On August 26, 2021, 13 American service members were killed during the suicide bombing attack at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Two days after the attack, the Department of Defense released the names of the fallen, which included 11 Marines, one Army soldier and one member of the Navy.
Two days later, country singer Coffey Anderson said he woke up to countless videos using his song “Mr. Red White and Blue” as the backdrop to videos of the fallen service members’ coffins with flags draped over them.
In the song, Anderson sings,
“Lay down his life
(Mr. Red, White, and Blue) For these Stars and Stripes
(Mr. Red, White, and Blue) Stand on the front line
(Mr. Red, White, and Blue) Pay the ultimate price.“
In his Instagram post, he announced that he would be reaching out to the family of the 13 service members who died and would offer to come to each funeral, on his own dime, and perform “Mr. Red White and Blue.”
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By September 2, Anderson had been in contact with 11 of the families and had scheduled meetings with two of them. On September 14, he performed at the first funeral – for Cpl. Humberto Sanchez – in Indiana.
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In his post, he revealed that there was one funeral the day before that he missed and the “mishandling of the schedule was all my fault.” He vowed to make it up to the family, even though the service member’s father forgave him.
Next, he went to the funeral for Marine Jared Schmidtz, where he also performed “Amazing Grace.”
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Next, he went to Nebraska for Cpl. Daegan Page’s funeral.
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On September 18, he performed at Kareem Nikoui’s funeral in Riverside, CA and changed some lyrics in “Mr. Red White and Blue” to be about Nikoui’s hometown.
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In total – in just one week – Anderson performed at six funerals. When he returned home, he got a hero’s welcome from his family and neighbors. See that video below.