World War II soldiers returning home to McMinn County, Tennessee, discovered that a corrupt political machine was in charge, protected by violent deputies, funded by racketeering, and kept in place by stolen elections. To restore free government, local veterans formed the nonpartisan GI ticket to oppose the machine at the next election, but on Election Day 1946, they found themselves assaulted and arrested. Outraged, vet Bill White rallied hundreds of troops for the shockingly violent Battle of Athens, and as Chris DeRose recounts here, these men who had fought for freedom at Guadalcanal, the Bulge, and Normandy risked their lives one more time to make sure every ballot is counted.