Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey, Shelbyville Tenn., announced its CEO and Founder Fawn Weaver's 2023 CEO tour: Thank You for Your Service. Thank You for Your Support.

Although Weaver’s past two CEO Thank You Tours have focused on thanking the managers and owners of  bars, restaurants and liquor stores, this year’s tour is a heartfelt journey across America, as Weaver will visit military bases nationwide to express her gratitude to one of the brand’s most supportive communities, the company says.

The tour, beginning on April 11 at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., will take Weaver on a 16-week journey to more than 35 military installations, showcasing the incredible diversity and uniqueness of each base, it notes. Weaver will immerse herself in the daily lives of our nation’s brave service members, including joining fireside chats with top commanders, participating in intense morning workouts with the U.S. Army Physical Fitness Team, observing a search and rescue at the Coast Guard Base in Clearwater, Fla., boarding and exploring aircraft carriers at Chambers Field, and more, it says.

“During my CEO Tour in 2022, I visited 121 cities in 100 days. During my stop in New York, I saw thousands of new sailors dressed in all white, walking through the city’s streets during Fleet Week. It was a spectacular sight,” Weaver said in a statement. “As I passed by the Intrepid Museum and saw the colossal submarine, I knew I wanted my next CEO Thank You Tour to share some of the most incredible things on our country's bases with the world, as well as to personally thank the troops, commanders, and veterans for their service and support.

“This tour is a tribute to the sacrifices made by our military and a way to express my deep gratitude for their unwavering support of Uncle Nearest,” Weaver continues. “I want to thank them not just for their service, but also for their support of our brand and our mission to honor and cement the legacy of the world's first known Black American master distiller, Nearest Green."

Each of the military installations Weaver will visit during the tour was chosen with the intention of giving a behind the scenes look at just how incredibly unique each of our nation’s armed forces bases are, the company says. One such stop is to the Naval Station Norfolk, the largest naval station in the world, where she will meet Captain Janet H. Days, who made history earlier this year as the first Black woman to be named Commanding Officer, overseeing the station, it notes.

Weaver also is set to visit bases like Fort Knox, the world’s most heavily guarded military base due to its housing of more than half of the American Treasury’s gold, as well as Fort Bragg, one of the largest military complexes in the world, which hosts the only Airborne Corps and Airborne Division and makes 100,000 parachute jumps each year.

“When the Uncle Nearest team came to us and shared what Fawn wanted to be the focus of her next CEO Thank You Tour, we immediately knew this would be special,” said John W. Troxell, senior enlisted advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and retired command sergeant major, in a statement. “Several military personnel and I flew to Nearest Green Distillery to meet with Fawn directly. By the end of that meeting, we knew she was about to embark on something that none of us in that room had ever seen or heard of being done before. She wanted to be the first CEO of a major company to go base-to-base with only one goal in mind — to say thank you to our brave service members.”

For those following along with Weaver on social media, as she crisscrosses the country giving behind the scenes tours of each base, fans also are invited to join her at 18:56 EST (6:56 p.m.) — a tribute to Uncle Nearest’s 1856 Premium Aged Whiskey — for a toast to our armed forces. Weaver will host the 18:56 Happy Hours in person at top-selling Uncle Nearest bars and restaurants in many of the cities she'll be visiting. Social media followers also can join her on Instagram Live at @fawn.weaver to toast from their own homes.