Lt. Andrew Kinard, Trace Adkins, the West Point Cadet Glee Club at the Academy of Country Music Awards

Trace Adkins and the West Point Cadet Glee Club at the Academy of Country Music Awards

Las Vegas, 5 April 2009. Trace Adkins sings ….”Till the Last Shot’s Fired”….with the West Point Cadet Glee Club
“Somebody from the ACM asked if I’d perform that song” he says. “They’d heard the performance on the new record and they were looking for a way to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project and they called and asked if I’d do it.”
He said yes, of course, and recently spent a few hours one afternoon at West Point practicing with the glee club. “It was a thrill,” Adkins said of visiting the military academy.
“It’s the least I can do,” said Trace, who has performed on some USO tours and visited injured soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center

Wounded Warrior Project

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Wild Thing’s comment…….
Last night Nicholas and watched the Academy of Country Music Awards. It was done
in Las Vegas and the music was wonderful, there were some really special songs that won awards.
One in particular that was sung not for an award but for a cause, the Wounded Warrior Project and for our troops. Country awards shows have always been pretty special but last nights was beyond special.
I was so hoping there would be a video of it and there was, God was good to me. Because I wanted so much to share this part of the night with all of you.
Below I have put information about Lt. Andrew Kinard a warrior and an American hero. He was on the stage with Trace Atkins and introduced the song. Thank you Lt. Andrew Kinard, words cannot be enough for my gratitude that you loved America too and served our country. To say thank you to our wounded troops seems so small for all they have sacrificed and for all our Veterans and our troops active today. But it is a start, that first acknowledgment that America has been great and free because of each one of them. Never will we forget one single warrior, one single Veteran or service member….. Never.

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Marine Lieutenant Andrew Kinard was on patrol in Iraq and was hit by an IED (three other Marines were hit, too). Apparently, before shock set in, Kinard established security and asked about his men, then passed out. The damage to his body was extremely severe. I don’t know who the hospital corpsman was who assisted Lt. Kinard, but I know that Kinard went into cardiac arrest twice and lost most of his blood – whoever that corpsman is, he is a miracle worker. Andrew was flown to Al Asad (by that time had used 67 units of blood), then Germany and now Bethesda. He has lost his right leg above the knee, the left leg at his pelvis, and he has lots of internal damage to his intestines, kidneys, etc. He’s on a ventalator. He is fighting infections. He’s been awake only a few times since his injury…

Marine 2nd Lt. Andrew Kinard of Spartanburg received a hero’s welcome Sunday at Camp Lejeune, N.C.
Wounded Marine to meet fellow warriors
CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C.
from April of 2007
“Welcome home, Lieutenant.”
There was something victorious about the way Marine 2nd Lt. Andrew Kinard exited the beige minivan that brought him here from Ellis Airport Sunday.
It wasn’t arrogance. Andrew often said he felt “honored” by the support he’d received. He regularly took the attention off himself, turning instead to his fellow Marines who kept fighting in Iraq when he was unable to.
“I just represent one person, out of all these Marines that really were willing to give their all,” Andrew said. “I want to make sure to emphasize those who couldn’t make it, the Marines who paid the ultimate price.”
The nonprofit Hope for the Warriors foundation made possible the trip from Walter Reed Army Medical Center, and gave Andrew a $22,000 all-terrain wheelchair that can easily plow through snow and accommodate any hunting he might like to do.
He will spend most of this week at the Warrior House I, an on-base home fitted with a handicapped-accessible ramp and amenities. He’ll have dinner with a general, and maybe get to play X-Box on a big-screen television with his buddies.
But the highlight of the week comes today, when Alpha Company — Andrew’s company — gets home from a seven-month deployment.
In all, about 270 Marines and sailors from various arms of the 2nd Marine Division’s 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion will roll into
Camp Lejeune today.
It’s a moment Andrew has been waiting for since fully waking up in a hospital a month after the blast.
And, it’s a moment that almost didn’t happen.
Andrew had emergency surgery for an intestinal blockage just two weeks ago, a surgery his family wasn’t sure he’d recover from in time to make it here.
But for months, the young Marine has been saying that “even if they had to push him down in a hospital bed, he was going to be here,” his father, Dr. Harry Kinard said.
“This homecoming helped him get where he is today,” said Cpl. Patrick Elswick, who has been with Andrew throughout his recovery.
“All the little details, and the struggles he had, this was his main focus. Even when he had setbacks, he’d work extra hard to get here.”