Fullen Family & Friends

American Music Legend Praises U.S. Servicemembers

By John J. Kruzel
American Forces Press Service

Charlie Daniels addresses an audience of military and civilian personnel in the Pentagon after receiving the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service for his support of U.S. troops around the world, as Michael L. Dominguez, principal deputy under secretary of defense for personnel and readiness, looks on, June 25, 2007. Defense Dept. photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Molly A. Burgess    (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

“Oh, wait, I almost forgot!” he says in a country drawl, spitting his gum into a tissue. “My wife keeps yelling at me for going on TV with gum in my mouth.”

Daniels appeared here to accept the Office of the Secretary of Defense Medal for Exceptional Public Service. The musician, perhaps best known for his chart-topping single, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” describes himself a blue-collar kind of guy. Instead of his signature “bull rider” Stetson hat, Daniels’ silvery-gray hair was covered by a baseball cap that featured a bald eagle poised before the American flag.

For more than 35 years, Daniels has entertained servicemembers with his unique blend of country, blues and rock music. The reason for his enduring support: Because men and women in uniform allow his family to sleep well at night.

“The people in our military are the best America has,” he said. “Without them, we would have no country.”

The Charlie Daniels Band has performed for troops at bases in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Korea and elsewhere. Daniels begins every show the same way, he says, telling the audience, “I bring you greetings from the United States of America!” and ends each show by signing autographs and posing for photos.

An encounter with one enlisted man had an especially profound impact on Daniels, providing inspiration for a song he titled “When I Get Back from Iraq.” The first verse of the bluesy ballad, Daniels recalled, centers on the moment an Iraqi veteran returns home from duty.

“One of the toughest guys I ever saw walked into a (backstage) tent, and he looked like he could bite a railroad spike in two. I mean, he had the shaved head and the muscles – he looked like Rambo on steroids,” Daniels remembered. “I didn’t know what he wanted, but he just came back and started crying.

“This was one of the toughest guys I ever saw, and it was like (he said), ‘You remind me of home, and there’s something at home I miss,’” Daniels said. “It was special that this man felt enough at home with me that he would break down and cry, because he did not look the type.”

In a voice husky with emotion, Daniels recalled the song’s lyrics.

“When I get back from Iraq, I’m gonna go stormin’ through my front door,” he said. “I’m gonna grab a hold of my baby and love her like she ain’t been loved before.”

After decades of touring, the septuagenarian still has a hard time staying in any one place for very long. Daniels and the band regularly tour America, honoring troops as they go.

“Every night I pay homage to the military in our show, and I can tell by the reactions in the crowd that support for our military in United States of America is strong; I mean, very, very strong,” he said. “I can’t tell you what’s going on in the halls of power, and the penthouses and the corporate offices of America, because I don’t live in that world.

“I’m very much a blue-collar person; I come from a blue-collar background. And we play for a lot of people in a year’s time, and I’m here to tell you, they support the military,” he said.

Daniels said his lifelong sense of patriotism and support for U.S. troops was born during World War II. He remembers sitting around the radio and listening to reports that Japan had bombed the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

“We never ever thought we would lose,” he recalled about the war. “We always had that feeling — everybody, grown folks, kids, everybody — knew we were going to win the Second World War. My brand of patriotism came during that time.”

The musician said his perception of American culture isn’t formed by today’s mainstream media.

“We travel this country coast to coast and border to border every year,” he said, “and I know that a lot of people get their impressions by watching commercial television or reading the newspaper, and I find that support for the military in this country is so much more solid and so much more loyal and widespread than you would ever get from watching TV or reading the newspaper.

“America supports the military, and it’s important for me to know that the military knows that,” he said.

The Charlie Daniels Band documented their last two visits to bases around Iraq and recorded a CD/DVD multimedia offering titled “Live From Iraq,” which was released today.

Actor Mark Harmon (right) joins other cast members on the “NCIS” set during the “Vanished” episode, in which a Marine Cobra helicopter is found abandoned in the middle of a mysterious crop circle in a Virginia cornfield. Don Bellisario, who created the program, said Defense Department support adds realism to the production. Photo by Danny Feld/CBS/Paramount, used by permission   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

“You write what you know,” said Bellisario, who served in the Marine Corps before going into advertising then television. He said his military background helped him break into TV 30 years ago with the NBC drama, “Baa Baa Black Sheep.”

“I guess I looked at that as kind of a talisman for me, my lucky rabbit foot,” he said during an interview in his Hollywood office, where mementos of his Tinseltown successes are displayed alongside a Marine Corps flag flown over Fallujah, Iraq.

Two years after “Baa Baa Black Sheep” hit the screen, Bellisario created “Magnum PI,” a detective story based in Hawaii. He said he knew he was taking a bold step when he bucked anti-Vietnam sentiment still prevalent in Hollywood at the time and portrayed the show’s stars as Vietnam veterans.

“Something I’m very proud of happened,” he said, reflecting on that time. “I began to get letters from veterans who had been in Vietnam, thanking me for portraying them in a positive manner. Because up until that show, anytime you saw a Vietnam vet in television, he was an alcoholic, a druggie, a shooter in a tower, a wife beater, a killer, (or) insane. And you never saw a positive image.”

But that doesn’t mean Bellisario’s audiences see military portrayals through rose-colored glasses or that the storylines don’t venture into controversial topics.

He recalled one “JAG” episode, loosely based on a story he heard about two submariners who covered up evidence that they had accidentally sunk a torpedo while unloading the gun tubes.

Bellisario said he decided to spice up the plot line by making the missing torpedo a nuclear round. The Navy reviewed the script, but refused to support the production because officials said existing security measures make the storyline preposterous. Rather than change the script, Bellisario produced the show without military support. “I understood, and they understood,” he said.

In his portrayals, Bellisario strives to give a balanced picture of the military, he said. He cited a JAG episode that was based loosely on a real incident about a female flier who cried sexual harassment after getting poor ratings on her checkout rides. As it turned out, she really was “an accident waiting to happen,” Bellisario said.

“That’s an interesting story, but I’m not going to tell that story unless I tell another story that balances it, where a woman is, in fact, held back … because she rejected somebody’s advances,” he said. “I told both of those stories in two different shows.”

Bellisario said he goes out of his way to give the military a fair shake in his shows, and he called that a big factor in why he rarely gets turned down when he asks the Defense Department for support.

“The truth is, it is rare that they do not cooperate on a show,” he said. “And the reason it’s rare, I think, is because I always try to hold the military up in a very positive light. I don’t want to do anything negative to hurt the military or the people serving in the military. I don’t like to do that.”

LeAnn Rimes hands the keys to a brand new Chevrolet to Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Peter Reid on June 7, 2007, in Nashville, Tenn. His wife, Michele Reid, right, and his full-time caregiver, Brian Kroen, look on. Chevrolet and Rimes teamed up at the Country Music Association Music Festival to present the vehicle to Reid, who was selected by the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes, a nonprofit organization providing assistance to wounded and disabled veterans from the war on terror. The Chevrolet Uplander was modified to accommodate Reid’s wheelchair. Photo by Mychal Watts, courtesy of Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes    (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Peter Reid and his wife, Michele, attended Rimes’ fan club breakfast, part of the Country Music Association’s annual Music Festival. Little did they suspect the award-winning singer had more than an autographed photo for them.

“We were sitting by the table, and LeAnn Rimes walked up and introduced herself, like we didn’t know who she was,” Peter said. “She said she had a surprise for us outside.”

Waiting for them outside was a Chevrolet Uplander equipped with an automatic door and ramp, and other systems necessary to accommodate Peter’s wheelchair. Rimes presented them with the keys, then signed the back window of the vehicle.

The nautical blue vehicle has “all the goodies,” Peter said. A Chevrolet representative told the crowd and media gathered for the event that the vehicle had everything Peter needed to ride in comfort.

Peter, a Seebee with Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 14, was severely injured in May 2004 while serving in Anbar, Iraq. He suffered a severe brain injury, paralysis to the left side of his body and several blood clots caused by shrapnel lodged in his brain from the mortar attack, which killed five fellow Seabees and wounded 34 others.

Previously it took the Reids nearly 30 minutes to get Peter in and out of their other vehicle. This one, donated by General Motors, will cut that time to less than five minutes, Michele said.

“We have been pretty much housebound for the last three years,” she said. “Now … I can open up the doors and have him ride the wheelchair right in. I can strap him down and we can go.

“It’s going to make a big difference in our lives,” she added.

But first, it was off to treat the people who made this possible – Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes officials – to a thank-you lunch, Peter said.

“I told them it’s up to them. They can pick any place they want. We got nice transportation, you know,” he said with a chuckle. “It’s got OnStar, so it’s not like we’re gonna get lost.”

The Reids learned of the Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes more than a year ago through the organization’s emergency financial relief. They now serve as national spokesmen for the group, which brought Rimes, a supporter of the coalition, and Chevrolet together to present the new vehicle.

“This is what (the coalition) is all about, reintegrating wounded (servicemembers) back into society when they come home,” Rimes said in an interview for Chevrolet after the event. “All they want is a chance at a normal life again.

“I kind of feel like no matter where you stand politically, we need to support these men and women coming home from the war,” she added.

The coalition, a member of the Defense Department’s America Supports You program, provides assistance to veterans wounded and disabled in the global war on terrorism. America Supports You connects citizens and corporations with military personnel and their families serving at home and abroad.