Country Stars Join Boot Campaign to Help Troops

Country Stars Join Boot Campaign to Help Troops
PIERCE GREENBERG | MARCH 2ND, 2011
There are more than 1.4 million American soldiers on active duty and more than 300,000 servicemen are stationed overseas. Army studies reveal that roughly 1 in 8 soldiers who return from battle suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

But five women from Tyler, Texas are working to combat PTSD while honoring America’s troops—and they’re using boots and country stars to do it.

“There’s a lot of worthy charity organizations out there. This is one of those underpublicized issues that we have in the country now,” country singer Joe Nichols said.

The “Boot Girls” were struck after reading The Lone Survivor by former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell. During his time in Afghanistan, Luttrell was chased by the Taliban for five days before emerging as the only survivor from Operation Redwing. His story sparked a simple idea: start a non-profit boot-selling business to help soldiers deal with life after service.

The grassroots campaign began locally in early 2010, but eventually started garnering national attention. Actors, athletes, and celebrities jumped on board, donning their boots in posed photographs. Nichols recently joined the cause.

“I think being a soldier—that’s the higher honor of any job there is,” Nichols said. “We should probably pay respect to those people more than any other.”
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Country Stars Join Boot Campaign to Help Troops