(l-r) Chris Young, Nan Kelley & Craig Morgan from the GAC Special, Stars For Stripes Wounded Warriors Return. Photography by © Chester Simpson / Rock-N-RollPhotos.com.

GAC’s own Nan Kelley recently went to the Middle East with Craig Morgan, Chris Young and two soldiers – First Class Joseph Bowser (U.S. Army, retired) and Staff Sergeant Scott Lilley (USAF). The entire journey was filmed for a GAC special, Stars For Stripes Wounded Warriors Return – and you can see photos from the trip here.

We asked Nan to share with you her thoughts on the trip. Here’s her personal account: 

Hello Everyone—Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!  I hope you are enjoying this time of the year to celebrate things in life that are important and special and we thank you for spending some of your time here with us at GACTV.com.  I wanted to share something that happened to me recently— a trip to Iraq to visit our troops.  

There are things in my life that have inspired me, moved me and changed me forever. But I wasn’t prepared for the intensity of all three in a short 7-day trip. I knew this trip to Iraq to entertain our finest would be life-changing, but it went beyond that.

On October 24, 2009, Craig Morgan, Chris Young, two special wounded heroes, one of the hero’s father, a GAC camera crew from High Five Entertainment (the folks that do our Opry show) and me all headed out on a Stars for Stripes trip to Iraq and Germany to visit/entertain our troops. Judy Seale (Stars For Stripes) and her team have been taking celebrities overseas for years and I was thrilled that she asked me to go along with Craig and Chris to emcee the show.

Our trip started in Kuwait and took us into Iraq to Camp Victory, Striker, COP Meade, the US Embassy in Baghdad, Ballad and Ramstein, Germany.  I wanted to blog each day while we were gone but due to security reasons, we weren’t allowed to talk about where we were on any given day.  So I hope this blog will give you enough of a picture so that you will tune in to the TV special, airing tonight on the network.  It’s called Stars For Stripes: Wounded Warriors Return and it airs at 9:30 p.m. ET.  

I knew that being with our troops and shaking their hands was going to be amazing. What an opportunity — to tell each one of our brave troops thank you for serving us so proudly, stay safe and know we are supporting them.  Judy Seale’s philosophy is that we don’t leave a show until every troop has been visited with—a picture, a handshake, autograph—whatever, we stay until there is no one left. And that is exactly what we did!

I was so moved that while I was there to tell them thank you, every one of our finest kept saying to us, ’Thank you for coming all this way for us. We appreciate it so much!’ And all I could say back was, ‘If you can spend a year or more of your life out here, away from your family, putting yourself in harm’s way, I sure can spend a week of my safe, protected life trying to give back.’  

Our troops really appreciated the music and the fellowship! And the music—Craig and Chris were just amazing! What great guys—the troops loved their songs. Their banter and their humor with each other was so entertaining. They did it ‘in the round’ style—which is truly unique to country music and that relaxed, warm, very funny and sincere feeling was all over it.  I was so proud to be on this team as I stood there and watched every night. And though I knew these feelings would overwhelm me while I was there, what completely floored me day by day were the actions and words of the two wounded heroes we traveled with, the reception they received and the heroism they demonstrated by returning to the country that almost killed them both.

SFC Joe Bowser (retired) and SSgt Scott Lilley are two amazing men. Joe lost his leg in Balad and Scott suffered a traumatic (and very much life-threatening) head wound in Baghdad, yet both men wanted to return because of the need for a sense of “mission completed,” closure and to walk out on their own this time.  

I was so very moved and inspired—the tears flowed every day, many times.  Seeing these two brave men return to the actual spots where they both were hit—watching their bravery. Witnessing the hero’s welcome by their fellow soldiers, airmen and Marines at the hospital in Balad where they both were treated, as Joe Bowser was reunited with the surgeon who amputated his leg, as Frank Lilley, Scott’s dad, stood on stage every night, tears flowing down his face while he thanked all the branches for saving Scott’s life…that is just a sense of what I felt and what I saw on this trip of a lifetime.  

Our military took great care of us, thanked us profusely and gave us memories that will always last.  I hope you all will tune in tonight. It is a story that needs to be shared and we were so privileged to be able to do so.  This season, as we gather with our friends and families, remember our service men and women who are away from theirs. They signed on the dotted line to protect our freedoms and they are doing it with such bravery, courage and honor.

ShareThis