Hello, my name is Eric Razote, and I am the Founder and Executive Director of the Fields of Freedom Project. I served for 6 years with the Security Forces and spent most of my days in Combat Arms Training and Maintenance (CATM) as a weapons instructor and armorer. I had one deployment to the Middle East at the end of my military service. I was also a patrol officer for the Knoxville Police Department while serving in the Air National Guard at the 134th Security Forces Squadron with the 134th Air Refueling Wing at the McGhee Tyson Air National Guard Base. 

While serving in the ANG, I left the police department and started a new career with the protective force division at one of the Department of Energy nuclear plants in Oak Ridge, TN. There is where I worked for 10 years and ended my career as a Lieutenant. Due to the various injuries, I accumulated through my various jobs and the military, I am now permanently and totally disabled with the VA.

     Since my numerous surgeries and ongoing medical conditions, I refuse to give up on life, and I want to continue serving my country. So, I decided to go back to school, and I finished my bachelor’s degree and am currently finishing my master’s degree. I hope to one day be an online college professor teaching criminal justice to young aspiring students. My inspiration for starting a non-profit organization to help veterans and first responders comes from the various veteran organizations I joined such as Project Healing Waters and Wounded Warrior Project. 

     Those two organizations have done so much for me and other veterans that I was motivated to start my own. For years, I used my own disability income to pay for veterans and their families to come to my farm and enjoy the outdoors as a means of therapy. However, due to the high cost and intense physical labor it takes to run this type of operation, I needed more help. So, I set out on a mission to find the best team, and with the help of these amazing veterans and my son, Tristan, I started the Fields of Freedom Project. Hopefully, I can continue to serve my country by helping as many veterans and first responders as I can. It is the least I can do for these amazing heroes.