Hearts To Heroes

BONAIRE, Ga — Each one starts like lyrics to an old familiar song.

“Hey Myra, I’m staff sergeant xxxxxxxx. My unit is currently deployed to xxxxxxxx and I’m looking to get a guitar for one of my soldiers.”

It’s a “song” that Myra Foskey has repeatedly listened to now for 17 years. One that didn’t just stick in her head, but became etched in her heart.

It’s the letters from soldiers looking to acquire a guitar to find a little solace or peace of mind, while deployed overseas. They’ve reached out to Foskey’s non-profit Hearts to Heroes, a Warner Robins-based organization that provides musical instruments for deployed military service members. Some are looking to maximize their downtime while down-range, by taking up a new hobby and learning a new skill set. Some are higher ranking NCO’s looking to surprise and provide moral support to the soldiers under their command. Whatever the case, Myra is always happy to help.

“It means the world to me, to be able to help. They deserve our help and we do as much as we can for them, to help get them through their deployment,” says Foskey. Foskey worked in the 402nd as an administrative assistant at Robins Air Force Base and retired in 2007 after 34 years. While transitioning into retirement, Myra Foskey took the lead position on a military care package charity group that originated at the base. The group, Hearts to Heroes, Inc. specialized in sending snack and hygiene items in care packages to deployed military service members.

In 2010, the group organized into a non-profit. The following year, Foskey brought in two fellow RAFB civilians, musicians Eddie Icard and Dan English. The care packages quickly turned into shipping out guitars and shortly thereafter, the mission of Hearts to Heroes began to transform and conceptualize.

Letters started coming in from deployed service members from all of over the world asking for instruments. Hearts to Heroes would acquire the instrument through charity, or raised donations and then ship it in a care package to the requesting soldier. What might seem like a simple instrument donation to most, had become giving the gift of music, whether for mental escape, therapy, or simple enjoyment, to military members located in hostile deployments. The organization ships mostly stringed instruments, like acoustic and electric guitars and violins, but has also shipped woodwind instruments from piccolos, saxophones, and even a harmonica.

Hearts to Heroes Gains a Band and a Platform

In 2016, Hearts to Heroes gained a platform. Icard and English were performing as a musical duo called, The Eddie Dan Band, and began playing Friday nights at the legendary BBQ restaurant, White Diamond Grill. Located in Bonaire, just 3 miles south of Robins AFB, and fixed at the intersection of Highway 247 and Old Highway 96, White Diamond has been serving juicy, vinegar based BBQ for over 60 years. It’s the longest-operating restaurant in Houston County, a well-known staple and favorite of many in the Middle Georgia area.

For The Eddie Dan Band it was the perfect Friday night venue to enjoy their musical craft and play various covers for local BBQ patrons. The white-stoned grill has long-since become a key platform for Hearts to Heroes, as Eddie and Dan often share their story and their mission during their Friday night set. It’s an opportunity for them to give back to the Robins community, trade career and life stories as they make new friends, and share their passion for Hearts to Heroes with others.

In 2022, The Eddie Dan Band recruited a bass guitarist in local and long-time musician Tony Dowd. Dowd, like Eddie, Dan, and Myra, enjoyed a long-career at Robins AFB. While the WR-Air Logistics Complex at Robins is daily fulfilling supply and maintenance orders for jet parts and cargo plane parts, Myra, Eddie, Dan, and Tony are steady working through Hearts to Heroes to fulfill guitar orders for the men and women that the planes support. For Myra and her team, it’s a new mission of sorts, compared to the one that defined their careers at Robins AFB, but the cause is still the same. Support the warfighter.

It’s a cause and culture that is the lifeblood of Hearts to Heroes, and one that permeates not just the base, but Warner Robins and all of Houston County. You can feel it when riding by the two planes that symbolically cover the Middle Georgia area, one at Exit #146 on I-75 pointing eastward toward Robins AFB, and the other, the F-15 at the Museum of Aviation pointed westward towards Warner Robins.

 It’s etched in stone at local schools and on football jerseys shining under Friday night lights at McConnell Talbert Stadium and Freedom Field. The Warner Robins High School Demons are named in honor of “the Screamin’ Demons” the 7^th Fighting Squadron at Robins AFB during World War II.  The Veterans High Warhawks, being the other area high school with a military-styled name, don red, white, and blue as their team colors.  

For Hearts to Heroes, it’s been an effective cause and successful mission, as they’ve recently shipped their 500^th guitar. They’ve received countless letters and photos from the deployed recipients, offering a thank you and sporting a smile.

 For some Americans, the thought of the sacrifice given by those who died and those who served, may be a passing thought as they flip a burger on a grill or enjoy a lake over those long Memorial Day and Veterans Day weekends. For Myra, the Eddie Dan Band, and Hearts to Heroes it’s at the forefront constantly. For the soldiers overseas, we are at the forefront of their thoughts, our safety, our freedom, and our pursuit of happiness. If just a simple guitar or musical instrument can bring them momentary peace or joy, well, then may their letters be a “song” that moves us like Myra, and brings all our hearts to show support to these heroes.