Chattanooga’s veteran of the year is a disabled Marine who fought in Vietnam and now serves as a chaplain, presiding at as many as five funerals of veterans in a week.

Lester Eugene Norton Jr. was given the Charles H. Coolidge Award on Saturday at the Chattanooga Area Veterans Council awards ceremony.

“He has given his time and energy to represent our veteran community ... and as such has attended to many veteran families in their hour of need,” said retired Maj. Gen. Bill Raines Jr., chairman of the council. “He has honorably distinguished himself.”

Mr. Norton, who also pastors a church, is a resident of Chickamauga, Ga., and a member of American Legion Post 95. He said his work is meant to pay honor to veterans after their deaths.

“Every military person deserves to be honored,” Mr. Norton said. “I want to make sure that if they served, their sacrifice is recognized.”

The evening banquet also paid honor to the Distaff of the Year, the nonmilitary service award.

That went to Jo Bridges, who serves as the president of the Ladies Auxiliary for the Department of Tennessee in Washington, D.C., Gen. Raines said. She couldn’t accept the award in person because she was in Washington working.

“She has served in so many capacities as an auxiliary person,” Gen. Raines said. “She is a moving force.”

The council’s outgoing chairman, Bill Norton, whose term ended Saturday, presented the Milton Thomas Award to Lisa Newman-Daniels, a benefits coordinator for the Disabled American Veterans Association. She helps veterans apply for disability assistance at the Veterans Affairs Clinic.

“I was so shocked,” Ms. Newman-Daniels said of the award. “It means all those hours ... someone noticed, and they appreciated it.”

The evening awards banquet was keynoted by Maj. Gen. Ronald S. Chastain, deputy commanding general, Army National Guard, U.S. Forces Command, Fort McPherson, Ga.

He told the crowd of roughly 50 veterans in attendance to continue to support the war on terror, even though it may be a long conflict fought on many fronts.

Gen. Chastain said Army intelligence shows al-Qaida, if allowed, would use a terrorist victory in Iraq to invade other countries and eventually overtake Israel. The goal, he said, was for the terrorist network to create the world’s largest, most stable empires.

“We can’t take our peace and prosperity for granted, but you veterans already knew that,” Gen. Chastain said. “You know that our nation was not founded on guarantees of the past, but on the promise of the future, and you know that freedom is not free, and that eternal vigilance is the price we pay in order to maintain our liberty.”