Murfreesboro Post
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Smyrna Rotary honors Purple Heart recipients




Recipients of the Purple Heart were the military honorees at Saturday’s 16th annual Wings of Freedom Fish Fry, held each year by the Rotary Club of Smyrna.

The club’s signature event raised more than $160,000 this year and attracted more than 2,000 to the Contour Air/Corporate Flight Management hangar at the Smyrna Airport.

Since its inception in 2003, the fish fry has raised more than $1 million for charitable organizations in the community and honored numerous local heroes and veterans in Smyrna.

One of this year’s special guests was Army Sgt. First Class (ret.) Derick Bynum, an Army Ranger with the 3rd Ranger Battalion. Bynum was shot twice in Iraq in 2006 – once in the leg and once in the back. A patrol of 10 men were ambushed, five or six were shot. In the action, Bynum earned the Bronze Star for Valor for working to evacuate the wounded under crossfire when he was shot – thereby also earning his Purple Heart.

He was evacuated in one of the unit’s vehicles before being transported through Germany to Washington D.C.’s Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, where he convalesced for seven months. That was followed by roughly a year of rehabilitation, and he eventually returned to active duty.

“If it wasn’t for our medic, I wouldn’t be here,” Bynum said.

Bynum, now medically retired, works for himself with his Kircus Mobile Truck & Trailer Repair, named after his late father.

The Rotary Club of Smyrna supports approximately two dozen local charities with funds from the Wings of Freedom Fish Fry and with hands-on work. Some of the charities supported include the Boys & Girls Club of Rutherford County, the North Rutherford YMCA of Middle Tennessee, the Meals on Wheels program of Smyrna and La Vergne, the Smyrna Senior Citizens Center and many others.

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