re: Paging Tennessee fans: Looking for recommendations of good towns in Tennessee

You need to remember that there are three, distinct sections of Tennessee: (1) West Tennessee, (2) Middle Tennessee, and (3) East Tennessee. All three are very different from one another in terms of culture, scenery, history, and so forth.

I would say the more "well known" cities in Tennessee are: (1) Nashville, (2) Memphis, (3) Knoxville, and (4) Chattanooga. After that, you'd have the smaller, but still known cities of (5) Tri-Cities [Kingsport-Johnson City-Bristol], (6) Cookeville, (7) Clarksville, (8) Jackson, and (9) Martin-Union City. After that, other than "courthouse square" type towns, there's a whole lot of nothing

Speaking from a Middle Tennessee standpoint, and since you have prior military experience, my first suggestion would be Clarksville. I'm not too keen on Montgomery County, to be honest with you, but Clarksville is roughly 1 hour from Nashville, is home to Fort Campbell, and Austin Peay University.

If you prefer to be closer to Nashville, Williamson County, Wilson County, and Sumner County offer good public schools. It all depends upon how much money you'd like to spend, but in terms of cost, I'd say Williamson > Wilson > Sumner. You might be able to find some good land in and around Gallatin (Sumner County) or Springfield (Robertson County). Both are close to Nashville.

If you're looking to go smaller, you could check out Tullahoma. Ascend Credit Union is based out of there; however, I can't speak too much about it other than that.

I love East Tennessee (Knoxville - Oak Ridge, Chattanooga), but can't speak too much about it to help you out. I'd love to tell you to go settle down in Towsend right along the Little River; however, unless you are capable of working remotely, I don't have the slightest clue in how you'd secure employment there.