This past weekend Gary and the Lt. Dan Band participated in West Point’s celebration of the U.S. Army’s Year of the NCO (noncommissioned officers) by performing a free public concert at Eisenhower Hall Theatre, West Point, New York.   This was a very special weekend for Gary and his family as they have a strong personal connection to West Point.

Gary’s brother-in-law, Lieutenant Colonel Boyd McCanna (”Mac”) Harris not only graduated from West Point, but, after 2 tours of duty in Vietnam, was an instructor of Military Leadership at the Point.  In the 1980s, Lt. Col. Harris wrote the Army’s “Leadership Manual,” and much of it is still used today.   After Lt. Col. Harris passed away from cancer at the age of 40, an award was named in his honor.  Every year, West Point gives out a leadership award to the outstanding cadet in the name of Lt Col. Harris.  This was the first time in many years that Gary and his family attended the award ceremony.

A few photos from ceremony and Lt. Dan Band show are below:  

Click on photos to enlarge.   

On Friday July 17th, Gary and the Lt. Dan Band performed a free public concert at Naval Station Great Lakes. Operation Homefront volunteer and faithful fan, Glenda C. was in attendance, and she has again graciously provided a few terrific photographs of Gary and the band.

For a list of upcoming Lt. Dan Band public concerts, click here.

Thank you Glenda!

Thanks to youtuber SJulianYZ125 quality video of the Lt. Dan Band show at Kunsan on June 24th is available.  A few selections are embedded below inlcuding a performance of “Baba O’Riley.”

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On June 10th Gary joined the Operation Gratitude volunteers at the National Guard Armory in Van Nuys to assemble care packages and send greetings of love and respect to U.S. service members deployed overseas.

Operation Gratitude is the California-based 501(c)(3) non-profit, volunteer organization that annually sends 100,000+ care packages of snacks, entertainment items and personal letters of appreciation addressed to individually named U.S. Service Members deployed in hostile regions such as Iraq and Afghanistan and on Naval ships at sea.   Its mission is to lift morale, bring a smile to a service member’s face and to express the appreciation and support of the American people.  Since its inception in March 2003, Operation Gratitude has shipped more than 450,000 packages to American military deployed overseas.

Below are a few photographs of Gary with volunteers and service members taken during his visit (click on photos to enlarge).

To see all the photographs of Gary’s visit and to learn more about the efforts of Operation Gratitude, please visit their website: click here,

Gary has generously agreed to participate and appear on “Troop-a-thon,” Move America Forward’s campaign to send the largest ever shipment of care packages to U.S. troops serving overseas.

On June 25th, MAF will host its 2nd annual “Troop-a-thon” titled “Honor Their Service.” During the 8-hour event that will be broadcast on the internet, radio and TV viewers are encouraged to sponsor care packages for the troops as the guests and hosts discuss various topics related to supporting our troops. Last year, viewers donated more than $1.5 million to send care packages to troops.

Additional information about the event, including other guests, and eventually, the program schedule is available at Troop-a-thon 2009.

As some of you may have already known, Gary attended a USO function hosted by Hollywood Reporter and Editor Elizabeth Guider in Beverly Hills last month. Video of Gary speaking at this event recently became available and is embedded below:

Some terrific still photographs of Gary at this event are available at CSI:Fanatic click here.

And while we are on the topic of Gary’s commitment to the USO, he and the Lt. Dan Band will soon be off on their USO Summer Tour (June 21st through July 5th) to perform for troops in Korea and Okinawa. We wish the band a safe journey and hope the men and woman in uniform have a fantastic time at the shows!

Since the USVAP fundraiser at Joe’s in April, Gary has been busy as usual.  A few loyal Gary fans and friends have graciously shared their photographs from various events, and despite our lag time getting the photos uploaded to the News page, we hope you enjoy them just the same:

With thanks to Glenda Cain, photographs taken of the Lt. Dan Band performance at the Steppenwolf Theatre Gala on April 19, 2009:

From Liz Wegman we have photographs of Gary and M*A*S*H’s Jamie Farr taken in May at the OIC warehouse. Thank you, Liz!

And saving the best for last ~ fantastic photographs from Virginia Hagin taken at the Lt. Dan Band show at Ft. Riley in May:

Thanks again to Glenda, Liz and Virginia for sharing their photographs!

On Friday, April 17th the Lt. Dan Band played to a sold out crowd at Joe’s Bar in Chicago.  Each year this particular concert is a fundraiser for the United States Vietnam Arts Program which has expanded its mission to include providing “artistic tools” to wounded service members from Iraq and Afghanistan wars (read more about USVAP here).

During the concert, “artistic tools” were presented to Shane Parsons and Laura Narvaez.   Shane suffered a head injury and above knee amputation to both legs while serving in Iraq.  Laura suffers from traumatic brain injuries as a result of incidents while serving in Iraq and Korea; she cannot read or do math and has short term memory loss.  To help them heal in ways not visible to many of us,  the USVAP presented Shane with a guitar to pursue his childhood dream of playing one and his love of music;  Laura was presented with a camera to pursue her love of photography.

And while Shane and Laura were the true VIPs of the evening, part of the USVAP fundraising efforts included VIP All-Access passes and a VIP Meet and Greet event with Gary held after the show.  The VIP All-Access donors were invited to attend the afternoon sound-check, enjoy dinner with the band, a private introduction and photographs with Gary and Kimo as well as a copy of the American Soldier DVD narrated by Gary (this is the video montage which kicked off the show and is available via the USVAP website), Lt. Dan Band merchandise and Kimo’s War Stories CD.

The first two photographs below are from the sound check earlier in the day.  They are graciously provided by Glenda C.  and with many thanks from me personally because I arrived much too late in the day (Cubs game!) to take any photos worth sharing.  (Maybe next year!)  Click on the photos to enlarge.
Gary:                                                 Kimo, Ernie, Beth and Gary:

And many thanks to Alice E.  for sharing her photographs of Gary from the show!

Thanks to Kimo, Gary and the band for a terrific evening and fantastic show! Our best wishes and much gratitude to Shane and Laura!  And many thanks to Glenda and Alice for sharing their photographs!

WASHINGTON/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — On Memorial Day weekend, PBS will unite our nation with an evening that has become an American tradition. The multi award-winning National Memorial Day Concert honors the service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform, their families at home and all those who have given their lives for our country.  The 2009 event commemorates 20 years on air as the nation’s memorial service, offering viewers a time to remember, to heal and bring our country together.  The program is co-hosted for the fourth year by Emmy Award-winner Gary Sinise (CSI: New York) and Tony Award-winner Joe Mantegna (Criminal Minds), two acclaimed actors who have dedicated themselves to veteran’s causes and supporting our troops in active service. The top-rated show will be broadcast live from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol on PBS Sunday, May 24 from 8:00 to 9:30 p.m. ET (check local listings) before a concert audience of hundreds of thousands, millions more at home, as well as to our troops serving around the world on the American Forces Radio and Television Network.

Video montage of Brothers at War premiere week (nice chat with Gary):

Also,  Brothers at War  will open in eight new cities on Friday, March 27, including:

Oceanside, CA (near Camp Pendleton) at the Regal Oceanside 16
Savannah, GA (near Fort Stewart) at the Carmike Wynnsong 11
Decatur, IL (Hometown of the Rademacher Family) at the Carmike Hickory Pointe 12
Cleveland Heights, OH at the Cedar Lee Theatre
Dayton, OH (near the Wright Patterson Air Force Base) at the Regal Hollywood 20 Fairfield Commons
Lakewood, WA. (near Fort Lewis) at the AMC Lakewood Mall 12
San Antonio, TX (near Fort Sam Houston) at the Bijou at the Crossroads
Killeen, TX (near Fort Hood) at the Hollywood Stadium 14

Video of Gary’s Interview (last week) with Andrea Mitchell:

Sinise on ‘Brothers at War’

Audio: Gary’s Interview on March 26th with Michael Savage on “The Savage Nation:”