A Virginia man arrived at the Richmond airport on Thursday after he was released from custody on the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), where he had been detained for having ammunition in his luggage.

Tyler Wenrich – a 31-year-old husband and father – is one of five Americans arrested and detained on the islands since February for having stray ammunition in their luggage, a crime punishable for up to 12 years on the islands.

The other detained Americans are Ryan Watson, 40, of Oklahoma; Sharitta Grier, 45, of Florida; Bryan Hagerich, 39, of Pennsylvania; and Michael Lee Evans, 72, of Texas.

PENNSYLVANIA MAN RETURNS HOME AFTER DETAINMENT IN TURKS AND CAICOS FOR AMMO IN HIS LUGGAGE

Tyler Wenrich and his family pose with Representative Bob Good as he returns to Richmond Virginia, Thursday, May 30, 2024. Wenrich was ordered to pay a $9,000 fine for unknowingly possessing ammunition in his luggage while visiting the islands. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)

Wenrich was greeted by applause as he touched down at Richmond International Airport after spending three weeks in jail and paying $9,000 in fines for unknowingly possessing ammunition in his luggage while visiting the island nation.

“It feels good to be back with my wife and my kid,” Wenrich told reporters after embracing gleeful friends and family. “I’m just exhausted and honestly happy to be back.”

Tyler Wenrich embraces Representative Bob Good as he returns to Richmond Virginia, Thursday, May 30, 2024. Wenrich was ordered to pay a $9,000 fine for unknowingly possessing ammunition in his luggage while visiting the islands. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)

Wenrich said that his imprisonment and eventual release back to the U.S. was a “roller coaster,” thanking his friends, family and elected officials.

PENNSYLVANIA DAD DETAINED IN TURKS AND CAICOS TO RETURN HOME AFTER PAYING FINE FOR HAVING AMMO IN LUGGAGE

“It’s been a roller coaster, and I’m thankful for friends, family and representatives involved in trying to get us back,” he said. “Rep. Bob Good and Chris Snyder have been fantastic, as well as a lot of the other representatives in trying to get us back home. We appreciate it.”

Tyler Wenrich speaks to the media as he returns to Richmond Virginia, Thursday, May 30, 2024. Wenrich was ordered to pay a $9,000 fine for unknowingly possessing ammunition in his luggage while visiting the islands.  (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)

The 31-year-old said that it was “going to be amazing” to get to hold his toddler son again.

“It’s going to be amazing, just to hold him in my arms again,” Wenrich said. “I didn’t know if it was going to happen again.”

He said that the past three weeks, since his imprisonment in the TCI, have been filled with “anxiety” and “excitement.”

“It’s been a lot of anxiety and a lot of excitement to see family again,” he told reporters.

Tyler Wenrich poses next to a firearms warning sign with his friend as he returns to Richmond Virginia, Thursday, May 30, 2024. Wenrich was ordered to pay a $9,000 fine for unknowingly possessing ammunition in his luggage while visiting the islands. (The Image Direct for Fox News Digital)

Wenrich was initially arrested on April 20 following a wedding party in Turks and Caicos and pleaded guilty in court on Monday, when both prosecutors and his defense team presented oral arguments, he told Fox News Digital.

Wenrich had traveled from Virginia to Florida, where he boarded a Royal Caribbean cruise ship and then docked in Turks and Caicos. Cruise ship security found two stray bullets in his bag when he was about to board the ship to go back home.

VIRGINIA MAN DETAINED IN TURKS AND CAICOS RECALLS MOMENT HE KNEW ‘THINGS WERE GOING SIDEWAYS‘

“It’s a backpack… that I hadn’t used in a while, but I had used it previously for carrying supplies in my car and going to the shooting range. So I pulled it out for this trip, checked it, went through TSA security, went through port security in Miami. It was about a day and a half sail to Grand Turk, and then we spent a day here,” Wenrich previously told Fox News Digital. “So it was about 8 to 9 hours that we spent on the island. And then when I was boarding the ship, the Royal Caribbean cruise ship, they scanned the bag, found one bullet, scanned the bag again, found the second bullet.” 

Tyler Wenrich is also facing a minimum 12-year prison sentence after two stray bullets were found in his bag while traveling home from Turks and Caicos. (Michael Wenrich)

Cruise ship authorities then sent Wenrich to local police, which is the moment he “knew things were going sideways.”

The other Americans arrested in Turks for having stray ammo, including Sharitta Grier of Florida, Ryan Watson of Oklahoma and Michael Lee Evans of Texas, were arrested at airports on the islands.

“Everybody else has been at the airport, so that’s a lot different than their cases,” Wenrich said of his own case. “But as far as the charge goes, it’s very similar. We were actually able to meet with them in person last week and go to lunch and kind of talk about those things, as well. But we keep in daily communication with each other.”

AMERICANS ARRESTED IN TURKS AND CAICOS FACE 12 YEARS IN PRISON OVER ‘INNOCENT MISTAKE’: ‘NEVER DAWNED ON US’

A bipartisan U.S. congressional delegation visited TCI officials on Monday to discuss the arrests of five Americans over an ammunition possession law. (TCI Governor’s Office)

Wenrich said the support he and his family have received from both friends and locals back home, as well as from the other Americans in Turks and Caicos, has been “phenomenal.”

Govs. Youngkin, Sitt and Shapiro sent a letter to Turks and Caicos Gov. Dileeni Daniel-Selvaratnam to urge the release of Watson, Hagerich and Wenrich.

TURKS AND CAICOS COURT HEARING FOR AMERICAN ARRESTED WITH AMMO IN BAG COULD SET NEW PRECEDENT

“Like thousands of Americans each year, these individuals traveled to your beautiful territory recently for leisure,” the governors wrote in a joint letter shared with Fox News Digital. “They have all maintained that they did not intend to bring ammunition into Turks and Caicos, and any ammunition unknowingly left in their luggage was the result of lawful conduct in the United States. We understand that none of them were carrying firearms.”

Five Americans have been arrested in Turks and Caicos since February for carrying ammo in airports on the island. From left to right: Michael Lee Evans (no photo), Bryan Hagerich, Tyler Wenrich, Ryan Watson and Sharitta Grier (Turks and Caicos Police/ Dimitrios Kambouris )

Various members of Congress have spoken publicly about the issue of Americans being detained in Turks and Caicos over ammunition possession. A congressional delegation met with TCI government leaders earlier this month to discuss the potential release of Americans detained over the ammunition ordinance, to no avail.

“The U.S. delegation raised five cases of US nationals currently before the courts, concern for their well-being and clarification on the legal process,” the TCI Governor’s Office said in a May 13 statement. “In order to maintain the integrity of the legal process, the Governor confirmed it would not be appropriate to facilitate the delegation’s request to meet with the Chief Justice.”

The governor and the premier also said “they cannot intervene nor comment on ongoing legal cases before the courts,” the statement continued. “They explained that the Turks and Caicos Islands have clear laws prohibiting the possession of firearms and/or ammunition and strict penalties are in place to serve and protect all who reside and visit the Turks and Caicos Islands.”

Fox News Digital’s Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.

USA Today’s recent debacle over its deleted op-ed penned by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., is the latest in a series of bizarre editorial decisions made by the newspaper giant. 

Fox News Digital broke the story last week about how several USA Today Network’s Louisiana-based newspapers quietly removed Kennedy’s opinion piece on his opposition towards trans athletes competing in women’s sports from their websites without telling the lawmaker and replacing it with an error message.

Its parent company Gannett told Fox News Digital the op-ed “did not meet our ethical guidelines, which state we will treat people with respect” and stood by its decision to pull the op-ed despite the fact that it did not express any objections to the senator’s piece before publishing. Kennedy accused Gannett of trying to “silence the position it disagrees with.”

After Fox News Digital reached out seeking comment, Gannett added a disclaimer to the once-broken links noting the content “has been removed because it did not meet our editorial standards.”

But this isn’t the first time that the editorial staff at USA Today has raised eyebrows.

USA TODAY NEWSPAPERS QUIETLY DELETE GOP SENATOR’S OP-ED ON TRANS ATHLETES WITHOUT TELLING HIM

In March 2021, USA Today published an op-ed from Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams, who appeared to support boycotts against her state during the uproar at the time over a GOP-backed election reform law ahead of her second bid for governor. 

“The impassioned response to the racist, classist bill that is now the law of Georgia is to boycott in order to achieve change,” Abrams originally wrote. “Events hosted by major league baseball, world class soccer, college sports and dozens of Hollywood films hang in the balance. At the same time, activists urge Georgians to swear off of hometown products to express our outrage. Until we hear clear, unequivocal statements that show Georgia-based companies get what’s at stake, I can’t argue with an individual’s choice to opt for their competition.”

She continued, “However, one lesson of boycotts is that the pain of deprivation must be shared to be sustainable. Otherwise, those least resilient bear the brunt of these actions; and in the aftermath, they struggle to access the victory. And boycotts are complicated affairs that require a long-term commitment to action. I have no doubt that voters of color, particularly Black voters, are willing to endure the hardships of boycotts. But I don’t think that’s necessary — yet… I ask you to bring your business to Georgia and, if you’re already here, stay and fight. Stay and vote.”

USA TODAY UNDER FIRE FOR ALLOWING STACEY ABRAMS TO RETROACTIVELY EDIT OP-ED TO DOWNPLAY BOYCOTT SUPPORT

USA Today was under fire after it allowed Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams to edit her op-ed so that she can water down her support of boycotts after the MLB pulled its 2021 All-Star game out of Atlanta.  (Dustin Chambers/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

However, after the MLB pulled its All-Star game from Atlanta in protest of the law, USA Today allowed Abrams to retroactively edit her op-ed to water down her boycott support without placing an editor’s note. 

“The impassioned (and understandable) response to the racist, classist bill that is now the law of Georgia is to boycott in order to achieve change. Events that can bring millions of dollars to struggling families hang in the balance. Major League Baseball pulled both its All-Star Game and its draft from Georgia, which could cost our state nearly $100 million in lost revenue,” Abrams’ revisions read. “Rather than accept responsibility for their craven actions, Republican leaders blame me and others who have championed voting rights (and actually read the bill). Their faux outrage is designed to hide the fact that they prioritized making it harder for people of color to vote over the economic well-being of all Georgians. To add to the injury, the failed former president is now calling for cancellation of baseball as the national pastime.”

“Boycotts invariably also cost jobs. To be sustainable, the pain of deprivation must be shared rather than borne by those who are least resilient… I have no doubt that voters of color, particularly Black voters, are willing to endure the hardships of boycotts. But such monetary loss is unlikely to affect the stubborn, frightened Republicans who see voter suppression as their only way to win. Money isn’t quite as seductive as political power to these putative leaders. “

Her revised op-ed adds, “Instead of a boycott, I strongly urge other events and productions to do business in Georgia and speak out against our law and similar proposals in other states.” 

A spokesperson for Gannett at the time told Fox News Digital, “We regret the oversight in updating the Stacey Abrams column. As soon as we recognized there was no editor’s note, we added it to the page to reflect her changes. We have reviewed our procedures to ensure this does not occur again.”

EX-USA TODAY EDITOR TELLS WHY HE SPOKE OUT AGAINST THE PAPER’S WOKE REPORTING: ‘THE PLACE HAS GONE OFF THE RAILS’

Later that year, USA Today was caught stealth-editing multiple pieces after its sports columnist decried the “racist” Atlanta Braves team name. 

Bob Nightengale, USA Today’s MLB writer, penned a piece titled “MLB, club won’t budge on Atlanta baseball team’s nickname, but here’s why I won’t use it” that began by listing the “blatantly racist” caricatures and the “offensive” mascot that were previously removed and how headdresses, face paint and the famous “tomahawk chop” chant at games became “strongly discouraged.” 

“In recent years, I have tried to avoid using Atlanta’s nickname in columns,” Nightengale wrote. “Copy editors have occasionally changed it in my copy because until now this has been my private stance. Several readers picked up on the name appearing in my articles during Atlanta’s World Series run, and after talking it over with my editors, I have decided to explain my stance here and make more of a concerted effort to keep the name out of my columns.”

USA Today was caught stealth editing its columns to scrub “Braves” from its pieces about the Atlanta Braves after its sports writer decried the team name as racist.. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Nightengale’s past coverage of the Braves underwent a jarring makeover. His column from the weekend originally had the headline, “Sweet revenge: Atlanta Braves knock off Los Angeles Dodgers to advance to World Series,” according to The Wayback Machine. That was changed to read, “Sweet revenge: Atlanta knocks off Los Angeles Dodgers to advance to World Series.”

Every reference to the “Braves” was removed from the piece. 

The stealth-editing similarly occurred with another piece, originally titled, “Mighty Dodgers are reeling, frustrated after two walk-off NLCS wins for the Braves,” now titled “Mighty Dodgers are reeling, frustrated after two walk-off NLCS wins for Atlanta.” All uses of the word “Braves” in the piece were also scrubbed. 

USA TODAY STEALTH EDITS, SCRUBS ‘BRAVES’ FROM COLUMNS AS SPORTS WRITER DECRIES ‘RACIST’ TEAM NAME

Both articles were timestamped as “updated” on Oct. 25, two days before Nightengale’s piece slamming the Braves team name was published. No editor’s note was initially added acknowledging the changes, though one of them included an unrelated correction. 

A spokesperson referred to the stealth-edits as an “oversight,” telling Fox News Digital the stories have been “corrected” with an editor’s note, which reads, “A previous version of this column was edited to remove the team name after it had been originally published. Due to an editing change, the team name was inserted without the author’s knowledge.”

David Mastio, a former deputy editorial page editor for USA Today, left Gannett in 2022 after roughly 25 years because of its left-wing transformation. 

“USA Today had always previously been a place that welcomed vocal conservatives, that welcomed having my opinion out there. And, you know, I just didn’t feel it was that kind of place anymore. And so I needed to leave,” Mastio previously told Fox News Digital. “And I certainly wasn’t going to get promoted again, and I wasn’t going to be the next editorial page editor. So, you know, they said the next time I screwed up, I was going to be fired. So I thought it was better to leave before being fired.”

FORMER USA TODAY EDITOR WARNS GANNETT: YOU’RE ON A ‘ROAD TO RUIN’ BY WRITING OFF HALF THE COUNTRY

Before leaving on his own terms, Mastio threatened to take legal action against Gannett following a nasty feud that began when he wrote on social media “People who are pregnant are also women,” which he said was in response to a USA Today report that claimed transgender men can get pregnant.

By the time Mastio left USA Today, a “good number of conservatives” who worked in the newsroom were either laid off or accepted buyouts over the years and were “replaced with the young, inexpensive, woke workers.” 

He was compelled to speak out after it was reported that Gannett was scaling back the editorial pages of its newspapers in an effort to combat readers’ perception of liberal bias, but he was particularly irked when his former boss, then-USA Today opinion editor Kristen DelGuzzi, claimed, “This is part of the overall evolution of our industry… The opinion pages feel like the last part of the newsroom to evolve.”

“I just thought that was wildly untrue. And it made me want to say something,” Mastio told Fox News Digital. “The conservative editorial pages had been shut down and replaced with liberal editorial pages all over the country… and I thought that the opinion sections going out across the country had evolved a lot over the last ten years and that readers had decided that they weren’t good anymore. And so I thought that story needed to be told.”

Mastio offered a direct plea to Gannett to change its ways “before it’s too late.”

“There are tons of really good people and really good journalists across Gannett’s newspapers, and I think that they’re putting themselves on a road to ruin by writing off half of their readers, half of their potential customers,” Mastio said. “And I would much rather have Gannett be saved because there’s so much good there than this small group of loud, woke journalists, you know, driving it into a ditch.” 

Gannett did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

FIRST ON FOX: A World War II hero from backwoods Georgia inspires Americans today even from the grave. 

The story of U.S. Army PFC Ervin O. Jones is worthy of a song.

Craig Gleason, a Georgia songwriter, penned “The Ballad of Ervin O. Jones” in 2014, after he and his daughter came across the soldier’s headstone in a churchyard cemetery in the city of Alpharetta. 

AMERICAN WORLD WAR II HEROES, ADOPTED IN ‘FACES OF MARGRATEN’ PROJECT BY ‘GRATEFUL’ DUTCH PEOPLE

“It’s a powerful story, man. It’s powerful,” Gleason said Sunday in a telephone interview with Fox News Digital.

Gleason, in turn, teaches the art of songwriting to struggling veterans who attend Warrior Week each month at Camp Southern Ground in Fayetteville, Georgia.

Grammy Award-winning musician Zac Brown founded the camp in 2011. Gleason is a former coordinator for the Nashville Songwriters Association. 

Gleason looked at a church cemetery near his home in Alpharetta as an opportunity to learn about, and teach his daughter, then aged 12, about local history.

“When you homeschool your children, you use real-life experiences, every place you go and everyone you meet, as a learning experience,” said Gleason. 

THESE 5 US MILITARY CEMETERIES IN SURPRISING NATIONS ARE LASTING REMINDERS OF AMERICA’S GLOBAL SACRIFICE

It’s the same skill used by songwriters to take everyday experiences and interpret them for others through the human gift of music. 

“I told Audrey, you can learn a lot from these tombstones.” 

The Gleasons found out about a hometown hero buried in their midst. Along the way, they earned a lesson about the grief that grips a family decades after wartime loss. 

U.S. Army PFC Ervin O. Jones of Alpharetta, Georgia, was just 20 years old when he was killed during the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. His gravestone inspired musician Craig Gleason to write “The Ballad of Ervin O. Jones.” (Jones Family/Craig Gleason)

PFC Jones was just 20 years old when he was killed on the island of Ieshima during the Battle of Okinawa on April 17, 1945, as Americans forces closed in on the home islands of Imperial Japan. 

Gleason was haunted by the grave and was moved to write about the soldier. But he wanted to know the real story about the young man resting under the headstone near his home. 

He soon learned that PFC Jones’ younger brother, Curtis, was still alive and living nearby, in Canton, Georgia. 

MEMORIAL DAY: IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT THE SOLEMN AMERICAN HOLIDAY

“Curtis was living in a little trailer out in the woods and I knocked on his door and introduced myself,” said Gleason. “I said, ‘I’m writing a song about your brother Ervin’ and asked if we could talk.”

He added, “Curtis was like old-school backwoods Georgia. Real salt of the Earth. He invited me in and for the next three or four hours in his living room he pulled out artifacts, pictures and an old guitar that Ervin owned.” 

Turns out that Gleason and the forever-young dirt-poor Georgia farmboy shared the gift of music.

Curtis Jones, now deceased, lived his adult life with the pain of his older brother’s death during World War II. PFC Ervin O. Jones was killed on the Japanese island of Ieshima on April 17, 1945.  (Jones Family/Craig Gleason)

“We laughed and cried, and by the end I felt like I had become part of that family within just a few hours.”

Among other things, Gleason learned that the former stranger, PFC Jones, died a hero. 

“His courage and aggressiveness in this action was truly an inspiration to the officers and men in his company,” his commanding officer, Capt. William B. Cooper, wrote in July 1945, in a letter addressed to the soldier’s mother, Jennie. 

(Here’s the song below, embedded with permission from Craig Gleason, creator and copyright owner.)

One of Gleason’s most painful discoveries was that Jones’ parents never fully coped with the overwhelming grief they suffered upon learning of their son’s death.

“Granny Jennie and Papa Harmon never mentioned Ervin, and we visited them every Sunday until they passed,” PFC’s nephew and his wife, John and Judy Jones, said via text message on Sunday.

“American patriots and war heroes, much like songs, grow from the most humble circumstances.”

“The pain of the loss of their firstborn son Ervin never went away and they grieved until they died.”

Gleason learned one other lesson — a powerful lesson he said he tries to pass on to aspiring musicians, veterans, everyday Americans and the people for whom he performs “The Ballad of Ervin O. Jones.”

He learned that American patriots and war heroes, much like songs, grow from the most humble circumstances.

Army PFC Ervin O. Jones was killed on April 17, 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa. His Georgia grave inspired musician Craig Gleason to write “The Ballad of Ervin O. Jones” seven decades later. (Jones Family/Craig Gleason and Will Lester/MediaNews Group/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin via Getty Images)

He writes, and sings, in the last lines of the ballad: “From the lowlands to the highlands / Across every stick and stone / Came heroes who gave and lost their lives / Heroes like Ervin O. Jones.”

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