Today, we salute Army Veteran Michael Trotter Jr. While deployed in Iraq, he came upon a piano while encamped in one of Saddam Hussein’s private palaces. He was encouraged to play the piano —whose ivory pieces were so rigid and chipped, Michael would bleed as he played — by his commanding officer, Captain Robert Scheetz. When Scheetz was killed on a mission, Michael wrote his first song in Scheetz’s honor. In 2011, he left the military and came home with PTSD, and music has been there to help him every step of the way. In 202o, he and his wife recorded the song “Five More Minutes,” a song that recalls the moment Tanya had to pull him from the brink of suicide. Michael and his wife Tanya are the Grammy Winning Duo, The War and Treaty. Thank you for sharing your musical gifts, Michael, and THANK YOU for your service.
