NASHVILLE, Nov. 2 /Christian Newswire/ — Operation Troop Aid (OTA), a nonprofit organization which supports deployed U.S. soldiers, recently honored Emmy and Golden Globe Award winning actor Gary Sinise with the 2009 Operation Troop Aid “Patriot Award.”

Photo: OTA founder and executive director Mark Woods, Gary Sinise and Wanda Woods (Trophy Courtesy of Custom Trophy & Apparel-Florence KY)

Founded in 2005 by 21-year military veteran, Mark Woods, Operation Troop Aid provides care packages for deployed U.S. Service Members with revenue generated through professional concert promotions and public financial generosity. OTA is a nonprofit corporation striving to make a positive difference and inspire the Armed Forces by letting them know Americans stand with them. For more information on OTA, visit www.OperationTroopAid.org or call 901-355-8844.

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!

Gary and the Lt. Dan  Band have been performing for troops in Korea the past few days as part of their Summer USO tour.   On June 27th, the band performed for soldiers, families and friends at Camp Casey.  Below are a few photos of the show taken by Diane Howard.

According to Diane, Major General Morgan presented the Lt. Dan Band with a little memento from Warrior Country.

All  photos of  Gary Sinise (above) taken by Diane Howard.  Used with permission.

On June 29th, the band performed for more than 1000 soldiers at Youngsan Garrison.  Click hereto read Cpl. Choi Keun-woo’s coverage of the show and see additional photos.  This shot of Jeff, Kimo and Gary (immediately below) is a sample:

(U.S. Army photo by Cpl. Choi Keun-woo)

And finally, check out additional behind-the-scenes photographs and commentary about the tour by Gary’s friend and co-founder of Lt. Dan Band, Kimo Williams at On the Road with Kimo Williams. 

Photo of Kimo Williams taken by Diane Howard.  Used with permission.

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,

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!

Longtime friends and Gary fans, Laura B. and Gail T.* vacationed in Hollywood recently and were thrilled to catch the Lt. Dan Band in concert at the Canyon Club. This was their first time seeing the band and report it was an amazing show!

Thanks so much to Laura and Gail for sharing a few of their photos!

* A little reminiscing: Laura and Gail along with a number of other lucky Gary fans first met in 1997 when GWI (Gary’s Web International) held its first fundraising breakfast ~ with Gary as special guest. Remember when: click here and scroll to the bottom of the page. Great to know some of you are still friends and stay in touch!

In conjuction with the (limited) release of “Brothers at War,” Gary has given a number of interviews and made a few appearances this past week.  In an effort to not be repetitive,  two of the more comprehensive interviews with Gary are listed (and linked) below.

This coming week, watch for Gary on the following programs:

Monday, March 16th: Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, NBC
Tuesday, March 17th: The View, ABC
Wednesday, March 18th: The Early Show, CBS

The Detroit Free Press, “Gary Sinise stands up for U.S. troops: Actor produces war documentary.”

The Chicago Tribune, “Gary Sinise speaks out in defense of military with ‘Brothers at War.’”

At Chicago’s National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum, Gary Sinise stands in front of a sculpture comprising 58,000 dog tags, symbolizing U.S. losses in Vietnam. Sinise is executive producer of the documentary “Brothers at War.” (Tribune photo by E. Jason Wambsgans / February 28, 2009)

See here for “Brothers at War” updates.

Coming soon: Articles, photos and video from Columbus and Fayetteville debuts of “Brothers at War.”