AEDC hosts annual VA picnic

On Oct. 4, Arnold Community Council members and representatives of Arnold Engineering Development Complex’s (AEDC) workforce, including active duty, DOD personnel and Aerospace Testing Alliance employees, welcome Kenneth Adamson, who served in the Army and was in the Vietnam War, to AEDC’s annual VA picnic. Adamson, a resident of the VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, is being assisted by Lisa Hull, an employee at the Tenn. State Veterans Home. (Photo by Rick Goodfriend)

AEDC hosts annual VA picnic

Left, AEDC Maintenance Division Deputy Col. Rick Petito greets veteran and Tenn. State Veterans Home resident Billy Campbell, one of the veterans who attended this year’s VA Picnic before Arnold’s Fire Department volunteers served the meal at the base’s Lakeside Center. (Photo by Rick Goodfriend)

AEDC hosts annual VA Picnic

Published Oct. 22, 2012
By Philip Lorenz III
AEDC/PA

ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. -- On Oct. 4, as military veterans who reside at the Tenn. State Veterans Home and VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System in Murfreesboro arrived to attend Arnold Engineering Development Complex's (AEDC) annual VA picnic, members of Arnold's workforce were out in force to greet them.

Besides a meal they could enjoy outside, highlights for veterans attending the event included a horse and buggy ride and a karaoke performance featuring members of the AEDC Fire Department and other Arnold employees.

A number of organizations from the base and the community contributed donations and personal support for the VA picnic. AEDC's Air Force Sergeants Association provided financial backing to pay for the use of the Arnold Lakeside Center.

Other professional organizations on base, including the Arnold Top IV, the Junior Force Council and the Company Grade Officers Council contributed to the annual event.

Staff Sgt. Randall Lusk, AEDC VA picnic coordinator, said he also attributed the success of the annual event to the continuous support from the Arnold Community Council, area chambers of commerce, businesses and individuals who provided donations of new clothes, personal hygiene items, travel cups with lids, pens, stationary, phone cards and small décor items for their personal bulletin boards or doors.

But according to Lusk, what the veterans seemed to enjoy most was spending time sharing their experiences with Arnold's active duty personnel, DOD employees and members of AEDC 's support contractor, Aerospace Testing Alliance, some of whom have either served in the military or are active reservists.