Robert Henne and the Warrior Cry Music Project
The volunteers at Warrior Cry teach injured soldiers to create, play, and record music. The soldiers then look forward to performing live shows for anyone interested in watching miracles at work.
Warrior Cry is always in need of funding and gear. Guitars, basses, electronic drums, amps, strings, picks and sticks are just a few of the necessary items needed to provide wounded soldiers a pause from the stress of their injuries.
(March 15, 2016 - Chico, California) Once in awhile, a glimmer of hope shines through the sometimes dismal reality of life on the rock and I have a prime example here for you. I was recently turned on to an organization that works with returning GI's suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression, and other consequences of being involved in war… Robert Henne's Warrior Cry Music Project
He does it with music.
Robert's bio best expresses what Warrior Cry Music Project is all about:
Robert Henne
Founder/Director
Warrior Cry Music Project
roberth@warriorcry.org
I started playing the guitar, bass and drums around age of 14 and keyboards around the age of
17. I wasn't really sure exactly what I wanted to play so I figured I would try most of the rock
instruments. All throughout my teen years and into my early adulthood I played in multiple
bands playing multiple different instruments throughout parts of the southeast.
Unfortunately, I didn't play much for many years after college and my real job. It wasn't until I
had a bad auto accident in 2002 that music became a large part of my life again. I had a head
injury and a bad back injury and music became my therapy, my peace and my salvation once
again.
I had to learn to do many things over again and some things I still can't remember or do
because of my injuries. I have no feeling in most of my left leg or fingers on both hands. Playing
is still a struggle, but I am now accustomed to a life of struggle and pain.
As fate would have it, my wife is in the military, so as a dependent I get to see the same
physicians that our wounded soldiers see. I realized one day when I was at Walter Reed, the old
original Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC in the pain clinic waiting room and
I realized I was the only one with two arms and two legs. It was a shock to me and I felt very
ashamed at what I felt pain, depression and anxiety was compared to these kids.
Needless to say that day was a wake up call for me. I thought about how music helped me
through healing and trying to get my life, mind and body back on track. I also felt just looking
into their faces that paying my taxes just was not enough to help them. I thought to myself why
can't I try and use music to help the wounded, so I spoke to my wife and different department
heads at Walter Reed and we came up with a plan and started a music program. That was the
beginning of Warrior Cry Music Project over 6 years ago.
Now with approximately 18 military, VA hospitals and other wounded military focused health
care organizations across the country including Hawaii, we are slowly growing and helping to
save and heal lives through music.
We have worked directly and indirectly with thousands of wounded soldiers from across the
country and I still hear stories regularly from many of them that we have worked with in the past
of the changes that music has made in their lives. Their spouses echo their statements.
Honestly, I have to say I never expected helping others to heal me as much as it did working
with these wounded. They have shown me that no matter how hard things are, there's always
someone who has it worse and if they can fight, I can fight.
Teaching returning GI's to channel the myriad of emotional and physical pain they are enduring through song is a win-win as they can share part of their experience with those of us who will never know. Visit the Warrior Cry Music Project website at warriorcry.org to learn more and make a contribution.
- Dennis Allen
