Greg and Travis McMichael:
Hear Their Side
About Travis by Leigh McMichael
Travis was born in
1986 in Brunswick, Georgia, and started school at Goodyear
Elementary in 1991. While in elementary school, he received “Good
Citizen” awards for his good manners and behavior. Travis was active
in Boy Scouts, T-ball and later baseball. He attended middle school
at Jane Macon and high school at Brunswick High. Travis has always
been an outdoorsman. Even as a child he always wanted to be outside.
He never wanted to sit down and watch television and rarely played
on the computer. Travis was popular with his friends in high school
and always made them laugh. Travis started working summers as a
lifeguard at the age of 15. A couple of summers later, Travis was
lifeguarding at a bereavement camp for children. One day, when the pool was full
of adults and children ranging from age six to twelve, Travis
spotted an African-American child at the bottom of the pool. Taking
quick action, he rescued the child from drowning. The adults did
not even realize what was going on until the child had been rescued.
In 2004, Travis
graduated high school. He briefly worked at a
local surveying company and then joined the Coast Guard in 2007.
After completing eight weeks of training in Cape May, New Jersey,
he was stationed in Alameda, California. He served
on the SS Sherman as a mechanic and boarding officer
and was
involved in drug interdiction on the West Coast. After three years
in California, Travis was transferred to Pascagoula, Mississippi,
where in 2010
he
helped with the clean-up of the Deep Water Horizon oil spill in the
Gulf. Travis transferred to the Mayport
station
in
Jacksonville, Florida, in 2012 and continued to serve as boarding officer and
mechanic. Once, he saved an
older couple in the St. Johns River in Jacksonville when their boat hit
a jetty and sank.
During his Coast
Guard career, Travis received several
commendations and went through several schools, including
firearms training
with
Federal Law Enforcement Training (FLETC) in Virginia, a
course that included training in the use of
force. Travis left the Coast Guard with an honorable
discharge in 2016. That same year, his son was born.
Travis and his son’s mother settled down in Brunswick. Unfortunately, the relationship fell apart when Travis’s son was two years old, and they decided to separate. Travis and his son’s mother share joint custody. Travis is very dedicated to his son and before his arrest took him along wherever he went. In 2018, Travis’s landlord sold the place he was renting, and he moved in with Greg and me and began working to save up for a home for him and his son. In January 2019, Travis got the job of his dreams at Metson Marine. The company contracted with Kings Bay Naval Base, and Travis was captain of a small boat that escorted subs in and out of the base. He also worked as a mechanic. Little would we know how our lives would change forever a year later.
In February 2020, Greg had just retired after
honorably serving and protecting the citizens of
Glynn County for more than 30 years. I
was still working as a Utilization Review Nurse, having spent
nearly 40 years as a registered nurse--a job that I loved--but I too was planning for retirement. Greg and I had decided that we wanted to buy a
travel trailer and tour the U.S.A.
We had raised our children, and we had lived long enough to welcome
another generation into the McMichael family.
Then came February 23, 2020, the worst day of our lives, stories about which have taken various forms. To learn more, see February 23, 2020 and The Narratives.
In the following weeks, I’ll be updating this website with facts and other information, including photos, videos and other evidence that has been marginalized at best and suppressed at worse by global media outlets, government prosecutors and groups and organizations with agendas that have nothing to do with this case.
Until then, I ask that you please consider donating to the Greg and Travis McMichael Defense Fund found at
https://givesendgo.com/McMichaeldefense.
If you’d like more information, please email us at
info@mcmichaeltrial.com
Travis in Coast Guard
