Soldiers Turned Songwriters to Perform at SAFE's Nashville Breakfast

SAFE, Soldiers and Families Embrace, is continuing to help active military men and women and veterans seek healing from the traumas of war. In September, SAFE paired Nashville songwriters with soldiers to share their stories through songs. On November 8 2013, a benefit concert was held for love ones and the public to hear the music that blood, sacrifice, and tears help produced.

On Friday, November 15, 2013, some of the songs will be performed again at SAFE's Nashville Breakfast. The SAFE Nashville's Breakfast will be held at Ben Folds’ Studio, 30 Music Sq. W. Ste. 310, Nashville, TN 37203 8:30 am.

One of the songs that will be performed at breakfast was co-written by Vietnam Veteran Bill Fritschler (sic), Jason Jones, and Keni Thomas, entitled "Unspoken."  The song expresses the pain of veterans and members of the military not being able to talk to their families about their war experiences. The song tells us about Bill's father's Silver Star, an award for valor in combat that Bill did not know his father had received in WWII until after Bill's father died. He and his mother never knew why or what had happened.  The three will share and sing the song.  Veteran David Bradley will also be there to share and sing his song, "Get a Hero Home." 

More About the Performers

In the summer of 1993, Sergeant Keni Thomas was deployed to Mogadishu, Somalia with the 3rd Ranger Battalion as part of an elite special operations package called Task Force Ranger. Their mission was to find a capture a criminal warlord named Mohammed Farrah Aideed. On the 3rd of October, Keni and his fellow rangers distinguished themselves in an eighteen hour fire-fight that would later be recounted in the highly successful book and movie “Blackhawk Down”. Nineteen Americans gave their lives and 78 were wounded in the worst urban combat seen by US troops since WWII.

Jason Jones is the son of a Vietnam Veteran and has shared that he has been able to talk to his dad more since the retreat than ever before about his war experiences. 

David Bradley is a veteran of Britain's Royal Air Force who donates a great deal of his time to veterans and their families and who personally recruited about a third of the songwriters who participated in the retreat and now the concert on Nov. 8. 

More About SAFE

SAFE is a resource for the region to ease the readjustment and reintegration of military members returning from our current wars and their families, as well as veterans from previous eras. The counselors and staff of Soldiers And Families Embraced are made up of veterans, family members of veterans or active duty military, or have extensive experience working with them. All services are confidential and provided free of charge.

http://thesafenetwork.org

For media interviews, contact: Jodi McCullah

jodi@thesafenetwork.org

For more photos from last week's concert, click here.