Lee Greenwood sang "God Bless the USA" at Yankee Stadium while New York was still pulling bodies from the rubble of the Twin Towers.
He has done more than 30 USO tours and been in more combat zones than most civilians ever see.
But one mission — ordered personally by President Bush before Operation Just Cause — he never talked about until now.
George H.W. Bush Sent the God Bless the USA Singer on a Secret USO Mission to Panama
It was late 1989.
Manuel Noriega – the Panamanian dictator wanted on drug charges – was still in power, and President Bush was preparing to send nearly 26,000 troops to take him out.
Before the operation began, Bush had one more mission.
"I'm going to send you to Panama," Greenwood recalled Bush telling him on Hang Out With Sean Hannity. "Take your band down there. I've already taken out the dependents. We're going to take [Noriega] out… I want you to entertain our troops."
A presidential courier handed Greenwood a personal letter from Bush – addressed to 200 Marines waiting in the jungle.
The band flew ahead by Chinook helicopter.
Greenwood climbed into a jeep with a sergeant and headed into the jungle to deliver the letter himself.
The Jeep Came Under Fire
That drive did not go as planned.
"I jump in a jeep with a sergeant and we… come under fire and the bullets are whizzing through the jeep," Greenwood told Hannity.
Greenwood was not hit.
His driver was not so lucky.
"[It] took my driver's finger off right there in the index finger," Greenwood said.
They pushed through, reached the Marine compound, and Greenwood delivered the president's letter.
The Marines went out and completed their mission.
Inside Operation Just Cause With Lee Greenwood and 200 Marines
"I remember it was 140 degrees in the jungle… and addressing 150 Marines that are about to go to war," he said.
That moment – men in full combat gear, a dictator's forces still in the field, an American singer with a letter from the president – was one of the defining experiences of his life.
"It's been like that all over my career whenever I visit military," Greenwood said. "And that makes me a very proud patriot."
The Sergeant Who Lost a Finger Getting Him There
Years later, Greenwood was performing in Ohio.
Someone backstage said a man was asking for him – a man missing an index finger.
"Is he missing a finger?" Greenwood asked.
He was.
The two men embraced backstage – thirty-plus years after a jungle jeep nearly killed them both.
"We hugged each other for the moment that we could have both been killed," Greenwood said.
How God Bless the USA Became Americas Soundtrack for 42 Years
It first charted in 1984, resurfaced during the Gulf War, hit again after September 11, and reached number one on the digital sales chart during COVID-19 in 2020 – 36 years after its release.
No other song in any genre has charted in the top five three separate times.
Reagan put it in campaign ads. Bush used it in 1988. Trump has played it at every rally since 2015.
On June 14, Greenwood performed the song at the 250th Anniversary Parade and Celebration of the U.S. Army in Washington, D.C., after President Trump addressed the crowd.
He performed it again at the Countdown 250 Ball on July 4th, where he received the 2026 All-American Icon Award.
Greenwood's wife, Kimberly, said on the podcast that their relationship itself was built on that commitment to service.
"Really, our beginning of our relationship started with patriotism and serving our military," she said. "And that's what we've done for our entire time together."
Greenwood said the song was never written to become famous.
"I'm so proud to know that I wrote it because I love the country," he said. "I didn't write it for any other purpose."
He wrote it alone on a tour bus in 1983, thinking about the military sacrifices he had witnessed since he started working USO events at age 14.
Forty-two years later, on this Fourth of July, he was still singing it.
Sources:
- CJ Womack, "Lee Greenwood recalls surviving enemy fire in Panama after White House sent him to entertain troops," Fox News, July 2, 2026.
- "God Bless the USA star revives patriotic spirits brand benefiting veterans for America's 250th birthday," Fox News, July 2, 2026.
- "Lee Greenwood says patriotic anthem 'God Bless the USA' is untouchable even in a woke era," Fox News, July 4, 2025.
- "Operation Just Cause: the Invasion of Panama, December 1989," U.S. Army, army.mil.
- "Lee Greenwood," leegreenwood.com, official biography.