| Specialist
Troy Yocum was born a few miles away from Churchill Downs on June 25th,
1979 in Louisville, Kentucky where he has lived most of his life. He
graduated from Trinity High School in 1997 and joined the Army National
Guard on August 21st, 2001 just days before 9/11. He spent 2 years in
the 151st Infantry out of Southern Indiana. His unit transferred to
Military Police and Yocum was placed into the Inactive Ready Reserve.
He graduated from Yellow Ambulance Emergency Medical Service Bureau in
2002 while still in the National Guard, and worked as a Basic E.M.T.
till 2004. He then decided that traveling across America was what he
wanted to do, so he received his commercial drivers license from Truck
America and worked at Stevens Transport out of Dallas, Texas for the
next four years. He was able to travel over a million miles and
to 48 out of 50 states including most of Canada. On the road he would
build experiences that helped propel the idea of hiking across America
to raise funds for military families. |
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Although Yocum has
memories of trying to play drums when he was a toddler, he didn't get
his first drum set until 1999. He sharpened his percussion skills by
playing with street musicians at local art and music festivals, taking
several road trips to play bucket drums at Mardi Gras, All Good
Festival, Bonnaroo Festival and New York City subway stations, and
further molding his talent with lessons from teachers at Mom's Music
and Flying Hands of Kentucky. He has been playing many shows and venues
ever since to raise money and awareness for charities such as Kentucky
Cancer Research Foundation (KCRF) and Kosair Charities for kids. He has
even performed at the Chemo Lounge at Jewish Hospital and schools for
the blind.
Yocum
has also drummed for up and coming artists spanning many different
genres: The Future Kill (disco/dance), Daniel Brown (rock opera),
Manifesto (hiphop/rap), The North (emo/rock), Bloomstreet (funk/jam
band), Trench (punk/groove rock), Patrick Bratton (r&b/neo-soul),
and Wax Melodic (funk/r&b). |
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n 2007 Yocum was presented with
a challenge by the his friend and event coordinator of KCRF, Ali Omar,
to help raise funds for cancer research by attempting the longest
drumming Guinness record. All plans were in order to play for the
Thunder over Louisville fireworks show kicking off the Derby season
when he received orders from the military to report for duty with the
100th battallion/442 Infantry of the pacific coast islands in Iraq and
Kuwait for a 13 month deployment.
After that he was sure that he
would not make the attempt for at least 15 months. When arriving in
Kuwait he got word that Ali had lost his long battle with cancer. He
then fought for the opportunity to attempt the record in Ali's honor.
He was able to plan the event with the help of his commander and the
USO. In order to beat the record he had to play over 120 hours in a row
with only taking a 5 minute break every hour. He had to play to
recognizable songs, without repeating within 4 hours and only 30
seconds of pause time in between. The performance was going well but
the weather turned for the worse and reached over 100 degrees forcing
him to cramp up and end his attempt on the second day. After that Troy
trained harder but postponed the next record attempt till he lived out
another dream: hiking across America to raise money for military
families through USA Cares. He took his small idea from 2001 and worked
as much as he could on it while overseas.
After arriving back home
in Louisville on August 6th, 2009 Troy has been working feverishly to
push past all obstacles and hurdles in-order to get the project
up and running.
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Family History
(All accounts are from family members and we are currently searching files to discover more) |
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On
Dec 8, 1941 (the day after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor) it was discussed
that 5 out of the 7 brothers from the Leake family (Troy's Great
Uncle's) would join the American effort in WWII.
Troy's Grandfather
Joseph Eugene Leake who was 16 at the time was not of legal age at it
was decided that he would stay at the family farm with his other
younger brother to take care of it while the other brothers would walk
15 miles from Raywick, Kentucky to Lebanon, Kentucky and join the Army.
This did not sit well with Joesph so he followed his brothers making
sure not to be seen. A few miles from Lebanon he was spotted and the
brothers scolded him and told him to go back home. He refused and
persuaded them to allow him to come along with them. To enlist he had
to lie about his age and he was vouched by his brothers. They all were
separated and sent to different parts of the world. |
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| When the
war ended all the brothers returned.. Tom "duff" Leake was pow and on
Baton Death March but he escaped during the final days of the war and
made it back safe. Ambrosse Leake was MIA but was eventually found in
Virginia listed as a John Doe. He had been tortured by the Germans in a
POW camp and had developed amnesia. Joseph Leake married Martha Eugene
and birthed two kids. Troy's Uncle Niki Leake and his mother Vickie. Niki would also enlist with the Army and serve for years |
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List of Awards:
Proclamation from Mayor Jerry Abramson
that August 6, 2009 is SPC Troy Yocum day in Louisville Ky,
Army Good Conduct medal,
National Defense Service Medal,
Global war on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal,
Global war on Terrorism Service Medal, Iraq Campaign Medal w/ Campaign Star,
Army Service Ribbon,
Over Seas Service Ribbon,
Armed Forces Reserves Medal W/ M Device,
Driver and Mechanic Badge with Mechanic Clasp,
100/442 Certificate of Achievement |
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