KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — As temperatures drop overnight across East Tennessee, Operation Vet Rescue is activating “Operation Frozen Veteran,” an emergency initiative designed to protect homeless and at-risk veterans from dangerous cold.
“We just want to give back to the veterans who served,” said Stephen Roche, CEO of Operation Vet Rescue. “We don’t want anybody either a veteran or non-veteran that’s on the street, especially when it’s cold outside.”
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The program is providing temporary hotel accommodations for eligible veterans as a life-saving measure during extreme cold weather.
“We open up if it’s 32 degrees or below, over that evening, not necessarily during the day,” Roche said. “And then they meet here at CareCuts at 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., and we check them in, we feed them dinner here, and then we transport them over to the hotel itself.”…