Rock Band Drowning Pool Continues it's Amazing Support for the Troops

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http://www.veteranstoday.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=5661
Platinum rock band Drowning Pool is a band on a mission. Following the successful launch of their “This Is For the Soldiers Tour”, the Texas rockers have stepped it up with Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) actively campaigning for better mental health care for U.S. Troops on Capitol Hill.

Drowning Pool and IAVA presented Representative Patrick Murphy with a petition containing 25,000 signatures in support of the Lane Evans Veterans Health and Benefits Improvement Act of 2007. Murphy, who is the first Iraq veteran to serve in Congress co-sponsored of the bipartisan legislation, which requires mandatory mental health care screening for returning troops. He served in Baghdad in 2003-2004 as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division.


Drowning Pool and IAVA first joined forces to launch the “This Is For The Soldiers” campaign and accompanying website www.thisisforthesoldiers.org, which continues to ask supporters to sign an online petition urging Congress to pass the Lane Evans bill. The group has been instrumental in involving their young fans in the political process and they challenge their fellow recording artists to show their support for our troops.

Drowning Pool is a longtime supporter of the troops. The band’s current single “Soldiers” pays homage to our Armed Forces and their current “This Is For The Soldiers Tour” donates one dollar of every ticket sold to IAVA and the USO, while encouraging young fans to support the cause. The band has been a favorite of U.S. troops, performing USO tours in Iraq, Kuwait and South Korea.

For Texas modern rockers Drowning Pool, Full Circle, their third album, and first for Eleven Seven Music, represents a chance to continue to build on their success, with a new lead singer in old friend Ryan McCombs, a new label and new management, but the same fiery commitment to their music and one another.

Marking one of the new album's fateful coincidences is the fact that ex-SOiL vocalist Ryan McCombs made his live debut in Dallas with the band at Ozzfest in August of 2005. It was almost three years to the day since he joined Drowning Pool's guitarist C.J. Pierce, bassist Stevie Benton and drummer Mike Luce on-stage in Indianapolis at Ozzfest 2002 to sing "Bodies" with the late Dave Williams, who would pass away from a rare heart disease just a day later.

"There's never been a point when we thought about stopping," says C.J., who moved to Dallas in the mid-‘90s to form Drowning Pool with Luce, Benton and Williams when they were all still in high school. "Everything we've gone through has just brought us closer."

McCombs had completely walked away from music before joining the band. He had been frustrated with the music industry, but most importantly he wanted to spend time with his family. With the persistence of the three remaining members along with the support of his wife, Ryan joined the band in June 2005.

"She just told me, ‘This is the music you've been waiting to play your whole life,'" nods Ryan, whose youngest son Mitchell David is named after Williams. "When I first thought about singing for Drowning Pool, I felt I was stepping on toes. It was Dave's own parents who put it into perspective for me. ‘If anybody was going to do this, don't you think he'd want you to?' That was enough for me. After that, I decided to join the band."