I often encounter veterans while writing about country music. And while only a few veterans also become performing musicians, something about having served makes their music ring true, especially in the patriotic realm of country music.
Scotty Hasting is from the Northern Kentucky/Cincinnati area. Although he was in several school choirs, being a musician was never a life goal. He joined the army in October 2010, and by April 2011, he was shot and was lucky to be alive.
Read the full story
On Monday, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee awarded Tennessee Department of Correction Special Agent Joe Frye with the U.S. Marshals Service Purple Heart. On November 2, 2020, Frye was shot multiple times on duty in an attempt to capture fugitive Bobby Joe Claybrook. Once Joe was shot, he was immobile, but now has fully recovered from the incident.
Read the full story
On Friday’s Tennessee Star Report with Steve Gill and Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – Michael Patrick Leahy spoke with special guest and his former Breitbart colleague, Iraq war veteran and current Army Reserve Sergeant Neil McCabe of One America News Network. Back from the border, Washington-based reporter for One America News Network, McCabe spoke to the team about the We Build the Wall team in Sunland Park New Mexico, Brian Kolfage’s plan to install his purple heart into the wall which was just completed, and how to get Mexico to stop letting people through to the United States by upping the Trump trade game and stop pretending the Mexican government has anything to do with running Mexico. Leahy: Speaking of Mexico, we are joined on the line here now by our good friend Neil McCabe with OANN. And Neil was on the ground in Sunland Park, New Mexico where the We Build the Wall team was building that wall. Neil welcome! McCabe: Hey guys. Good to be with you. Leahy: So, bring us up to speed on the latest of that wall. I…
Read the full story
Purple Heart veteran Brian Kolfage came out swinging against the mainstream news media over the weekend after multiple outlets falsely sounded the death knell of his border wall fundraiser and attacked his honesty. The triple amputee veteran took to Twitter and at least one other outlet to refute false reports that GoFundMe would refund $20 million collected for the wall because Kolfage’s goal had not been met or that he was funneling the money elsewhere. The media campaigns used half-truths to question the honesty of Kolfage, who has been transparent in changing his goal from giving the donations to the shut-down government to build the wall to instead planning to use the money in a nonprofit to buy land on the border and build the wall faster and more inexpensively. Kolfage said on a video on his website that to counter the Democrats – who do not want the wall – he changed his charity’s mission, and gave it the name “We Build the Wall.” The GoFundMe page is here, and shows donations of all amounts continuing to pour in at more than $20.4 million. Kolfage says people who donated before Jan. 11 can either receive a refund or opt-in…
Read the full story
Harvard Law Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz appeared on Maria Bartiromo’s ‘Mornings with Maria‘ on Fox Business Friday to discuss the public hearing of anti-Trump FBI lovebird Peter Strzok. However, the two wound up spending much of the segment on Rep. Steve Cohen’s (D-TN-09) deeply insulting suggestion that the embattled Strzok should receive a Purple Heart – an award established by George Washington himself nearly 236 years ago for soldiers wounded in battlefield injuries that dates back to the country’s founding. “Well it was a disaster. Everyone looked terrible,” Dershowitz said, when Bartiromo asked what his main takeaway from the day’s events was. Dershowitz added, “The low point, of course, was when a congressman said he deserved a Purple Heart. A Purple Heart you get when you put your life at risk, not for answering some questions in from of some congress people.” He continued, “It proves the point I make in my book [The Case Against Impeaching Trump] that there should have been a neutral, non-partisan, 9-11-type of commission investigating all of this.” As Dershowitz spoke, viewers could see the Harvard Law Professor become more outraged as he completed each sentence. “The 2016 election was filled with problems – Russia…
Read the full story
U.S. Rep Steve Cohen (D-TN) wants to take it back after drawing fire for flippantly telling anti-Trump FBI lovebird Peter Strzok he wanted to give him a Purple Heart during a Congressional hearing. The Memphis Democrat made the remark during the disgraced FBI agent’s heated testimony in front of the House Oversight and Judiciary committees regarding his bias against President Donald Trump. For an analysis of the hearing, click here. Even reporter Aaron Blake of the Washington Post was dumbfounded: Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.): "Mr. Strzok, if I could give you a Purple Heart, I would." Really? — Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) July 12, 2018 Now, Cohen wants to take it back. Newsmax quoted his interview with CNN’s Ana Cabrera: “I regret using the term ‘Purple Heart. I used it metaphorically, not literally. I never thought, literally, it should be given to Agent Strzok,” he said. The Purple Heart is given to U.S. service members who are wounded or are killed during combat. The apology may be too little, too late. Some veterans in Tennessee say they’re planning a protest march in protest of Cohen’s remark, Fox News reports. Sean Higgins, an Air Force veteran from Memphis, is leading the upcoming…
Read the full story
Today is a very special day in American history. Two hundred and thirty-five years ago today, the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, General George Washington, introduced the “Badge for Military Merit” to his soldiers for “any singularly meritorious action.” The Badge consisted of a simple heart of purple silk edged in silver, with ‘Merit’ stitched across it, also in silver. The award allowed the bearer – whose name was added to The Book of Merit – to pass guards unchallenged. Sadly, the Book was lost to history, and the fate of Washington’s “Badge of Military Merit” nearly was, too, until 1927, when US Army Chief of Staff General Charles P. Summerall tried to reinstate it. Summerall retired the next year, and his replacement, General Douglas MacArthur took up the cause, determined to reinstate the Badge in time for George Washington’s 200th birthday the following February. Sure enough, on February 22, 1933 the Department of War re-introduced General George Washington’s “Badge of Military Merit” as, “The Order of the Purple Heart.” So let’s pause to thank all those extraordinary men and women through the centuries who have suffered and sacrificed to preserve the blessings of our liberty. Happy Purple Heart Day!
Read the full story