In the month of November, we celebrate Veterans Day. I can’t think of a more appropriate month to pay tribute to the late Charlie Daniels. Charlie recently passed away in July of this year, but his legacy will remain for years to come. His music career spanned over 5 decades, crossing over into several genres of music. He appeared in movies and commercials, and he drew fans of all ages to his concerts. Through all the changes to the culture of music, there was one thing that remained constant, and that was his love and support of our US military men and women.
Although Charlie was not a veteran himself, he very much loved and respected our military service members. Charlie was very patriotic and, if you followed his blog “Charlie’s Soapbox”, you would have no doubt about where he stood when it comes to our troops. Charlie traveled overseas to perform several times for our military, offered support and resources to different veteran groups when needed, and eventually went on to establish his own organization “The Journey Home Project”. It is through the Journey Home Project (JHP) that I had the privilege of getting to spend time with Charlie and the wonderful group of people that surrounded him. The JHP is a huge supporter of our Veterans Resource Center here at UT.
Although we miss Charlie, we look forward to honoring his support of veterans by continuing our mission of helping them successfully transition from military to civilian life.
Jayetta Rogers
Director
Veterans Success Center