Gardner keynotes 58th Blount County Veterans Day Program

As the final shots of the 21 gun salute echoed into silence across the parking lot of RIO Revolution, Bradley Davis began playing TAPS on Wednesday morning to conclude the 58th Blount County Veterans Day Program.

Cpt. Trevis Gardner (USAF, Ret) offered the keynote address, the Tellico Village Quilters presented three veterans with Quilts of Valor and the AFJROTC cadets from Heritage and William Blount provided the honor guards and presenter for the POW/MIA Table during the program hosted by the United Veterans of Blount County to honor the area’s veterans for their service.

Gardner, who served in a combination with the US Air Force and the Tennessee Air National Guard from 1987 to 2012 where he rose from the rank of enlisted airman to commissioned officer and served in various roles from first sergeant to deputy group commander, spoke the the attendees about service and support.

“You cut a blank check to the American people for everything, everything that you own, everything that you could own, everything that you could potentially own that you own ... and that blank check equaled everything that I mentioned up to, including your life. You wrote that blank check to the American people, so we should always be indebted with gratitude for that sacrifice,” Gardner said.

The retired captain also spoke to the cost of service to a veterans family and the continuation of life, living the freedom that military service has purchased.

“When they got up early and they came home late while you were gone for 19 days or 29 days or 119 days or 219 days or three years and 19 days, whatever that number happened to be life continued, families carried on, businesses carried on. Enterprises, governments and organizations carried on in the absence of the veteran, and veterans also owe them a debt of gratitude for all the support that they have served you with,” Gardner said.

Serving as executive director for Leadership East Tennessee in retirement, Gardner tied in the opportunities and benefits he received during his service and how that many times serving in the armed forces can change veterans for the better.

“I was surrounded by chiefs and leaders and officers and NCOs that I’m thankful saw something in me that I did not know was there,” Gardner said. “They nurtured me, and they supported me. They allowed me to make mistakes. Many times, many, many mistakes so that they could take the opportunity to correct me because they thought I could learn from it. That is sacrifice on their part as they were willing to let a mistake go by because they knew in the long run something better would come of it with the learning opportunity.”

The Tellico Village Quilters presented Quilts of Valor to David Brown, Robert Harding and Charles Mattingly. The quilts are part of a program to provide a tangible object to express gratitude to veterans for their service. TVQ has presented more than 1,500 quilts to veterans since 2009.

“As a veteran, you are among an elite group comprised of less than 6% of our population. Each of you is worthy of our recognition and appreciation. We will never know the sacrifices you made on behalf of the country, but it is our privilege to award these Quilts of Valor,” Sandy Brown said.

Steve Hall conducted the POW/MIA Table Ceremony which entails the description and significance of the items arranged on the table before an empty chair. Heritage AFJROTC cadets Samuel Long, Michael Noonan, Jayden Hudnall and Benjamin Hoyles presented the colors to start the program while the William Blount AFJROTC provided the closing Honor Guard and 21-gun salute. Cadets Jackson West, LJ Perez, Dylan Morikawa, Brett Hall, Aiden Julian, Hailey Clark and Mason Orr served in the guard commanded by Carson Hood. Davis played TAPS on the the bugle.