Stephen Cochran
I don't know but I've been told, Stephen Cochran served mighty bold. That's the kind of cadence that could ring true for the country music newcomer and decorated war veteran who put his life on the line in combat action and fought back from paralysis to walk again.

Stephen was just a few hours shy of finishing his college degree when 9/11 happened. Compelled to do his duty, he joined the Marines for a total of five years, leaving as a Sergeant and a team leader of recon scouts. He served in Albania, Kuwait, Germany, Quatar, and Malta and was honored with numerous awards including the Purple Heart.

"I met the most dedicated friends that I will ever have because I could never trust anyone like I can trust those individuals who were willing to give up their life for me," Stephen said. "I still keep in contact with everyone I served with in both combat tours, and I still pray for the ones that we lost on different missions."

The loss of one person in particular hit Stephen hard, the death of his buddy, Corporal Ron Payne, who was killed during an ambush in Afghanistan.

"Ron and his team were engaged by a forward observer of an Al Qaeda unit which included up to 30 terrorist fighters," Stephen said. "The last transmission that I received was a broken transmission that said "Contact."

"No more transmissions were received from Ron, and we didn't know at the time, that they had already fallen under attack from the high ground position. The reason we weren't getting radio transmission was because Ron was wearing the radio, and he was killed by an RPG blast which blew up the radio so we had no way of knowing where our men were when we hit the ground. As soon as we arrived, the Taliban began to retreat as we made our way up the mountain to try to find our men."

Stephen wrote about the tragic tale in "When a Hero Falls" on his self-titled debut CD, while he was recovering during a 9-month hospital stay from injuries suffered in Afghanistan. He was on a combat mission in Kandahar when he broke his back in six places. Stephen was paralyzed and faced the strong possibility that he would never walk again.

"To be honest, I don't know how positive I was at that time," Stephen admits. "I loved songwriting and that got me through the day-to-day struggle of watching everything that I had ever worked for fade away."

Stephen gained a lot of his inner strength from the Marine Corps that helped him survive that ordeal and the daunting obstacles of the country music industry.

"I'm very glad I didn't pursue my music until after the Marine Corps because I don't think I would have had the determination, the will and the drive to perform the needs that need to be met in this business," Stephen said. "I truly believe that it was easier for me to learn to walk again than it is to get country radio to play one of my singles, especially since I'm on an independent label. However, I have made a lot of great friends at country radio and I think we have made a lot of believers out of them."