A walk through the Veterans Walk of Honor unravels a large thread of stories for Sam Shipley.
While staying busy with the Elizabethton City Council, the current chairman for the Elizabethton/Carter County Veterans Memorial Committee has been looking at suring up the final spaces needed for the Veterans Walk of Honor, located on Armed Forces Drive in Historic Downtown Elizabethton.
As Armed Forces Day and Memorial Day loom around the bend, the chairman is hoping to promote the wall and added he would like to see citizens get involved to recognize service members.
“Currently there are 5,850 black granite bricks installed at the Walk of Honor,” Shipley said. “At this time, we only have 75 remaining to be obtained.”
Shipley serves on the committee with City Manager Jerome Kitchens, Marie Blevins, Jeanette Hitchcock and Fred Edens. The duties of the committee comes with maintaining the wall, which is a joy to Shipley, a veteran in his own right.
“It’s just great to come down here and see the different names on the wall,” he said. “Each name has a story. It’s incredible just to walk down path and see each of the citizens that have served their country from our community.
“The Veterans Walk of Honor site is unique, respectful and a dignified location,” he continued. “We began accepting and processing the applications for the bricks in 2002.”
Along with the bricks, the Veterans Walk of Honor proudly flies the flags for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, POW-MIA and the American flag.
With just 75 spots remaining on the wall, Shipley said he hopes individuals want to take a chance to recognize an individual’s service to their country.
“These bricks commemorate and honor our military personnel, past and present, that have lived in Carter County in some point in his or her lifetime,” Shipley said. “This is a great way to show recognition and memorialize our local military population who are either serving now or have previously served.”
Eligibility to be commemorated on the Walk of Honor includes:
• Currently serving active duty in any of the five military branches.
• Honorably discharged from any military branch.
• Individual must be a member or former member of the National Guard or reserves.
• The individual must have lived in Carter County at some point in their life.
“The walk of honor has been constructed in several phases and is still ongoing,” Shipley said. “The project will be officially completed when all 26 panels are inscribed.”

The cost of a brick is $100.
Citizens looking to pick up an application to have a brick associated with the walk can contact Blevins at (423) 547-8647 or Shipley at (423) 542-3232.