Lee Greenwood Revives Soldier Valley Spirits for America’s 250th Birthday — And It’s More Than Just Whiskey
There are celebrity spirits, and then there are spirits born out of something deeper — a decades-long commitment to the men and women who serve this country, a veteran-run distillery that got its start in the American Midwest, and a musician whose name has become synonymous with patriotism in a way that very few entertainers can legitimately claim. When Lee Greenwood announced the return of Soldier Valley Spirits in June 2026, it wasn’t a product launch. It was a statement.
As America prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, country music icon Lee Greenwood is bringing back Soldier Valley Spirits, an award-winning collection of American-made bourbon, whiskey, and vodka created to honor veterans, support charities, and celebrate the values that unite the nation. The timing is no accident, and neither is the packaging, the mash bill, or the list of charitable recipients. Every detail of Soldier Valley Spirits, from the distillery floor to the retail shelf, has been built around a mission that predates any marketing pitch — and that mission is getting its biggest platform yet.
The Origins: A Nebraska Veteran With a Big Idea
To understand why the Soldier Valley Spirits relaunch matters, you have to go back to where it started. Jeff Hadden, a former U.S. Army National Guardsman and proprietor of Soldier Valley Spirits and Patriarch Distillers, had an “aha” moment in 2011: craft-made bourbon whiskey bottled in glass replica World War II-era canteens, each embossed with an allusive numeral six. The concept wasn’t dreamed up by a marketing agency or assembled by brand consultants. It came from a man with military service in his bones and an abiding respect for the community he came from.
He started Soldier Valley Spirits in 2013 — one of Omaha’s first craft distilleries in this century, though the city’s history as a whiskey center actually goes back to the 1860s, when Willow Springs Distilling Co. operated in the area. That lineage matters in the craft spirits world. Omaha isn’t Bardstown, Kentucky, and it doesn’t pretend to be. But it has its own legitimate whiskey heritage, and Hadden tapped into it deliberately, building a brand that carries both regional pride and national purpose…