Lieutenant Governor Ramsey, Speaker Williams, Speaker Pro Tem DeBerry, Members of the 106th General Assembly, Justices, Constitutional Officers, friends, guests and my fellow Tennesseans.
Once again, I stand before you tonight to report on the State of our State and to present and recommend a budget prepared in accordance with the requirements of our Constitution.
As we begin, I want to once again recognize the men and women of our state who are serving our country abroad this evening. As we gather here, about 1,200 members of the Tennessee National Guard are deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. This coming Friday, we’ll see off more than 3,000 members of our 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment being redeployed to Iraq. Most of these men and women spent 2005 there, and now five years later are returning again. Included among these soldiers returning to Iraq is a member of this body, Lieutenant Colonel John Mark Windle. Since 9/11, nearly 20,000 Tennessee National Guard Soldiers and Airmen have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. In their response to our nation’s war on terror, these men and women have proved again Tennessee’s claim on the title “The Volunteer State.”
I’ve invited some representatives of these men and women to join us here tonight and would ask you to each stand as I introduce you, and then we would all like to show our appreciation:
Master Sergeant Rosie Biggs has been deployed with the 168th Military Police Battalion out of Dyersburg. This battalion conducted detainee operations in Iraq, and she returned last fall to Tennessee.