Tennessee National Guard Celebrates 250 Years

Soldiers, Airmen, and friends of the Tennessee Military Department gathered at Nashville’s Joint Force Headquarters earlier in August to celebrate and honor the Tennessee National Guard’s 250th birthday.

Major General Warner Ross, Tennessee’s Adjutant General, and Command Sargent Major Dale Crockett, Tennessee’s Senior Enlisted Leader, hosted the ceremony where hundreds of service members.

The Tennessee National Guard’s origins trace back to before Tennessee became a state. In 1774 Captain Evan Shelby, a militia leader from the self-governing Watauga settlement, that was in Tennessee’s present-day Sullivan and Carter counties, formed the settlement’s first volunteer militia company, this marked the first time “Tennesseans” deployed for war as a militia.

Following the ceremony, the attendees enjoyed refreshments and finished lunch provided by the Gary Sinise Foundation.