First came a successful summer tasting. Then came the cans. Now, the former soldiers behind a Savannah, Georgia-based craft brewery have another reason to raise their glasses. Service Brewing Co., owned by West Point graduate and former Army Capt. Kevin Ryan, was named 2014’s business “Newcomer of the Year” by Business in Savannah, which profiled the brewery’s four-person team: Ryan, former captain and master brewer Dan Sartin, retired Chief Warrant Officer 4 and assistant brewer Jeff Hyatt, and Meredith Sutton, the creative marketing director and the only staffer without a military background. The local honor comes as Ryan continues his plans…
The story of the first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor could hit movie theaters in 2016, with a director who’s no stranger to telling epic tales. Deadline.com reported last month that Mel Gibson, the action hero-turned-movie mogul-turned-controversy generation machine behind “Braveheart” and “Passion of the Christ” is in talks to direct “Hacksaw Ridge,” which would introduce modern movie-goers to Pfc. Desmond T. Doss, an Army medic whose service on Okinawa in the spring of 1945 is the stuff of legend. His Medal of Honor citation reads like a half-dozen citations pushed together. Among the highlights: As his unit reached the…
First, watch the video. Then, get a good excuse ready in case somebody sees you starting to tear up. After that, some back story: http://vimeo.com/99466249 The video of Sgt. Joey and Michelle Johnson dancing at their wedding has been online since their summer nuptials, but it gained serious traction recently thanks to an ABC News report about the couple published on Veterans Day. The groom met his future bride at a country music concert in 2012, a few weeks after returning from a 10-month deployment to Afghanistan, ABC News reported. He injured his spine in a motorcycle wreck in August of that year, Michelle Johnson…
Football fans at Fort Benning, Georgia, will have the chance to be a part of live NFL pregame broadcasts on Sunday from York Field, then stick around to watch the games on a jumbo screen. Fox Sports NFL reporter Jay Glazer tops the list of personalities who’ll broadcast live from Benning as part of the network’s salute to veterans, with segments airing on the “Fox NFL Sunday” broadcast that begins at noon as well as “Fox NFL Kickoff,” which airs earlier on the Fox Sports 1 cable network. Glazer’s no stranger to military outreach, having visited troops in Afghanistan, Qatar…
Gamers can select Tim Kennedy to do battle with UFC middleweights such as Vitor Belfort, Chael Sonnen … and even some who haven’t popped positive for performance-enhancing substances. (YouTube screengrab)
Ever wanted to see how soldier-turned-UFC star Tim Kennedy would fare against other elite MMA middleweights, especially if they don’t get an extra 30 seconds of recovery time between rounds for no good reason? Here’s your chance. Kennedy, a former active-duty Special Forces sniper who’s now a sergeant first class in the Texas Army National Guard, joins welterweight Gunnar Nelson as a downloadable character in the latest update of “EA Sports UFC,” now available for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. He’s listed atop the game’s official roster, which includes UFC champ Chris Weidman, legends Anderson Silva and Dan Henderson, and…
An airline apologized over the weekend after a flight attendant’s reported refusal to hang up a decorated noncommissioned officer’s dress uniform jacket because the NCO wasn’t flying first class. Passengers on the US Airways flight from Portland, Oregon, to Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday relayed details of the situation to Charlotte’s WSOC-TV and other media outlets. According to reports, 1st Sgt. Albert Marle accepted the flight attendant’s rejection quietly, but other passengers didn’t, including some in first class who offered their seats to the NCO. Marle, 33, a member of the Virginia Army National Guard, is a Ranger- and Special…
The team behind the canceled Fox sitcom “Enlisted” will trade in fictional Fort McGee for a super-sized keyboard and a coin-operated fortune teller. Kevin Biegel and Mike Royce will produce and write a TV adaptation of “Big,” the 1988 coming-of-age-in-a-hurry movie starring Tom Hanks, according to reports from Entertainment Weekly and The Hollywood Reporter. The show reportedly would air as an “event series,” meaning it likely would have a predetermined end date — unlike the commotion that surrounded the pair’s previous project. The move comes after extensive, but ultimately unsuccessful, negotiations between 20th Century Fox Television and Yahoo to bring…
When retired Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry pinned the Bronze Star on retired Army Maj. Eric Phillips, it provided resolution to a long saga that began in Afghanistan in 2005. Phillips had waited years to tell Eikenberry his story, and he finally got the opportunity on Sept. 8 when both attended the screening of the National Geographic documentary “American War Generals.” In July 2005, Phillips was serving as commander of a convoy enroute from Kabul to Gardez when they ran into an ambush, he said. With his troops bogged down and taking fire, Phillips called in for air support. As…
Despite continuing, stellar support from America’s high school guidance counselors, the U.S. Military Academy slipped seven spots on this year’s U.S. News Best Colleges rankings for national liberal arts colleges, falling out of a three-way tie for 17th last year and into a three-way tie for 24th with Macalester College of St. Paul, Minnesota, and Scripps College of Claremont, California. West Point finished second in the service-academy race, with the Naval Academy ranking 13th (down from 12th last year). The schools also finished 1-2 in selectivity: Annapolis accepted just 7.4 percent of its 2013 applicant pool, according to U.S. News, while…
At first look (and listen), Army football’s slick 2014 introductory video has all the standard fare of preseason hype, including in no particular order: Explosions. Players in a dimly lit studio modeling new uniforms and trying to look imposing. A head coach twirling a football on his finger and giving the camera a look that all but screams, “Are you sure I have to twirl this football? Can’t I just look imposing?” Assorted highlights, quick cuts and logos, all set to a powerful soundtrack. More explosions. An introduction from a famous alumnus. And that’s where the similarities between Army’s video…
