Malcolm Henry
Scooter Brown: Certified badass.
Before fronting the Scooter Brown Band, he was a Marine. That skillset certainly came in handy as he planned a rescue mission in the face of the Russian invasion.
First, this is awesome.
Second, this was personal.
Brown and his family played host to a 9-year-old orphan for several weeks over Christmas. That orphan was from Ukraine. And got sent back to the country prior to the invasion and was tucked into an orphanage, hoping for safety.
That is when Brown got into the action.
“I just knew that like, as much as you want there to be this idea that civilians won’t be targeted or that they won’t accidentally be in the wrong place at the wrong time, it’s a part of war,” Brown told CMT. “These kids are in our hearts and minds as our kids, even though they aren’t legally our kids. In the moment, they’re part of our family.”
According to the story, the whole thing began on Feb. 24, the same day Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. It was also when Brown got to work by setting up shop in Mount Juliet (little town outside of Nashville) coffee house called ‘Just Love.’ He used the location to reach out and research if he could utilize his military network to facilitate a rescue.
The mission was not just to save the one child he knew, but all of them.
It took multiple trips.
He was busy with securing resources as well as actually determining who he could trust to help him. There were plenty of civilians that he had worked with in Iraq who were now in Ukraine that were willing willing to step up.
He told CMT that it was more complicated than orchestrating an escape from Iraq!
“The mission was just such an intense moment,” the singer told the outlet. “You had a Green Beret and a Marine sitting alone in a hotel room, at one point looking away from each other, trying not to cry in front of each other.”
Another problem was that the orphanage’s caretaker was trapped in a bunker in Kyiv with two kids. It was an area that was under heavy assault by Russian forces.
Moreover, to legally get the children out of Ukraine, the group needed the paperwork that was with that caretaker. So, they devised a plan to save the woman and other children, too.
Fvcking LEGEND.
Brown had to make sure he had bribe money.
He had to locate vehicles and have the manpower to secretly meet the transport along the way to refuel.
Brown said that his margin of error was so thin that if one person didn’t follow through, the plan fell apart. The plan fell apart many times.
But he kept going.
“I was just like, ’If I have to get a car myself and drive it into the fricking country and get these kids, that’s what I’m willing to do,’” Brown said. “There was a night where my partner, Andy, had to talk me off of the ledge because I was so frustrated, I was packing my stuff, and I said, ’Let’s go.’ He said, ’Where are we going? I said, ’We’re gonna get a car, and we’re gonna go get ’em ourselves.’”
According to the story, the mission involved about 30 people from multiple countries – including Aerial Recovery Group along with Matt Murphy and Operation Light Shine, a Nashville-based organization that fights human trafficking and child sexual exploitation.
Brown is a man.
CMT told a great tale.
You can read more from their details here.
