Original subtitles

[soft piano music]

Downloaded from YTS.BZ

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.BZ

[gentle music]

My name is Dennet Oregon.

I was a Staff Sergeant in the US Army.

Brandon Dodson, Staff Sergeant, E6.

Jasmine Dodson,

and I was the corporal in the Marine Corps.

Shane McKenzie.

I served in the United States Navy for 29 years.

I was in a special mission unit, Naval Special Warfare.

My name is Leslie Nicole Smith,

and I'm a retired Army captain,

and I served as a Public Affairs Officer in the Army.

Stuart DiPaolo, Staff Sergeant, E6.

My name is Nick Kimmel.

I was a Sergeant in the United States Marine Corps.

Sean Perseo, a United States Marine.

I took part in Desert Storm, Mogadishu, and Somalia.

My name is Dan Prince.

I'm a Navy veteran

and a veteran from the Coast Guard Reserves,

and a veteran with the Fire Department of New York.

The military was 39 years total.

The fire department was 36 years.

All good.

My name is Susan McLaughlin.

Robert Nelson McLaughlin.

[Interviewer] Military you were in.

I got out as a lance corporal,

but I made corporal four times.

[gentle music]

Hi, everyone.

You guys hear me?

[gentle music]

[woman] It's so great to see all the team members out here today.

We're super excited to have Gary Sinise

and his team joining us in Fort Mill

at our Sunbelt Support Office

as we plan the next phase of this incredible partnership

that we've had with the Gary Sinise Foundation,

being able to impact so many lives.

When Gary goes into his nonprofit giving back mode,

it's life-changing.

Gary represents passion and commitment.

There's very few people that motivate character.

And Gary Sinise is one of those guys

that's motivated that in me.

It's hard to put into words what he means to all of us.

He literally gave me my life back.

I thought he was a great guy before I even met him.

Like, I thought he was like,

like this guardian angel type character, you know?

And without further ado.

[crowd cheering and applauding]

Thank you. Thanks, Karen.

[crowd applauding]

Hi, everybody. Good?

[Crowd] Yeah! [crowd cheering]

Good. Wonderful to be here. Thank you.

You know, when I started the Foundation,

I really wanted to create something

that our fellow citizens would value as a trusted resource

for supporting the men and women who serve our country,

our first responders, our wounded, our Gold Star Families,

to create this sort of rallying point

where people could come together and support each other

and help those in need who have served our country.

I know we have a veteran here, Robert.

[crowd cheering and applauding]

And his wife, Susan.

What we are doing today is making the life

of one of our teammates and her husband,

you know, a lot more manageable.

He was a Vietnam era veteran.

-Hello, sir. -United States Marine.

-How are you? -I'm Gary.

I know.

[Gary laughing]

Not as mobile as he used to be.

A lot of surgeries, ailments, inability to walk at times.

You know, we're always trying to do a little more

at the Gary Sinise Foundation

to help our service members with various needs

and things to make life a little better

for all that you've done in service to our country.

[man] So we were asked if there was a possibility

to reach out to Gary Sinise Foundation.

Gary says we can all do a little more.

Could you guys get a new vehicle?

It was just, you know, an extra added treat

to be able to provide this adapted vehicle

to make things a little easier for the family

and to be able to get Robert out

of the house more easily.

God bless you for serving our country.

No one does more than Gary Sinise.

And he does it with grace and humility

that gives us a guiding light to say, do more,

and continue to honor those that have defended our freedoms.

And so we provide these,

you know, specially adapted vehicles.

We've done, you know, tons of them for service members

who are, you know, have some physical challenges.

And so to be able to come here today

on top of meeting everybody and thanking everybody

and to be able to give that vehicle away was a real treat.

I mean, the guy helps everybody.

He finds out somebody needs help, he helps them.

I mean, I just found that out. [laughs]

There's nobody like him. Nobody.

He is a role model for humanity.

[tense music]

[Interviewer] The name of the movie

is "The Ballad of Lieutenant Dan."

It's not a real song, but if it was a song.

-Yeah. -[interviewer] What would it be about?

[chuckles softly] It would be stirring, that's for sure.

Oh, well, you know, I am a sucker for these kind of songs.

Do you remember a song called "The Green Berets"?

♪ Make him one of America's best ♪

♪ The man [indistinct] Someday ♪

♪ The man him win the Green Beret ♪

And people thought it was corny. I thought it was great.

I mean, I love that kind of thing.

I like that kind of patriotism.

I would say his trials and tribulations

of when he did lose his legs

and getting back on his feet,

so to speak, be a good message to get across to people that,

hey, you know, just because you're not a complete body,

you can still do things.

It's still a positive message.

"The Ballad of Lieutenant Dan"

is the love of one's brother.

And I think in a way, that's the ballad, in a way,

of Gary Sinise, in a way too.

As an old philosophy major, and I love psychology,

what makes a guy like this?

[gentle music]

I grew up in the Chicago area, family of veterans.

I meet my wife. I meet her brothers.

I meet her sister.

I meet her sister's husband.

I've got my dad was in the Navy, his two brothers,

World War II veterans, one in the Army Air Corps,

the other one in the Navy,

their father an ambulance driver in the Army in World War I.

So when you ask where it starts,

it starts there with this long sort of family history.

But it wasn't until I met my wife's two brothers

and they started talking to me about what they'd been doing

just a few years before I met them in Vietnam

that really got my attention.

And I started thinking a lot about that.

And so later on in the '80s,

I was the artistic director of Steppenwolf Theater

at the time.

And I wanted to find a play to work on

that would speak to the Vietnam veteran experience.

And I found one that was written by a group of veterans.

And then mid '90s, I had the opportunity to audition

for playing a Vietnam veteran.

Morning, sir!

Oh, get your hands down.

Do not salute me.

There are goddamn snipers all around this area

who'd love to grease an officer.

I'm Lieutenant Dan Taylor. Welcome to Fort Platoon.

In some ways, I felt like I had been teed up.

Goddammit, kick some ass.

I'm on it, Lieutenant.

Get on it.

I think him playing the role, he understood us.

Lieutenant Dan, Ice cream.

I think it's extraordinary

that he plays a role in the movie

and becomes so attached to that role

and so identified with that role.

He doesn't continue making movies playing that character.

He plays it in real life.

I had a destiny,

I was supposed to die in the field with honor.

That was my destiny.

When he played that role,

it was so realistic and so spot on

that I think for him even,

he felt the role so much is what part of it was to go out

to the public and say, hey, how can we help these heroes?

But really what solidified him was 9/11.

[gentle music]

It was a paranoid time. It was a difficult time.

And my heart was broken during that time.

And President Bush had kind of declared

that we were gonna have a national day of prayer

in remembrance for the victims of September 11th.

All the houses of worship across the country,

wherever they were, they were just packed, filled,

everybody trying to process what had happened.

We got there and there were no seats

and we were standing against the wall.

I'm holding my little daughter's hand

and just crying through the service.

And I heard something that day about you can help heal

that broken heart by reaching out and touching somebody.

And I started discovering that service was a great healer

for a broken heart.

So I started raising my hand.

[gentle music]

And I started visiting our troops.

I would go overseas, volunteered for the USO.

How many saw "Forest Gump"?

[crowd cheering]

And I'm Gary Sinise and I play Lieutenant Dan.

[crowd cheering]

We are at Camp Udairi 15 miles from the border of Iraq.

About a thousand guys in here

and they told me to kind of move a little bit faster.

No take so much time talking everybody.

I wanna talk to everybody.

This is my first USO tour.

[crowd cheering]

But it's the first of many.

[crowd cheering]

This is a guy that when the lights go off

and the camera stops rolling and every say,

"Well, that's a wrap, go on home,"

he's just beginning.

He's now doing the real thing.

He's doing those kinds of things

that they make those movies about,

and he doesn't need to do it.

Welcome to Baghdad.

And I did about six or seven of those tours

where I just go as Lieutenant Dan.

Make sure I look pretty.

Shake hands and take pictures.

Talk to the troops on the microphone.

[Troops] Lieutenant Dan!

All right!

'Cause if I had a nickel

for every time somebody's called me that this week,

guy could retire and just do USO shows.

And every time I did one of those, I'd tell the USO,

you know, I have some musicians that I play with.

[crowd cheering]

Every USO thing I've done, they got Gary Sinise there.

Ah. Ah. No, I'm being silly.

But it is funny 'cause he's always been there first.

[crowd cheering]

Gary's probably been deployed more than 80%

of our military forces.

He's been to Iraq and Afghanistan dozens of times

more than I have.

-Say hey. -Hey!

-Hey. -Hey!

♪ Say hey-ey-ye ♪

♪ Hey-ey-ye ♪

♪ Say hey-ey-ye ♪

♪ Hey-ey-ye ♪

♪ Say baby ♪

♪ Baby ♪

♪ Baby ♪

♪ Baby ♪

And now the band has done over 570 some shows.

Everybody in the band is a professional musician.

That's how they make their living.

[upbeat rock music]

[Artist] Do it three times!

Two times!

One time!

I'm the guy that is the amateur who works for free

because I love playing

and I love seeing what it does for the men and women

that we're trying to help,

and the kids and the families and everybody

that we're trying to help.

[upbeat rock music]

[crowd cheering]

[upbeat rock music]

[crowd continues cheering]

[Crowd] USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

There's just years and years

of all these seeds being planted along the way

that grew into the Gary Sinise Foundation.

[gentle music]

They have a program for World War II veterans

that they take them to the World War II Museum.

I'm gonna give it that to you, sir.

There's a nicer lasagna for you.

These good Italian boys over here.

[veterans laughing]

They like it to eat.

I'm honored to be here with you and to have you here.

Take a look above your head, Russell.

-Oh. -Look at that.

And that's paired with a education program

with high school students

'cause they usually have a high school student

accompany every veteran.

And then they have new programs for school first responders.

They also have the Snowball Express Program,

which is a huge, amazing program

that takes Gold Star Families to Disney World

for an entire week.

They own Disney World for a whole week.

[gentle music]

So Gold Star wife, it's someone who has lost her spouse,

you know, in the conflict.

So a Gold Star mother, they've lost their child.

If Gary Sinise really was a soldier,

I'm not sure he could have accomplished

as much as Gary Sinise, the civilian,

helping soldiers has accomplished.

I have to tell you,

the other night when you asked Zach how he was doing,

that was the first non-family member

or outside of our military community

that has asked him how he was doing.

Hey there, bud.

[Zach] Thank you.

[gentle music]

We all care about you.

He wants to reach as many people as possible

through as many ways as possible.

And I think sometimes probably his executive team

has to reign him in a little bit

'cause he just wants to be everywhere all the time.

[gentle music]

Foundation has been around a long time.

We're doing all kinds of things.

If you go to our foundation website,

we're doing all kinds of good things.

One of those programs builds,

specially adapted smart technology,

mortgage-free housing for the men and women

who have sacrificed, who have been wounded.

[crowd applauding]

And we've provided 93 specially adapted homes

over the years.

We're about next week, we give away our 94th home.

[bright music]

-Am I talking to you? -You're talking right here.

[Interviewer] Sure, I guess I'll be

the focal point for you.

Why don't you just go ahead and tell us a little bit

about what we're doing here today

and what this beautiful home is behind you.

[bright music]

My name's Gib Bosworth,

and I'm the vice president of the R.I.S.E program

here at the Gary Sinise Foundation.

We're here celebrating a special Veterans Day

here in Nolensville, Tennessee.

Behind me is our specially adapted smart home

for an amazing hero, Joshua Hargis and his wife, Taylor,

and their two boys.

And it couldn't be more appropriate than on Veterans Day,

Tennessee, where patriotism is shining with a bright light.

[bright music]

When the family comes in,

we're just gonna give them a moment

to first react to the house.

[Gary] Looking good.

[bright music]

-There we go. -Aw.

[Crew] That's beautiful.

[bright music]

Well, on this Veteran's Day,

Gary Sinise is presenting

a brand new mortgage-free smart home

to one of our nation's most wounded heroes.

He joins us now,

and I got to tell you, Gary, I'm the father of a vet

who are so grateful for the work that you do.

So thank you for devoting your life to the Veterans cause.

It's such a noble cause. I got to tell you.

There's one veteran in particular,

a guy named Josh, Joshua Hargis.

I hope I'm pronouncing his name right.

Tell us a little about him

because he's a guy who got a house through your foundation.

Well, thanks for having me, David.

I'm actually here at Joshua's house right now.

This is part of our R.I.S.E program

at the Gary Sinise Foundation.

It stands for Restoring Independence,

Supporting Empowerment.

And here we are on Veterans Day,

I get to present what is our 94th home

to a great American Joshua Hargis.

[Joshua gasping]

[boys chuckling]

[woman] What do you think?

Wow. That is beautiful.

Oh, buddy.

[gentle music]

[Interviewer] How was the big reveal today?

How's the family feeling?

They're feeling pretty good in there. Yeah.

Welcome home.

Hi, Gary.

This is your house.

[Boy] I can believe this.

It's emotional, as you can imagine,

you know, for the first time.

So what we do, we usually have a,

there's kind of a midway point in building these houses

where we have a little ceremony called Our Walls of Honor.

And it's before the drywall goes in

and the framing is all there.

And so we have people come in

and write messages on the framing just to leave.

So this house is filled with messages of support

and love and appreciation from folks.

And the family's in there for that, you know,

but eventually our team tells them to go away

and not to come back until today.

[Gary laughing]

How are you?

Thank you so much.

[Gary] We love you.

We love you too.

You good.

Josh, a US Army Ranger, he was injured in 2013.

Suicide bombing and IEDs and all of that.

He lost four teammates. He was a canine handler.

His dog, Jany, was unfortunately lost at the same time.

He's given a lot for his country.

He was injured, lost two legs.

So his family has been going through a lot,

and these families can struggle

with the housing that they have.

And we want to try to provide them an opportunity

to have a mortgage-free, stressless life

by not having to worry about the mortgage.

Their family can grow up without the stresses of,

you know, worrying about where they're gonna live

and bumping into the furniture with the wheelchair

and all the different things.

Our team takes care of all of that,

makes it specifically designed for the needs

of each individual.

Being in normal homes that,

you know, people without disabilities

don't really have to think about,

they are incredibly challenging,

not only in prosthetics, but when I'm not wearing my legs.

There were rooms in our home that Josh couldn't get into.

The last fall he had at the house required surgery

to fix an injury and-

Wow.

That, of course, creates a whole other process

of healing both physically and mentally.

I've met people that had 200-something surgeries,

I mean, over and over and over and over.

That means the family is in and out of that hospital

multiple times throughout multiple years.

That can be very stressful.

The kids are trying to grow up, have a normal life,

and now, you know, their dad's back in the hospital

with another surgery or something like that.

That can be very stressful on the family.

There's not a day that goes by

that I don't worry about another injury.

And that's not a good feeling.

Taylor, she is an advanced EMT for Rutherford County EMS,

and she works 24-hour shifts.

So while she's gone, everything is up to me.

We had to find a house that at least had two bedrooms

on one floor for a safety reason, because if I wasn't there

and Josh needed to get to the boys at night,

we couldn't have the boys upstairs and Josh downstairs.

It's just peace of mind knowing that it's just safer.

This is insane.

No one should feel like they don't fit in their home.

And he's never gonna have

to worry about feeling like that in here.

They've given enough.

We want them to be able to raise their kids

in a happy home and move on, you know, with their lives.

Tomorrow is actually the dedication and the reveal

for the broader community.

And we're gonna have about 250 to 300 friends, family,

all the first responder community, fire department,

Honor Guard, the police department.

And then we're also gonna have a bunch of veterans

from the community and of course from Josh's family.

It will be a day to remember.

[gentle music]

[gentle music continues]

[gentle music continues]

[gentle music continues]

[gentle music continues]

It has become a life's mission for me,

and I feel blessed that our foundation

has earned the trust of the thousands of fellow citizens

and so many great companies

who support us in our many programs.

Programs like the R.I.S.E Program,

which has grown from a singular effort prior to the creation

of the Gary Sinise Foundation to build one home in 2010

for the first surviving quadruple amputee

to this 94th home today.

A very small percentage of our population defend us all.

I believe as private citizens,

we have an important role to play

in supporting our veterans.

As we are the beneficiaries of freedom

that defenders like Joshua fought to protect.

Where would our nation be

if no one wanted to raise their hand

to stand up against our enemies?

If we don't support them, why should we expect anyone

to continue to volunteer to serve?

Government can only do so much.

But while government support

of our veterans is critically important,

we should not depend on the government

to solve all our problems and the challenges facing

the approximately 17 million veterans in the US.

As citizens, we have a role to play.

Josh, Taylor, Waylon and Lowell, you deserve this day.

Enjoy this wonderful home.

[gentle music]

A gift to you from the American people

for all you have given for us.

God bless you. God bless our great country.

We love you. Welcome home.

[audience cheering and applauding]

Salt of the earth kind of person.

How do you get somebody so benevolent, you know?

He has his own life.

He has his own trials and tribulations

and he still continues to give.

It's just, it's very humbling.

If I didn't think that was making a difference,

that it was helping or impactful in some way,

then why would you continue to do it?

But I saw that, I saw that it was, it was helping.

And, you know, you walk into somebody's hospital room

and they, you know, they're in a coma

or they can't talk or they're burned up or whatever,

badly, badly wounded, can't speak,

but their family is there waiting for them to wake up.

And I can't talk to the person in the bed,

but I see what it does for the family.

All of a sudden they're lighting up

and they want some pictures

and they wanna tell me the story

of their loved one who's laying there and what happened.

And then I walk out of the room

and I knew that I'd helped in there, you know?

And then I go in the next room over here

and same thing would happen.

And then you leave the hospital

feeling like you did something.

Actively increasing the value of another person's life,

that brings joy.

And it's got to be Sinise's,

it's got to be Sinise's secret.

He's not gonna tell you that 'cause he's been through hell.

[gentle music]

[Newscaster] Gary, earlier this year,

you lost a very important part of your foundation

and a part of your life, of course, your son, Mac Sinise.

Gary's only son, Mac, battled bravely for five years.

A very rare form of cancer.

Well, it's a very, very difficult thing.

I've spent multiple years trying to help the families

of our fallen heroes and families that have lost loved ones,

parents who have lost a child,

spouses who've lost a husband,

children who've lost a father or mother.

That can be very, very difficult.

And now we find ourselves kind of in the same spot,

having lost our son.

When you lose a child,

[somber music]

it's...

Well, you know, it's hard to talk about.

Ah.

As I said to him when my father died suddenly,

you get by it, you don't get over it.

You're able to get past it, but you don't get over it.

Our son Mac was just a,

just a wonderful human being.

And I learned so much from Mac about grace.

What do you say, bud?

Ah.

We did it.

[Gary and Mac laughing]

He had a very rare cancer called chordoma

and he had several spine surgeries.

He was paralyzed from the chest down.

He couldn't move the fingers on his right hand.

He had a fracture over here on his left shoulder.

He couldn't move his arm.

He couldn't move his fingers.

He was in a hospital bed for the last three years

of his life.

But I, you know, I just never heard Mac like moaning

and groaning about it or anything like that.

He was a joy to be around, and...

[somber music]

We all got to know him.

He was part of the crew.

And so to hear something of that nature,

and to know, like, that it happened to such a great man

and a great family and a great foundation,

it really rocked the community.

It was hard to,

it was a hard pill to swallow.

I mean, Gary's become part of all of our families,

and when one of his own has something

that horrible happen to it, it affects all of us.

We knew what he was going through.

We knew the battle that he was fighting and never giving up.

When Mac passed, we all felt devastated.

But more so we worried about Gary and his family.

When tragedy happens, it's like, okay,

how can we be there to support this person in,

like, the most horrible time of their lives?

[somber music]

After the unfortunate loss of Mac, January 5th,

a little over a year ago,

it's like all that humanity,

those feelings, those emotions,

he turned up the love he has for other people

since Mac's transition.

Gary, we got introduced to him, I believe, by,

what's his name?

Tom. Hoonks? Hinks? Hokes?

Hokes. Tom Hokes.

That's a good one.

And they know each other,

'cause probably Gary was in some movie that Tom did.

He was pretty good in that movie, but he sat a lot.

Is it fun? Is it okay to. I can't stop myself.

When we started rolling,

the first day we shot the bus scene.

"You can sit down if you want to."

Sit down if you want to.

My given name is Benjamin Buford Blue.

People call me Bubba.

And then later in the week,

I got a chance to work with Gary.

And there's a line where he saw the piece in my lip.

And when I turned to the side and he said-

What's wrong with your lip?

This wasn't in the script.

So I said-

I was born with big gums, sir.

That wasn't in the script.

Yeah, well, you better tuck that in.

You don't wanna get that caught on a tripwire.

We spent every possible hour away from the set.

We spent together bonding, developing a relationship,

and I know that he always treated his art

like it came from the heart anyway.

And so that's the same effort

that Gary applies everywhere he goes.

You know, I always kind of say that women have friends,

men have allies, you know, in the sense that.

I don't mean as sexist, I just mean in a sense,

my friends all tend to be people I can do something for

and they can do something for me.

So our relationship is based on how we can help each other

to improve X, Y, or Z.

With Gary, if I wanted to do something with veterans,

I asked Gary, "Hey, what do I do?"

Oh, he gives, "Hey, that's great advice. Thanks."

I go do that.

And then Gary will say,

"I play music, but I don't do comedy.

Can you come do some comedy?"

"Yeah, okay. That'd be great."

We have a quiet society of like-minded believers.

[bright music]

We had a little concept. We get creative.

Company lets us be different.

So they said," Hey, what do you wanna do

to acknowledge our partnership

with the Gary Sinise Foundation and veterans?"

So at that time, the Ford Bronco was coming out.

It was the you know, hit of the year.

I said," You know what would really be cool

is if we could get ahold of Chip Foose

and say, "Hey, would you Foosify the Bronco?"

Chip is like the guy.

Everybody knows who he is,

and he's kind of the superstar of that world.

I was asked if I would get involved with a Bronco project

for the Gary Sinise Foundation.

So I packed up my drawing supplies

and I went up to Gary's office

and we sat on the "Forrest Gump" bench.

I did some loose sketches in front of him.

Got the ideas of what we're gonna do.

I did a final rendering,

and then we actually built the Bronco, took it to Florida,

to Kissimmee, Florida, and sold it at the Mecum Auction.

If it wasn't for our military and all the people,

all the veterans that help us, we wouldn't be here today.

This is our freedom to enjoy our passion.

And we took that thing across the block and killed it.

[Auctioneer] 300!

[crowd cheering]

This year we're doing a 2023 Camaro ZL1,

and we're taking it back to Chip Foose.

We're gonna do the tune-up on that,

and we're gonna take that down to auction.

See what it brings us

and get that money pushed

right back into Gary Sinise Foundation.

[engine roaring]

[Sean] Whoa!

Kind of based on my childhood dream car,

you know, the 69 Camaro.

That was his first car.

And everybody remembers their first car.

It was a white 69 Camaro convertible.

And Gary was the proudest guy in the school

'cause he was the cool kid at school.

Several times that we had been out,

he had always bring this up.

Gary had a 69 Camaro 'cause we were talking about,

I believe we were talking about which version was best.

I'm a fan 'cause I have one that's a 68.

69's better 'cause the seat moves forward.

So if you're smaller, you could,

you know, get to the steering wheel. [laughs]

I can't stop myself.

Somebody's got to come in and slap me in the head.

He's a hero. You know what I'm saying? He's short.

69 Camaro, it would've been neat

to kind of hang onto that.

But now we have this other Camaro coming up

and it's gonna be awesome.

We'll start doing some sketches until we get a direction

and then we'll attack the car.

I'm with all these great team players

coming in to help out.

Sean is our first introduction to Sunbelt.

Sean had been responsible for bringing some equipment

to one of my concerts.

He thanked us, thanked the company,

and just said, "Hey any chance you could do this again?"

And that was almost nine years ago.

So we teamed up.

We said, "We got to get you to do a little more."

And then they did a little more and did a little more.

He introduced us to the rest of Sunbelt.

Ross, John and Brendan, the CEO of Sunbelt.

And we've done some great things together over the years.

They're all here to support the mission.

[bright music]

[Chip] What would you love to see done to this Camaro?

I'd like to see something that sort of pays tribute

to the people that we're trying to serve

at the Gary Sinise Foundation.

And what that is, I don't know.

If somebody asks you, what is your foundation all about?

What's the one sentence that you would tell them?

Doing a little more.

So I'm always asking people

to do a little bit more. [laughs]

-I like that. -Absolutely.

We're always looking for ways to do a little more to help.

While I'm writing

is when I start getting a picture in my head.

What kind of led me to that mission was in gratitude

for the veterans of my own family,

which is where a lot of my motivation initially came from.

I think it's cool that it came from your past.

-Yeah. -Yeah. Absolutely.

So why don't you tell me a little bit

about the car that was in your past?

[laughs] Before I wrecked it.

[everyone laughing]

My dad bought it when I was 16 for me for $1,600.

It was a used 69 Camaro.

Unfortunately, I knew nothing about cars.

I didn't know I was supposed

to put oil in the car. [chuckles]

And I just fried the engine.

I wish I had that car.

Let's just get some ideas down on paper here.

In January, we will take this car,

this beautiful car, and I'm gonna go,

I'll be there, and we're gonna auction it off again.

[upbeat music]

[Chip] I can already tell you.

I wanna do the suspension,

so we're gonna bring it down a little bit.

I'm gonna do a one-off set of wheels for the car.

And we'll just drop it down so it looks a little better.

And put me behind the wheel

with really curly hair.

-Really curly hair? -Glowing hair.

[everyone laughing]

-Perfect. I love it. -Big head of hair like that.

We'll go with the Lieutenant Dan-

Some crazy glasses.

[Gary laughing]

So I did a quick sketch and it may not be 100% right now,

but it's enough to communicate the ideas,

you know, that they gave me.

That is beautiful, bud.

-Cool. -I like it.

Well, if you like it, I'm gonna build it.

[Sean] Oh yeah.

-Build it. -Okay.

All right, so we spent the morning with Gary

on the News EL1.

And then after a little while,

we kind of got Gary off in his hole to do his own thing.

And then we pulled Chip to the side and just said,

"Hey, you know,

what if we recreated Gary's long lost 69 Camaro?"

We had some discussions of, you know,

possibly doing a little more for Gary.

After all that he's been through, the family's been through,

you know, losing Mac, really impacted our team.

We wanna find a way to lift him up

and lift up his spirits, you know,

'cause we feel it every day that he feels it.

And, you know, we just want to give back to the man that,

you know, gives back every day.

[upbeat music]

White?

Yes, let's go white.

That's what he said it was, white.

Would you go old power plant or something modern?

Let's go new. I want him to turn a key and just go.

-Big stereo. -Big stereo.

Music means a lot to him.

He just released Mac's album.

Mac, he was a composer, had a beautiful talent.

I think that'd be really cool for him

to cruise with the top down and listen

to Mac's music would be really, really meaningful to him.

We're asking for something to be done

that would normally take, you know, years even.

And Chip's all in. He didn't bat an eye.

He said, "Jeff, we'll get it done."

You know, he's going through a lot personally.

He just lost his son, Mac.

And the guy's still doing a little bit more

for everybody he can.

And I just wanna do what I can to help him.

If you've ever watched Gary interact, he's engaged.

And, you know, he seems quick to give a hug,

but I think it's time to give him a hug.

So I guess next steps really are find a car.

Right.

There are two cars here.

One is a brand new Camaro that we're adding things to.

The 69, we've got to go find it.

We're gonna try and find a car

that doesn't need a lot of work,

that we can just enhance it and make it Gary's car.

[machinery whirring]

Well, we got the 69 Camaro in

and the top was in pretty bad shape,

so I knew that was gonna have to be replaced,

but I wasn't planning to repaint this car.

I was just thinking we would spot over the graphics

that were on it and we would put the graphics

that we want on it, re-clear the whole car

and be done with it.

You know, as we got into it,

we took a blower to clean some things off

and the paint started flying off the car.

Now the car is completely stripped.

And as Gary always says,

you know, you always want to do a little bit more?

We're doing a lot of bit more.

[flame crackling]

He's the kind of guy,

"Hey, I don't wanna do something for you."

"No, I don't want to," [mumbles mockingly].

So the fact that we can do something for him,

he doesn't know about it, ah, he'd just be seething.

He'd be seething with happiness.

Just watching him squirm will be fabulous.

[bright music]

We're here in Franklin, Tennessee, for Franklin Fun Day,

and it's a perfect, beautiful day.

People are smiling.

They're happy 'cause anytime Gary Sinise is playing,

people come out because they just love

to hear Gary Sinise in the band.

♪ Quasi love ♪

♪ Quasi love ♪

♪ Quasi love ♪

♪ Quasi love ♪

♪ Quasi love ♪

♪ Quasi love ♪

♪ Quasi love ♪

♪ Quasi love ♪

[crowd cheering and applauding]

Give a round of applause for the US Army

veteran, Leslie Smith.

[crowd cheering and applauding]

[gentle music]

Every time I would go to an event, he would always say,

"Hey, Leslie."

And I realized he would always remember my name.

Like, I talked to him the one time on the phone

when he told me that I was selected

to receive this amazing home.

And then when I saw him for the first time,

I just said, "Hello."

And he goes, "Oh, Stuart, welcome."

I was like, "How the heck?"

And he was just so good with...

He knew my wife's name, both of my kids' names

like he's known us for years.

And he makes it a point to let you know

that you are important and you matter,

and it's just nothing but love.

You know, I've been at it so long

and I've been so many places

and I've bumped into so many people

multiple times over a number of years

who have been going through difficult things

year after year,

but they still see that I'm still showing up

and I'm still coming there.

And they know that it matters to me

and I think that matters to them.

To me, that is priceless.

You cannot put,

you cannot put a price on that.

[crowd cheering and applauding]

And Gary, because we have known each other

for about 15 years,

and Gary has been there with me through every step of that

that's happened over the course of many years.

So I developed a blood clot in my left leg,

and it was caused by being exposed to a chemical agent

or a toxin from serving in Bosnia,

which they attribute to the gases that were emitted

from the mass grave sites.

And from that, I lost my left leg right below the knee.

And then further complications was that I lost most

of my vision that has now left me legally blind.

I've seen a lot of very difficult things,

very challenging injuries,

and not pretty stuff.

On my last mission,

that would've been my fifth deployment,

my last mission is when I had my bad day at work.

I was supposed to be home in about two weeks or so

after this op.

And it turned out to be I stepped on an IED,

pressure plate IED,

with about five pounds of homemade explosive in it.

And the way it was, was stepped on it with my left leg,

but the charge is about six inches back,

right in the middle of you, designed to maim.

So it split me in half, ripped both of my legs off,

and my pelvis was ripped over about this far apart.

Belly button to anus completely ripped open.

There was no shrapnel. It was just pressure.

I got ripped open.

So of course, lower intestines, prostate, bladder,

all that's in the Afghan dirt.

[somber music]

We were training.

We had just gotten back a few months prior from Afghanistan

and we were getting some of the teams

to get ready to go back out.

And I was the lead vehicle on the ATVs, the four-wheelers.

And we were going through the off-road trails

on Camp Pendleton.

And I had, it was back when we had all those heavy rains

and all the water kind of eroded a lot of the trails.

So they were a little bit different than what I was used to.

And it kind of caught me off guard.

The ATV went, it took a bad hop,

kind of threw me off the trail

and went up and started rolling back.

And it came back on my face.

Everything on my face was crushed.

All the boats were pulverized.

So I was a combat engineer

in the United States Marine Corps.

And on my second deployment to Afghanistan,

I was putting the roof on a guard post,

standing on the forks of a big tall forklift.

And I jumped off and landed on 40 pounds

of homemade explosive.

Blew off both my legs above the knee

and my left arm above the elbow dramatically at the scene.

My guys even found my left boot

with my foot still in it 200 yards away.

I've talked to a lot of people

that have shared their difficult stories with me.

And I think all of that has given me a lot of,

just a lot of strength

to be able to face our own challenges at home,

having seen so many people persevere through very,

very difficult things.

[gentle music]

It's our last mission.

So on the last mission, on the last day of the mission,

a thousand meters from the firebase, like you could see it.

It was a click away.

We came across, it was like a little bridge.

I was the gunner in the lead truck.

We didn't have a good feeling.

When my driver and I were crossing over, I said,

"Hey, hey, as long as I don't lose my hands."

And I was being as positive as I could be,

you know, going through this.

I was like, "Hey, as long as I don't lose my hands,"

I was like, "We're gonna be all right," you know?

And he agreed with me.

He like, "Yeah, as long as we don't lose our hands."

We got blown up.

[tense music]

He has one foot left.

We both have our hands, so.

You know after getting blown up,

I had my eyes closed 'cause I couldn't see.

I had like oil and dirt and blood all in my eyes.

I couldn't see.

I was like, somebody had my eyes closed

and I was just thinking about my family.

I was thinking like, "I need to get out of here so I can

[somber music] see my family."

I don't wanna die out there without seeing my family.

[somber music]

And so I was seeing these images of them in my mind

as I had my eyes closed so I could see my family members.

It's like purple aura going off.

And, but there was like this feeling of love.

[somber music]

You know, I loved them.

You know, I wanted to see 'em again.

And I think, you know,

they gave me the strength to get through that.

This is the love I had for my family.

I know guys that like woke up from a surgery

and there's a post-it note

with a wedding ring on their chest that says,

"I can't handle."

My wife had just told me about a week and a half

before I got injured that she was pregnant.

And so for two days,

I had to tell them that I couldn't call my wife.

Josh always called.

Just flipping through news cycles

trying to see if I could find out what happened

'cause I just knew.

And eventually there was like a scroll

at the bottom of one news station and it said,

"Four US coalition soldiers killed in roadside bomb."

And then I got a call from a very strange number

and I knew that it was either Josh or somebody.

And I said, "Hello."

And they said, "Is this Josh Hargis's wife?"

And I said, "Yes."

And then they said, "Are you sitting down?"

At that time, I felt like I had failed.

I had failed to keep the promise that I made to my wife.

I have always been so proud of Josh and his service

and his sacrifice.

And, you know, when we first shared his story

with the world when he was first injured,

we did it because we were lucky enough

to have him back and that wanted to make sure

that people remembered that not everybody has that.

That we are just so grateful.

[gentle music]

And they told me it would take me 13 or 14 months

to be up and walking.

And remember I got blown up on the third mission

of my deployment.

So my guys were still in Afghanistan

for another, you know, nine months.

And so I was actually able to fly to Japan

and stand up on the tarmac in camies

and have my diets when my guys got home.

They told me it would take 13 and I did it in seven.

And some of my guys that were advanced party,

so they had flown back early before the entire battalion,

they helped me, you know,

get dressed and put my camies and boots on and stuff.

So they were all,

I don't know if anyone had tears in their eyes,

but I know a lot of dudes were pretty close probably.

The first verbal communication

wasn't for probably a good year and a half

after the initial incident.

[chuckles] My first words

were actually my oldest daughter's name, Kaylee.

And then she lost her mind when I told her I said her name.

She ran around the hospital room

like, "Daddy could talk, daddy could talk."

And then she started doing knocking on jokes with me.

Gary sees the family unit

as something that is vital for a wounded warrior.

[Beneficiary] Can I have an ice water

with extra lemons, please?

Getting this house is as life-changing as my injury was.

[Beneficiary] Oh, thank you.

Moving forward,

my plans, I had competed in the Window Warrior games

and I continue to keep training, get back into it.

And hopefully eventually one day be able

to represent the United States in the Paralympics.

-Hey. -Hey, what?

Life now is, I would say, you know,

happy busy, happy hectic.

I play a lot, I play competitive golf around the country.

I got involved with Gary

with the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial.

[crowd applauding]

At the groundbreaking,

he invited me to sit with him at the luncheon.

And it was, everybody wanted to talk to him and everything.

And then he had to leave a little bit early

to go to another event.

A few days later is when I had the vision loss

that left me totally blind at,

I was at Walter Reed in the ICU.

He did not know that at all.

So Gary called and left a message just saying,

"I'm really sorry that I didn't get a chance

to just chat with you and I had to dash off early."

And the realization that Gary Sinise had called me

to leave me a message to say,

"Sorry, I didn't get a chance to talk to you."

He's the light in my darkness.

Because whenever we did talk,

and I called him back and told him what had happened,

he called me every day while I was in the hospital.

How just incredible of a person.

And I remember thinking that I can't give up

because Gary Sinise is not giving up on me.

Yeah, it was during the Walls of Honor ceremony,

you know, I looked over, saw my family.

Saw everybody out there in this beautiful house, you know?

And I just, I got emotional.

And I'd lie if I said I didn't feel guilty.

Oh, you know, I'm getting this big, nice house,

and just the timing of it felt off, you know?

I felt guilty, you know, doing that ceremony and everything.

And I was thinking about Gary's son and my kids.

[gentle music]

And my heart goes out to Gary.

And I wish, wish he could still be here.

I wish his son could still be here.

[somber music]

[machinery whirring]

You can see some of the painted pieces, of course.

-Yeah. Wow. -We didn't know

we were gonna be painting these pieces.

Then as you can see, every single part on this car

is either brand new or restored to better than new.

[Sean] Wow.

So it looks a little different.

[Sean] It's getting there.

[machinery whirring]

[Sean] Holy cow.

It seems like he did a little

more than we first talked about.

[Sean] Yeah.

What does Gary say?

-Do a little more. -Do a little more

-You're right. -All right.

We'll do a little more today.

[Chip] A hell pf a lot more.

That thing is great.

Yeah, I think right now, the only thing that's still truly

that car that we purchased a few months ago

is actually the body itself.

And I know you guys ordered a really cool interior.

-Oh yeah. -And it's here.

-Really? -Yeah.

Because of the reputation that Gary has,

as we got into this car

and we saw that we needed a whole lot of help,

you know, we made some phone calls to companies.

And as soon as we said it, we're doing this for Gary Sinise,

not a single person has said no.

"And you know what?

We're gonna donate the parts, pieces and components.

Don't mention our company's name.

No accolades, things like that.

What Gary does and leads by example, we want to follow suit.

So just take it on behalf of some caring people

that wanna do a little more."

The next step, we're gonna start fitting the front fenders

and the hood and all the front body.

When are we shipping?

Less to do.

We got one week.

[laughs] Ship it out in a week.

-Yep. -All right.

[gentle music]

I'm really not worried about it.

I've got the wheel shop busy on the wheels.

[machinery whirring]

We are getting the top put on right now.

Then we'll be able to start putting all of the interior in.

We've got to put the dash together,

get the steering column in.

I've got two bumpers that we've reshaped and reworked.

Those are at the chrome shop.

My main concern is getting the body all back on the car

and make sure everything lines up.

The gaps are all nice and beautiful.

With Gary being out on the road doing what he does

for so many others,

we want to make sure that he has a little bit of something

to keep him going.

You know, this car is gonna continue

to roll down the road just like his mission.

We could utilize this vehicle to go to shows with us,

Lieutenant Dan Band concerts, home dedications.

The guys came in to see the 69 Camaro and where it was at.

We still had two projects going.

We had the ZL1 in the parking lot.

It is truly amazing what they've done so far.

And we are blown away at the progress.

[gentle music]

Really gonna be amazing

once that thing rolls across the auction block.

That's beautiful.

-That's great. -Love the stance.

So one of the things that we do

when the homes get halfway built through our R.I.S.E program

is called Walls of Honor.

And what we do is the studs are exposed.

So what we do is give everybody a pen, a marker.

They come in and write on the walls, on the studs,

and leave notes of encouragement.

In that spirit, the car's halfway done.

Appreciate it.

We only got six more days to go.

So if you would, you know, grab one of the paint pens.

Let's sign this. Give some encouragement to Gary.

Just tell him thank you for what you do and,

you know, lift up his spirits

for all that he's been through this past year.

[gentle music]

The idea of signing the deck lid like they do

in the homes, you know, that's what it's all about.

You know, I wrote in there that,

"Gary, this car was built with love, honor, and passion."

And that's what everybody that's been involved has given.

So this is not only a thank you to Gary,

but to everybody that has served.

[gentle music]

When you discover what Gary does, you know what humbles you.

[gentle music]

I'm not in the military.

I'm not a first responder.

I'm not a policeman, not a fireman.

But Gary has dedicated his life to helping these people.

And I'm honored to help Gary help others.

What I'm doing right now is I wanna name the car.

And Mac Sinise has his album out

and one of the songs is called "Arctic Circles."

The car is arctic white.

So I wanna letter a very small arctic circle

kind of a logo that I'm coming up with right now.

I actually want to put that on the car somewhere

so it helps to make this car a member of the family.

In six days, we are taking this vehicle,

the 69 Camaro, to Franklin, Tennessee.

Gary thinks we're bringing the 2023 ZL1 Camaro

that we're taking to Mecum.

The car's not important.

It's about a man that has dedicated his life

to helping others.

He does it every day and he does a little bit more

and a little bit more and a little bit more.

And what can we do for him?

[gentle music]

[bright music]

[bright music continues]

[bright music continues]

So we're in Gary's hometown of Franklin, Tennessee.

And Gary thinks we're gonna bring down a 2023 ZL1 Camaro,

when in fact we're gonna bring down a 69 Camaro,

just like the one Gary had

when he was a kid and hand it over to him.

We don't know what's gonna happen.

I'm only nervous for how he reacts.

I've got a lot of experience with giving cars back.

We didn't know what to expect.

You know, I come down the street and I pull up

and Gary leans over into the car

and I knew as soon as he said-

"Look at this sweet car."

That he didn't understand that this wasn't the ZL1.

[Gary laughing]

Now, Gary had seen the 23ZL1 Camaro a few months earlier.

-Whoa. -And when he saw the 69,

I think he was really thinking

that we did these modifications to the 23ZL1

and here it is rolling up.

[Gary] This is a beauty.

I kept handing him the keys.

Yeah, you got to check the oil level.

And tell him to check the oil.

[laughs] I'll let you do that.

[both laughing]

And he kept handing them back to me.

I go, "No, this is your car."

[Gary] No, that's beautiful, bud.

He didn't understand it.

He didn't know that we had done two cars,

that this was his car,

that we were trying to do something for him.

-It's yours. -It's your car.

-Don't blow up this time. -Hmm?

-It's yours. -What?

For him, it's not about receiving. It's all about giving.

It's your car.

[Sean] Yeah.

What do you-

-It's your car. -What do you mean?

-It's not the new one. -No.

This is for you.

From all the heroes you help each and every day.

You continue to do a little more

and you and your family have continued to do more

even when you fought the biggest fight in the world for Mac.

We felt it, you felt it.

So we wanna bring a little bit of happiness back to you.

You're kidding.

We felt it when Mac was lost

because we just feel what Gary feels.

I am blown away.

-Yeah, it's yours. -Oh my gosh.

The auction car's not done yet.

-No. -I did this one first.

Why'd you do that, man?

[Chip and Gray laughing]

[Chip] Enjoy it.

-You're kidding me. -No.

[Gary laughing]

[Sean] You got to put oil in this one though.

We feel what Gary feels when we're helping build a house

or we're putting in a ramp for someone that needs a ramp.

Like, we feel what he feels

and I think that is the basis for how,

you know, special what he does is.

Oh my gosh.

[Sean] Yeah.

This, this, this,

I'm flashing back now to my like high school days.

[engine revving]

[Gary laughing]

That's insane.

Just like in high school.

-Huh? -Just like in high school.

No. Mine-

[everyone laughing]

Mine in high school did not sound like this.

Oh my gosh.

[Sean] Check out the glove box.

[gentle music]

Chip did an amazing design on that.

[Gary] Thank you.

[gentle music]

-Worked on. -Kind of like Walls of Honor.

Got halfway through the car

and kind of carried on the traditions.

-Appreciate you. -Thank you, bud.

-Thank you very much. -Thank you.

-You awesome. -Look at that.

It was an amazing surprise.

And this went way better than I thought it would.

-Well, good. -My goodness.

Honey, you did know?

You wanna sit in that car?

-Yeah. -Come here. Let's see.

Let's go. Let's go see if you can get in there.

With Russ and the rest of our team, you know, globally,

20,000 teammates, you know,

it's been a 12-year partnership with the foundation.

You drive. There you go.

As we got closer and our relationship grew

and our teammates bought into what we were doing

for first responders, for veterans, you know,

during COVID when Gary was feeding the masses.

Then, you know, when we found out about Mack's illness

and what was going on and how the family was,

you know, pulling together and, you know,

Mac fought as tough as any Marine that I ever served with.

And, you know, when we finally lost him,

we saw what it did to the family.

Together we said, "Hey, we wanna do a little more

for Gary and Moira and, you know,

bring him a little bit of happiness.

It was accomplished.

[Girl] Bye-bye.

[Moira] Bye-bye.

And it's interesting when we look at our role models

and heroes and we see them in that moment of weakness.

This is a small way for us as a community

to be there on the side of support.

Wow. That's...

I don't know what to say.

The story behind this car is all

about doing something more for Gary and his family.

Thank you.

-You're welcome. -Thank you. Thank you.

I don't know what to say, bud.

Hope it just brings a little bit of happiness to you.

[gentle music]

[auctioneer reciting indistinctly]

[auctioneer continues reciting indistinctly]

What's up everybody? Chris Jacobs here.

The day has finally arrived at Mecum Auctions.

The Chip Foose Camaro is gonna cross the block

for the Gary Sinise Foundation,

and I'm with Gary and Chip right now.

Foose, what did you do to the car?

Well, of course we designed some graphics for it.

I did a one-off set of wheels,

which we're calling the Gold Star

for the Gold Star families.

And my favorite touch, and Jay, let's get a shot of this.

The Gary Sinise Foundation challenge coin

has been applied to the fenders.

So get out your wallets.

It's such a worthy, worthy cause.

Gary Sinise, thank you so much.

Chip Foose, great to see you guys.

And best of luck when the Camaro goes

across the action block.

Thank you Foose all the-

[Chip] Thanks. Thank you.

[Auctioneer] Gary Chinese Foundation.

Gary Chinese Foundation served our nation,

by honoring -- - Rolling up to the block now,

and look who is behind the wheel.

It is none other than Chip Foose.

This is that 2023 Camaro ZL1

that we've already seen today.

And it's going to the Gary Sinise Foundation.

There's Cary right there. Let's listen to him.

Hey, everybody.

How many veterans and first responders in the audience?

Please stand up

so we can say thank you for serving our country.

[everyone applauding]

Let's give a big round of applause.

[everybody cheering and applauding]

The proceeds from this Camaro are gonna go

to the Gary Sinise Foundation to help our veterans,

our active duty, our first responders,

the families of our fallen heroes, our wounded veterans,

and so much more at the Gary Sinise Foundation.

It's a great organization doing all kinds of things

around the country and overseas

to make sure that we never forget

to honor and serve the men and women who serve our country.

Thank you very much, everybody.

[everyone applauding]

[crowd cheering]

It's going to an organization

that people believe in, have confidence in.

[Auctioneer] 1.15!

[crowd cheering]

Because of, you know, Gary himself putting his name

and his brand and his trust into the whole thing.

Something incredible just took place

in the spirit of the Gary Sinise Foundation,

doing a little more.

The individuals that bought the car

have donated back to the foundation.

Went back to the high bidder.

Camaro went down again.

We now brought in $325,000 for the Gary Sinise Foundation.

[crowd applauding]

I was brought into the car world by these guys here.

On the day that they came to my house,

I though I was gonna see this car right here.

And all of a sudden, Chip comes driving up in a 69 Camaro

and they hand me the keys.

And I was shocked and I was stunned.

And the fact that we can use it

at the Gary Sinise Foundation

for events and all kinds of things to raise awareness

about what we're doing,

that's just a very, very special thing.

And the element of this surprise for me on that day

that was really overwhelming emotionally

when I saw the glove compartment in honor of Mac

and his music and his contribution to the foundation,

which was significant.

I have no doubt that had our son Mac not

had to battle cancer and face that,

that he would no doubt be one of our leaders today

and he would be helping us do a little more all the time.

It's hard, but he lives on right here.

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[Host] Friends and family of Snowball Express,

please welcome Gary Sinise.

[everyone cheering and applauding]

Hey, hi.

[everyone continues cheering and applauding]

How are we this morning?

We've been having a good time?

[crowd cheering and applauding]

Thanks to our pals at Disney,

we've got the park all to ourselves right now.

[uplifting music]

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It's just an incredible thing when we do Snowball Express

in Disney with our Gold Star Families.

Gold Star Families are families

who had lost loved one while they were serving overseas.

[uplifting music]

We do two events.

We do a military-focused event with military children.

And then we take a few days off

and then we bring children

of our fallen first responders in,

police officers, firefighters,

and we bring them in to Disney and do the same thing.

[uplifting music]

Changed so many lives.

We can never do enough for these folks.

Can I give you hugs?

-Yeah, of course. -Thank you.

-Thank you so much. -Thank you.

And it's very, very important that you know

and that you never forget

how loved you are,

how appreciated you are,

how cared for you are by so many who have come together

to make this special event possible

for all that you've gone through in service to our country.

None of us really want to be here

for the reasons that we're here today.

Hey, bud. Thank you.

I needed that big hug.

And you know, a lot of them will wear a t-shirt

with their fallen father or mother picture

on their chest, buttons.

-What's your dad name? -Daniel.

Daniel?

Well, he's a hero, right?

And we love Daniel. And we appreciate Daniel.

We don't forget Danny, okay?

My band plays every year.

You know, I've played for the kids so many times.

I just would watch these kids grow up.

Wait a minute. I know you.

Don't I?

-Yes. -Yes.

I've got some good pictures of you

and we rode on the float together, right?

-Yeah. -And you're here.

God bless you, bud. Thank you.

But we are here as one family to honor our loved ones

and to remember that no matter what,

our loved ones live on in our hearts, always.

We appreciate everything that you did.

Thank you. Thank you.

And we are so very sorry for your loss as well.

Thank you.

-I'm so sorry. -Thank you.

I appreciate that.

I buried my husband, but I couldn't burry a child.

I'm so sorry.

I appreciate that.

I know you're hurting too.

Thank you.

And don't forget this.

No one can ever leave us as long as we remember.

Is that your dad?

You know, is that for me?

And there are thousands of coins

that have been given to me over the years.

I have a very special place that I keep all these,

right on my desk in my office.

Yeah, that's why I brought it.

Sometimes it's in a difficult moment, you know?

But they wanna share that.

They wanna give me that.

Thank you, because this is my last year

'cause I'm graduating

and I've been coming since I was like really little.

We even have a photo of you when we were little.

-What? -Yeah.

Right here.

Oh my god!

[girl chuckling]

It's extraordinary that he does this and it's exemplary.

But there are other people do it too.

And I don't think he likes to be singled out

as if he's the only one 'cause he's not the only one.

He's just the exceptional one.

[Photographer] Yeah, and you're here.

We'll take a big group photo right here.

[Gary] Small group shot, yeah.

[Photographer] It's a small group shot.

Michelle, grab some shots over there.

It's not me this time.

Gary ain't stopping.

You know what I mean? Rain or shine.

He's gon' make sure our heroes,

our first responders,

and their loved ones are taken care of.

I had a friend ask me an interesting question.

He asked me, "Do I think it's sad

that we need somebody like Gary Sinise?"

I don't think that that's the sad story.

The sad story is the fact that,

we need a military to go out there and fight, that...

[plaintive music]

that there is war.

Gary's a hero. There's nothing sad about that.

Aha-ha. [laughs]

When can it ever be bad

to be authentically nice to people?

[Gary imitates whooshing]

Where's authenticity come from?

This is a big question.

Philosophical question. I don't know.

You meet him, spend a little time with him.

There's nothing, and I say this in the best way.

There's nothing dramatic about the dude.

If you're not paying attention,

he doesn't call attention to himself.

He won't call it to himself.

He's just not wired like that.

So once you know Gary,

I would say the thing that I appreciate about him most

is he never tries to stand out.

[crowd applauding]

When people say, "Well, what's, you know,

what do you think?

What's your relationship with Gary Sinise?"

And I'll basically say,

"Look, at best, I'm his wing man."

I mean, he's that eagle right out front.

And I'm just proud and honored

to be one of the guys flying in his formation.

You either worn the uniform or you haven't, you know?

And he hasn't, but man, does he get it.

Who I see is like, here's the brotherhood.

And he's like Gary looking out for us.

And he's unintentionally become a hero.

He's not trying to be a hero.

He's perfect.

Is that what you want me to say?

Yes. He's not only humble.

He means everything.

How do you...

This is a remarkably weird guy.

That's why I'm even doing this thing.

He's probably pissed that we're doing this.

This is not him.

I still find it weird that we're doing this.

"We can always do a little more."

I love that saying.

And he doesn't just say it. He means it.

I tell you, this is dangerous 'cause he hears this stuff,

you know, he's gonna smoking cigars and go, "I am cool.

Look how cool I am."

So he shouldn't be allowed to watch this.

So let's try to bring him down a little bit

so that he will continue to be an engagement

and the motivation that he is.

I guess, you know, that saying, "Freedom ain't free,"

as cliché as it may sometimes sound,

it's the absolute truth.

So it ain't free,

and some people pay a very dear price for it.

And I've been a recipient of that price that was paid.

And so I hope to never forget that.

[gentle music]

You know, we can never take for granted

that the men and women who are out there protecting

and defending us are doing it, you know,

many of them volunteer to do this.

Certainly in the military, we don't have a draft.

They volunteer to raise their hand

and go out and defend our country.

They're not always on the front page for what they're doing,

but they're out there doing it every single day.

Our first responders are sacrificing daily.

Unfortunately, I'm always signing letters to families

who have lost a firefighter or a police officer.

It's like every two weeks I sign a crop of letters

to families who have lost someone.

And these are people that,

you know, they make these sacrifices every day

all around the country and nobody knows about it.

And we don't take that for granted.

We just wanna help a lot of people

and always try to do a little more.

Everybody has a job to do.

It's just a matter of finding what your calling is.

Glad you can make it.

[Veteran] Me too.

[Gary] How you doing?

You're the best.

You've been having a good time?

Awesome.

And the fact that,

Gary's fortunate, he found his calling in life.

You know, if he had played some silly cartoon character

in a movie, he probably wouldn't have gotten him anything.

You know, it would've been over.

He moved on the next role.

But the fact that he became Lieutenant Dan,

I mean, in real life.

[Interviewer] The movie's called

"The Ballad Lieutenant Dan."

-Uh-huh. -Okay?

[Interviewer] It's not a song. It's not a real song.

But if it was a song, what would it be about?

[laughs] You're asking me?

You're-- [laughs].

Well, the thing I love about the Lieutenant Dan story

is that it's positive.

It's a happy ending.

Lieutenant Dan.

Hello, Forrest.

And wanting that happy ending for others

who may be going through what Lieutenant Dan went through,

you know, difficult times, isolation, loneliness,

physical injury, pain, heartbreak.

I just want the happy ending for folks

that have been through that kind of thing.

Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Thank you.

And I'm just one person. I'm just one veteran.

Think about how many second chances he has given.

Our veterans, our military, people around the world

that see his movies, hear his music, get to know him,

get to talk to him, get a picture with him.

Thank you.

I love your hat.

Oh, there you go.

All of that inspiration and hope for all of our,

especially injured, ill, and wounded service members,

our first responders,

giving them and their families a second chance

to get out there and keep serving

because it's never enough, right?

We can always do a little more, just like Gary says.

And he's the motivation for that.

If I can help to provide a little bit of that happiness,

a little bit of that happy ending for some of those folks

who deserve it, who deserve our support,

then that gives life great purpose.

And it's good for what ails you, for sure.

[uplifting music]

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I don't care what faith you are, whether it's Christian,

Muslim, you know, Jewish, whatever it may be,

that these are tenants that I would think all

of the religions of the world would ultimately say,

well, yeah, that's what we call a righteous person,

a role model for humanity.

-God bless you. -Thank you so much.

Like, this means so much to us.

-Not enough. -It is.

We're so thankful.

-So grateful. -That's not not enough.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We love you.

We love you.

[uplifting music]

[crowd cheering]

Thank you for serving our country.

[crowd cheering and applauding]

[Crowd] USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

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