better tribute for the veterans who gave so much for Tennessee than to assist the state that they loved. And so the idea for a Tennessee Disaster Relief Fund was born.

There are three points to The Tennessee Volunteers program:

• 1.To assist local veteran programs, as well as direct assistance to veterans and their families.
• 2.The Tennessee Disaster Relief Fund to assist any area in Tennessee that is affected by any type of disaster.
• 3.To establish a memorial wall at the War Memorial Building in Nashville, honoring those who have been lost in the three decades since Viet Nam.

Thank you for your continued support,
Garry L. Thomas
Colonel Aide de Camp