Grateful American: A Journey from Self to Service(91)
I asked him if he felt scared going up in those bombers and having those big guns fired at him from the ground below, watching his buddies in other planes being shot down. Mission after mission, he went up and performed the same dangerous job. He said that when they approached the bomb site and the antiaircraft fire and flak were the most intense, as he looked through his scopes he was so focused on navigating for the bombardier that he didn’t have much time to be scared. Nobody wanted to be in that horror, but he and his fellow troops knew what they needed to do to survive. They had only two outcomes possible during those years. It was either live under tyranny or live in freedom. It was either kill or be killed. And they did what they had to do.
While Uncle Jack was forthcoming in discussing his war experience, I always felt that there was a lot more he experienced that he didn’t want to talk about, that he was simply unable to tell me about the many horrible things he’d witnessed during his time in World War II.
In addition to funding the historian, with the support of American Airlines we began flying groups of World War II veterans from all over the country to the museum. Sometimes we provide individual tickets for the veterans and their families, and other times the vets fly on special charters. In 2017, we began teaming each veteran with a high school student, so the older and younger generations could travel together. The older vets imparted lessons learned from the war years to the students. I have been on several of these trips myself, traveling with hundreds of veterans and many students since the program began, and it is such an honor to be able to do this. In time, after all our country’s World War II veterans are gone, we hope to continue the program by providing field trips for high school students to the museum. The significance of what happened during this conflict can never be underestimated. Future generations must understand and appreciate the price paid during World War II and the tremendous cost of freedom. The story told at the National World War II Museum is invaluable for our students’ education today, and I am so proud to be a supporter of this magnificent place.
As we grew as a foundation, we expanded our programs and outreach throughout the country. I contacted friends to ask if they’d become ambassadors for the foundation. If there’s ever an event I can’t attend, the ambassadors take my place and represent the foundation’s mission. They attend fund-raisers and ribbon cuttings. They write and speak. Each member of our Ambassadors Council is individually selected for exceptional character and patriotism.
Our first ambassador was comedian and actor Tom Dreesen, who’d served in the Marine Corps. Entertainers Joe Mantegna and D. B. Sweeney and celebrity chef Robert Irvine soon joined the council.
Medal of Honor recipients Sammy L. Davis, Drew Dix, and Jay Vargas joined, as did Mary Eisenhower from People to People International.
Prominent retired military personnel became ambassadors, including Lieutenant General Rick Lynch and his wife, Sarah Lynch; US Navy SEAL William Wagasy; Vietnam veteran Major Gary Weaver; and Captain John Woodall, a retired firefighter.
And wounded warriors round out the council today: Colonel Gregory Gadson, Sergeant Bryan Anderson, Staff Sergeant Travis Mills, Corporal Juan Dominguez, Corporal Garrett Jones, Master Sergeant Cedric King, Master Sergeant John Masson, Lieutenant Jason Redman, Sergeant First Class Mike Schlitz, and Captain Leslie Smith and her service dog, Isaac.
These friends all make an invaluable contribution to the outreach of the Gary Sinise Foundation.
Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time visiting wounded troops in hospitals. Some of these men and women are in there a long time. One of the marines I met at Naval Medical Center San Diego was Staff Sergeant Jason Ross. In March 2011, during his second deployment to Afghanistan, Jason lost both of his legs and part of his pelvic bone when an IED exploded. Doctors gave him less than a 2 percent chance of survival, but Jason never stopped fighting. Complications set in, and surgeons kept needing to take more and more from his legs until eventually all his hips were gone. To date, he’s undergone more than 240 surgeries. Basically, the entire lower half of his body is no longer there.
We built a smart home for Jason and his family in San Diego. When we handed over the keys to him in a ceremony, his six-year-old daughter, Stacy, asked to speak. “My daddy is Jason Ross,” she said. “When I was little, my daddy got hurt in Afghanistan. He was in the hospital for a long time. My daddy is strong and brave.” There wasn’t a dry eye in the entire crowd.
I tried to imagine what it would be like to undergo more than 240 surgeries. In 2007, through friends at the USO, I was introduced to DC-based businessman and military supporter, Bob Pence. Later that year, and again in 2009, he and I produced Lt. Dan Band concerts at the old Walter Reed in Washington, DC, to give warriors like Jason a morale boost and a little relief from the daily grind of rehabilitation. We were able to bring many patients from their rooms for some fun and music. On one of my trips to the Naval Medical Center, I raised a question with Vice Admiral Forrest Faison, at the time the commander of ten hospitals and thirty clinics from the West Coast to the Indian Ocean. I asked the vice admiral what he would think if we brought my band out to San Diego to throw a huge party for the hospital. We could get some food and provide all the patients and their families with a day of appreciation. He loved the idea.
On October 20, 2012, my foundation produced a military appreciation day, an event that began our Invincible Spirit Festival program. Initially, we planned to get food trucks to bring the meal, but before the event I received a tweet from celebrity chef Robert Irvine. I’d seen Robert’s show on the Food Network, Restaurant: Impossible. He knew of our work supporting the troops and said if there was anything he could do to help to please let him know. I wrote him back immediately, mentioned the festival, and asked him to come cook for everybody. He wrote, “I’m in. Give me the date.” Robert brought a team of volunteers and arranged for the food to be donated. We set up a stage and barbecues. For the children of the wounded, we rented inflatable bounce houses and rock-climbing walls and brought in clowns and face painting. We created a real festival atmosphere and held a Lt. Dan Band concert. Everyone who could join us—the patients, their families, and the hospital staff—had a great time.