Brothers and Marine Corps Combat Veterans, Tim and Dan Cord, founded the band with fellow Marines and musicians in 2005. After serving 4 honorable years and 2 combat tours in Iraq, they decided to leave the Marine Corps to pursue a career in music in 2007. The brothers left the over-saturated Southern California music scene and moved to Utah, where they fell into true harmony with the addition of drummer, Phil Snyder, and bassist, Dave Briggs.In late 2009, the band was invited to be the first American rock band in 36 years to perform in Vietnam. At the Ho Chi Minh City Hard Rock Café, the American Hitmen brought a new and unfamiliar sound to the Vietnamese people, performing Aerosmith's "Walk This Way" with none other than Run DMC in front of a sold-out crowd, on the night of the Hard Rock grand opening.