U.S Department Veteran Affairs

03/13/2025

Middle Tennessee Veterans Coalition Presents
Salute to Heroes – Concert Event

Date: May 17, 2025
Time: 12 PM – 6 PM
Location: Holland Park
Admission: FREE and open to all ages!

Join us for an unforgettable day as we honor our heroes! Holland Park will be transformed with street closures filled with:

▪️Live Music by Veteran Musicians
▪️Local Vendors & Artisan Booths
▪️Food Trucks
▪️Veteran Resource Booths
▪️1950s Pinup Girls for Photo Ops

Come support our local veterans and small businesses in a family-friendly, festival-style atmosphere.

Interested in being part of the event?
We’re accepting applications for:

~Vendor Booths
~Veteran Resource Booths
~Food Trucks

Special Discounts for Veteran Non-Profits!
Contact us at MTVeteransCoalition@gmail.com or send us a message for more info.

Let’s come together to celebrate and support our community’s heroes!

12/14/2023

L

12/14/2023

12/14/2023

HAPPY THURSDAY!!

07/12/2022

On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass was invited to address citizens of his hometown, Rochester, NY, in commemoration of Independence Day. In words both poignant and piercing, he enlarged the hearts and minds of his hearers. In part,

“Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men…They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory…Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?”

“What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy—a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.”

“Americans! your republican politics, not less than your republican religion, are flagrantly inconsistent. You boast of your love of liberty, your superior civilization, and your pure Christianity, while the whole political power of the nation (as embodied in the two great political parties) is solemnly pledged to support and perpetuate the enslavement of three millions of your countrymen…You are all on fire at the mention of liberty for France or for Ireland; but are as cold as an iceberg at the thought of liberty for the enslaved of America.”

02/10/2022

Capt. Richard D. Macon lived his life breaking barriers. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, he earned a degree in mathematics from Miles College in 1942. A year later, he joined the Army Air Forces, graduating from flight training on Feb. 8, 1944, at Tuskegee Army Air Field. He soon deployed to Italy with the 302nd Fighter Squadron.

On Aug. 12, 2nd Lt. Macon was part of an es**rt mission to Toulon, France, to destroy radar stations. The target was destroyed, but the fighters drew ground fire. Macon was hit by flak, flipping his plane upside-down before it burst into flames. As he struggled to straighten the plane, Macon passed out, falling against the control stick. His plane was thrown into a loop, tossing him from the P-51 Mustang. Somehow, as he fell, his parachute opened. When he woke 45 minutes later, he was lying in a field, surrounded by three German soldiers.

Macon was taken to a field hospital, where he was diagnosed with a broken a shoulder and broken neck. Doctors set his shoulder, but with Allied troops approaching, the Germans moved before setting Macon’s neck. A few days later, Macon met fellow prisoners of war 2nd Lt. Alexander Jefferson and Capt. Robert H. Daniels.

“(Macon) was in bad shape and appeared to have a fractured neck because every time he moved abruptly, he passed out,” Jefferson wrote in his book, “Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free.” “We braced his neck and head to make them immovable. When we got him up the next morning, he had to walk very slowly, trying not to move his head.”

Two weeks and several hundred miles later, the group arrived at Stalag Luft III near Sagan, Germany, and were split up. Macon was sent to the hospital where his neck was finally X-rayed and set. Before he could recuperate, Russian troops forced the Germans out of Sagan. Macon, his neck in a cast, was taken to Stalag XIII-D at Nuremberg. When American troops advanced on Nuremberg, Macon was moved to Stalag VIIA at Moosburg. He was held there until the end of the war.

Promoted to captain, Macon was honorably discharged in December 1945, having received a and .

Today, we honor Macon's service during World War II.

02/02/2022

The letter:http://explorehistory.ou.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Post-war-Paper-1-SOURCE-DOC-2-ACv1.pdf

02/02/2022

𝗗𝗜𝗗 𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗞𝗡𝗢𝗪 ❓
𝗢𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗶𝗻 1944, 𝗝𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗲 𝗥𝗼𝗯𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗻, 𝗮 𝗨.𝗦. 𝗔𝗿𝗺𝘆 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝘄𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗴𝗼 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝗻 𝗠𝗮𝗷𝗼𝗿 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗴𝘂𝗲 𝗕𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗯𝗮𝗹𝗹, 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗿𝗺𝘆 𝗯𝘂𝘀, 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘁-𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗱.

In 1942, Robinson was drafted and assigned to a segregated Army cavalry unit in Fort Riley, Kansas. Having the requisite qualifications, Robinson and several other black soldiers applied for admission to an Officer Candidate School (OCS) then located at Fort Riley. Although the Army's initial July 1941 guidelines for OCS had been drafted as race neutral, few black applicants were admitted into OCS until after subsequent directives by Army leadership. As a result, the applications of Robinson and his colleagues were delayed for several months. After protests by heavyweight boxing champion Joe Louis (then stationed at Fort Riley) and the help of Truman Gibson (then an assistant civilian aide to the Secretary of War), the men were accepted into OCS. The experience led to a personal friendship between Robinson and Louis. Upon finishing OCS, Robinson was commissioned as a second lieutenant in January 1943.

After receiving his commission, Robinson was reassigned to Fort Hood, Texas, where he joined the 761st "Black Panthers" Tank Battalion. While awaiting results of hospital tests on the ankle he had injured in junior college, Robinson boarded an Army bus with a fellow officer's wife; although the Army had commissioned its own unsegregated bus line, the bus driver ordered Robinson to move to the back of the bus. Robinson refused. The driver backed down, but after reaching the end of the line, summoned the military police, who took Robinson into custody. When Robinson later confronted the investigating duty officer about racist questioning by the officer and his assistant, the officer recommended Robinson be court-martialed. After Robinson's commander in the 761st, Paul L. Bates, refused to authorize the legal action, Robinson was summarily transferred to the 758th Battalion—where the commander quickly consented to charge Robinson with multiple offenses, including, among other charges, public drunkenness, even though Robinson did not drink.

By the time of the court-martial in August 1944, the charges against Robinson had been reduced to two counts of insubordination during questioning. Robinson was acquitted by an all-white panel of nine officers. The experiences Robinson was subjected to during the court proceedings would be remembered when he later joined MLB and was subjected to racist attacks. Although his former unit, the 761st Tank Battalion, became the first black tank unit to see combat in World War II, Robinson's court-martial proceedings prohibited him from being deployed overseas; thus, he never saw combat action.

After his acquittal, he was transferred to Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky, where he served as a coach for army athletics until receiving an honorable discharge in November 1944. While there, Robinson met a former player for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League, who encouraged Robinson to write the Monarchs and ask for a tryout. Robinson took the former player's advice and wrote to Monarchs' co-owner Thomas Baird.


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#𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 #𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆𝗢𝘂𝗿𝗛𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 🤎 ✊🏾

02/02/2022

In honor of the first day of Black History Month, we would like to recognize Retired Master Chief William “Bill” Goines.

When President John F. Kennedy formed the first two SEAL teams in 1962 (Team One on the West Coast and Team Two on the East Coast), Goines was one of 40 chosen to join Team Two, and the first African-American Navy SEAL.

He retired from the Navy in 1987 after 32 years of service, and has been awarded the Bronze Star, the Navy Commendation Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, a Combat Action Ribbon and the Presidential Unit Citation.

Thank you for your service, Master Chief Goines. 🔱 Long Live The Brotherhood