The Oak Ridge Fire Department and its tower truck help welcome home an Afghanistan veteran on Saturday. (Pictures by Tom Scott)
The Oak Ridge community and the Oak Ridge Fire Department welcomed Sgt. Charles Dozema upon his return from a nine-month tour in Afghanistan at the intersection of the Oak Ridge Turnpike on Saturday afternoon.
Here are a few pictures by Tom Scott. [Read more…]
An estimated 150 people welcome home U.S. Army Sgt. Neal Martin, who served 10 months in Afghanistan.
It might have been the first organized welcome-home ceremony for a veteran returning home from overseas in more than two decades. Organizers hope it won’t be the last.
An impromptu, grassroots ceremony on Monday morning welcomed home U.S. Army Sgt. Neal Martin, who returned to Oak Ridge after serving for 10 months in Afghanistan.
Val Emery, a friend of Martin’s wife Julie Martin, was the chief organizer.
“Every soldier deserves a hero’s welcome,” said Emery, who described herself as a “military brat” whose grandfather was killed in Laos in 1966 and has his name inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. [Read more…]
Friends of a solider returning home from a 10-month tour in Afghanistan have organized a Monday morning welcome-home ceremony in Oak Ridge.
The family of U.S. Army Sgt. Neal Martin is expected to arrive in Oak Ridge at about 8 a.m. Monday.
The family is coming from Gatlinburg and plan to arrive in Oak Ridge on Pellissippi Parkway before driving down Lafayette Drive, then down New York and Vermont avenues in a newer-model Nissan Rogue with license plate number M33-23P, organizers said.
Organizer Valarie Emery said several businesses and emergency workers are participating in various ways. Among other things, she is trying to get local businesses to change their signs to welcome Martin home. She is asking those who are interested in participating in the welcome-home ceremony on Monday to meet at New York Avenue and Oak Ridge Turnpike, or New York and Vermont avenues, or Vermont and Venus Road. [Read more…]
