CHASING AMERICAN LEGENDS

Ep12 Teaser

Episode 12 – One Life to Give

Ep12 Behind the Scenes Bonus Specials

Extended Scene about the Wedding

 

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Season Finale

In our season finale, you’ll notice that this episode is slightly different than most of the others. We are not tackling a myth, although there is some investigating that occurs. This episode is much more about going on a journey. We begin with some work on our ranch in Dripping Springs, Texas. My best friend and first love, Alexandra Murphy, had recently come down from Delaware to attend Patriot Academy, and was helping us get ready to host a ‘regional’ Patriot Academy in the Northeast. She was also helping us write a book called Legends of Liberty, when some problems arose that put our schedule into hyperdrive, overdrive, and warp speed… all at once! Eventually, we were able to find a solution and finish the book just in time, as well as accomplish a few other momentous things during our trip to the northeast. In the end, it was a great trip with a lot of great memories made. I hope you enjoy this episode as you come with us on this fun journey, all while being entertained by Rhett’s hilarious (and misguided) attempts to discover my plans throughout the episode.

—Trey Green

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The Question:
What is next for the Green family? Will this season end
with a big finale or a cliffhanger…?

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Construction Project!
We start off this trip in the middle of a construction project at home on our ranch. Projects like this are not uncommon, but this one had a special purpose. While we all worked to clear off a piece of land and set the foundation for a concrete slab, Rhett spent all of his time trying to figure out what we were building.

In the middle of clearing off some brush, we got a call from our good friend Gary Newell. As one of the contributing authors to the new book, Gary was excited to share the good news that we had been invited to launch the book at a major speaking engagement with over 10,000 people! The family was excited, but we also knew that we were a long way from finishing the book, Legends of Liberty, and this call just ramped up our deadline by a couple of months.

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Legends of Liberty
Legends of Liberty is a recounting of fifteen incredible Legends throughout history. Written by twelve different authors and compiled by Rick, Legends of Liberty investigates what it was about these particular Legends that made them so successful, and then explains how we can apply those principles in today’s world. Although it took some rushing to get it ready in time for our events, it rolled off the presses power packed with amazing stories. The contributing authors are David Barton, Cliff Graham, Rick Green, Gary Newell, Brad Stine, Krish Dhanam, Kamryn Green, Tim Barton, Reagan Green, Paul Tsika, Alexandra Murphy, and Trey Green.

Some of the Legends covered in the book are well known, while others are unsung heroes. They are John Locke, King David, Nathan Hale, Squanto, Jackie Robinson, Zig Ziglar, Sybil Ludington, George Washington, Brian Birdwell, Jimmy Robertson, Dicey Langston, Moe Berg, Wentworth Cheswell, Peter Francisco, and Sujo John.

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Each of these Legends has something in their story that we can learn and apply to our daily lives. The twelve authors take those principles and illustrate how they can be applied in today’s society, and the impact those principles can have on the world around us.

Task Manager
While we all worked on our parts of the book and got packed, Mom kept everyone on task. She kept up with all the little things that needed to be done, from chapter revisions for the book to packing up all of our Patriot Academy materials.

Love in the Air!
After Trey finished helping Kara, he joined Alexandra outside to help with writing her Betsy Ross chapter of the book. Trey and Alexandra met through family connections and Patriot Academy. They are each other’s first and only love, which has made for a very special relationship. Beginning as friends, their relationship grew to be each other’s closest confidant over the course of two years.

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Although Alexandra still lived in Delaware at this time, she often traveled with the family to events and Patriot Academies to help out wherever needed. Meanwhile…

Kamryn On Sybil
…Kamryn was working hard on her Sybil Ludington chapter. She had all the right information, but was working overtime to make sure that it flowed smoothly as a short story. Kamryn wrote her Sybil chapter in the “faction” style, which is a combination of accurate non-fiction, with a fiction/novel writing style. She was passionate about getting the story as accurate as possible while still keeping the reader’s attention. She was hard at work!

Brad Stine & Jackie Robinson
While Kamryn worked on her chapter, Reagan and Rhett

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called up Brad to make sure that he hadn’t gotten distracted and forgotten any edits to his chapter. Brad ended up not only having his chapter written, but had his final draft edited and finished before the rest of us! Having been a baseball player himself, Brad really enjoyed telling the story of Jackie Robinson.

Betsy Ross
While the others were finishing their chapters, Trey and Alexandra ran into some trouble finding reliable sources on Betsy Ross. While there were rumors that she designed the

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American flag, they could not find any conclusive evidence to confirm the story. Because no original sources existed, Trey and Alexandra took the issue to Rick, who decided to play it safe and scrap the Betsy Ross chapter.

Betsy, We Have a Problem!
Since we had to scrap the Betsy Ross story, we found ourselves in a predicament. We needed a new opening chapter and we needed it fast! Not only did we need one, but it needed to be good…we wanted it to be really powerful. Rick called a family meeting together in order to discuss a replacement. The family tossed around some ideas, finally deciding on a story and patriotic…

Nathan Hale
…that story was the life of Nathan Hale! We had told the story of Nathan Hale previously through our speeches on stage, but had never written it into a book. In order to do so, that was inspiring

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we knew that we needed to research heavily and find the original source of his famous line. Nathan Hale graduated top of his class at Yale and went straight into being a school teacher, with hopes of becoming a minister. As a Captain in Washington’s military, he volunteered for an espionage mission that he knew could cost him his life. Although he successfully gathered the necessary information, he was captured on his way back to safety, he was tried, and sentenced to hang the very next morning. Before his hanging, he uttered those now famous words, “I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.” During Patriot Academy at the Delaware State Capitol, Trey and Alexandra spent their time focused on finding these resources to confirm Hale’s story. Digging through academic journals, papers, and books, they finally found some original sources that confirmed the legend of Nathan Hale. Success! Trey and Alexandra were ecstatic, as this meant that they most definitely had their opening chapter.

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Meanwhile… Rhett spies on Trey…
While Trey finished gathering a few details for the Nathan Hale chapter, Rhett followed him, believing that he was up to some sort of political maneuvering. Rhett thought he was being sneaky, but he never quite got the information he wanted… His sleuthing came to an end as everyone got into the bus and made their way to Independence Hall in Philadelphia for a special night (in more ways than one!).

Independence Hall
We had all been to Independence Hall before, but we still get awe struck every time we get the chance to walk these hallowed steps. For this trip, we had a special night for the students of Patriot Academy. We actually held a simulated legislative session on the floor of Congress Hall! The students got up and debated their own bills in the very room where Washington and Adams were both inaugurated and the ratification of the Bill of Rights occurred. The students even had the opportunity to  

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come forward and add their names to the Declaration of Independence just like the Founding Fathers.

During the simulated legislative session, students were given the opportunity to pass resolutions in addition to debate bills. This process is actually done in the real Congress and all state legislatures and the difference is that resolutions will typically be passed to honor someone, or for the state to take an official stand on an issue without actually passing a law. For this particular night, Trey had a very special resolution that he had prepared to present to a special person in attendance in Congress Hall on this trip…

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The Proposal

I had no idea that when I entered Independence Hall that night, that I’d leave an engaged woman. I can’t say Trey caught me entirely by surprise, but regardless of whether or not I expected the proposal, it became one of the most treasured memories of my life. Before he got up to pop the question, I had been asked to deliver a resolution thanking the park rangers for their service. I thought it was odd of them to ask me, since I hadn’t even written the resolution, but turns out it was all part of the “secret plan” to get the mic hooked up to me, so that the cameramen could pick up “the reaction” for the show (sneaky, sneaky). I had suspected that Trey might try to propose to me during or after my resolution, but once I delivered the speech and sat down, I was

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convinced that Trey wasn’t going to propose to me that day. Trey then proceeded to stand and deliver a resolution of his own. At the end of it, like in a dream, he got on one knee and asked me to be his wife. I will never, ever forget that moment, when all I could stutter out was a relieved “Yes” as he slipped a ring over my finger. That was the night we began the next chapter in our lives, and just three months later we became husband and wife. Independence Hall is known for many things, but for me…it’ll always and forever more be known as the place where Trey Green finally asked me to spend our lives together, to lock our shields, fight for freedom, and the pursuit of absolute truth. He also asked me to help in bringing up the next generation~ Teehee (Baby Patriots), through the pursuit of a Godly marriage. And of course my answer had to be “Yes. A thousand times yes.”

—Alexandra Green

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