"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional as to how they perceive the veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by their nation." -George Washington

Hendersonville VFW POST 9851 has initiated Operation Spearhead, a program which will involve the VFW, local community leaders and businesses in the Hendersonville Area to recognize and support all of the men and women from Hendersonville who are serving on active duty in the Armed Forces of the United States of America.

Our initial goal is to identify who these individuals are. We are requesting the City of Hendersonville Mayor and Board of Alderman, local churches, the Star News, Hendersonville Chamber of Commerce, local Civic Organizations, and most important, the private citizens of Hendersonville who has a relative now serving someplace in the world to provide the following:

This information can be sent to Hendersonville VFW Post 9851 either by E-Mail, by regular mail, or by calling the Post.

VFW Post 9851
P.O. Box 1431
Hendersonville, TN 37077-1431
Phone: 615-824-9851
E-Mail: admin@vfw9851.org

The motto of the VFW is "Honoring the dead by Serving the Living". With so many of our service men and women who volunteered to serve in time of war, Operation Spearhead will stress "Serving the Living".

A special "Active Duty Roster" will be prominently displayed in the VFW Post displaying the names and locations of all active duty personnel from Hendersonville. In addition, we will look for local sponsorship from the local businesses and the Star News to publish this roster once a month in the Star News.

VFW Post 9851, with the help from local businesses, Civic clubs, Chamber of Commerce, Departments of the City of Hendersonville, and private citizens will collect donations, gifts, monies etc. which will be used to stock "surprise packages" from home as well as to support any of those in need family members who are having a rough time since the "bread winner" is serving his/her country. All contributions will be acknowledged and the service member receiving these packages will know where they came from.

In addition to the "surprise packages" the VFW will support our service men and women and their families with programs such as Long Distance Phone Cards and Monetary Emergency Relief.

Another goal of Operation Spearhead is to have every organization in Hendersonville that is having some type of special event to invite a service member's family (or families) to be their special guest. This would even include the school systems which could provide a "Free Pass" to sports or other activities to family members of active duty service members who graduated from that school.

Although Operation Spearhead is being initiated at a time of War on Terrorism, it is the intent of Hendersonville VFW Post 9851 to continue to recognize our active duty troops forever and we need the support of the Hendersonville community to see that we continue to receive the names of our citizens who volunteer for active duty.

Each year the VFW Posts across the United States conducts a "Poppy Sale". VFW Members and Ladies Auxiliary stand at street corners or in front of the local stores collecting donations and handing out Poppies. The monies (donations) collected from this Poppy Sale are used to support the needs of Veterans men and women. When we stand in the middle of the street with a Poppy in our hand we want the local residence to know what their donations are used for.