Morning Wire - Honoring Veterans with Gary Sinise | Sunday Extra | 5.21.23

Episode Date: May 21, 2023

A conversation with Gary Sinise on his Memorial Day Celebration of Vietnam Veterans and his lifelong commitment to supporting the men and women who serve our country. Get the facts first on Morning Wire. For tickets and information visit: https://www.garysinisefoundation.org/WelcomeHome   Ad: Black Rifle Coffee: Get 10% off your Coffee Club subscription! BlackRifleCoffee.com promo code ‘WIRE’   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Gary Senise has had a successful acting career in Hollywood. He's starred in Apollo 13, of mice and men, and CSI. But the role he's most remembered for is from Forrest Gump. Senise earned an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Lieutenant Dan. Forrest, I never thanked you for saving my life. Senise has immersed himself in support of veterans' causes and even founded the Gary Sinise Foundation, which is dedicated to filling the needs of America's veterans. He also now headlines the Lieutenant Dan Band, which travels around the world performing for active military.

This coming Friday, Senise is organizing and headlining a Memorial Day event in remembrance of the ending of the Vietnam War 50 years ago. The event, the Welcome Home, a celebration of Vietnam Veterans Memorial Day concert, will be held on May 26th at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. In this episode, we sit down with Gary to discuss the event and the other veteran-focused projects, his foundation, has undertaken. I'm Daily Wire, editor-in-chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's Sunday, May 21st, and this is an extra edition of Morning Wire. Joining us now to discuss the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Day concert that he's headlining is Academy Award nominated actor and philanthropist Gary Seneas. Gary, thank you so much for joining us. It's my pleasure. Thank you. First, we want to talk about this event that you're headlining and organizing the Welcome Home,

a celebration of Vietnam Veterans Memorial Day concert. Can you tell us what you've got planned? Yeah, John. Well, thanks for having me on. I am the co-host for the National Memorial Day concert each year with Joe Montania, and we've been doing that now since 2005. This year, on the National Memorial Day concert, we'll be featuring 11 prisoners of war from the Vietnam War. This is the 50th anniversary, the end of combat operations in Vietnam, 50th anniversary of our POWs coming home. We're featuring them on the Memorial Day concert. wanted to do something in addition. I have Vietnam veterans and my family, a lot of what I'm doing now in support of the men and women who serve our country, is because of the relationships that I had with my wife's two brothers who served in Vietnam, her sister's husband, various Vietnam veteran

pals through the disabled American veteran organization. And with this fairly significant anniversary coming up, I thought, let's do something special while I'm in D.C. So, we are putting together a big concert at Constitution Hall on May 26th. It's a free concert. We want as many Vietnam veterans to come out for it as possible. There is a commemorative committee, the 50th anniversary commemorative committee. There is rolling to remember both organizations obviously very dedicated to our Vietnam veterans. So we're working with them. And they're helping to get the word out to our Vietnam veterans. But we still have some seats available. And we are encouraging everybody to go to gary seneese foundation.org and you'll see right there on the home page

the welcome home celebration for vietnam veterans and click on that that's how you get tickets and we're going to have a great time my band's going to be there joe montaigneas our master of ceremonies we have metal of honor recipient in vietnam veterans sammy davis we have one of the p ows lee ellis speaking and steve amerson who's a tremendous tenor who's done many many events with me over the years. It sounds like a great lineup you've got there. Vietnam veterans in particular have really endured a lot and came back to even some persecution. Have you found in your work that they are in particular need of recognition? Well, they always are. All our veterans are, I believe. These are our defenders. But when our Vietnam veterans came home back in the 60s and

70s, it was a very, very divided time in our nation. Our nation really turned us back on the veteran at that time. We thankfully have learned some valuable lessons from that that are being applied today to our Afghanistan and Iraq veterans, as many people have taken up the charge to make sure that what happened to our Vietnam veterans when they came home doesn't happen again to somebody serving our country. But, you know, with regards to our Vietnam veterans, they are doing a lot to make sure themselves that those returning from Afghanistan and Iraq over the years get the welcome home that they deserve and that our Vietnam veterans never got when they came home. So I'm in touch with so many Vietnam veterans groups and Vietnam veteran pals who really have dedicated their lives to taking care

of our current active duty and returning veterans. And we want to take this opportunity for the 50th anniversary to recognize them and to salute them and to welcome them home once again. and to honor them for their service to our country. And that's what we're doing on May 26th. We hope a lot of people come out to salute them and celebrate them. And still a few tickets left. So go to garyceneese Foundation.org. Now, this event is one of the many projects you're leading the way on.

The Gary Sinise Foundation does so much to serve veterans. Can you tell us about some of the projects you're involved in and what's inspired you to dedicate your life to this mission? Josh, we have so many different things going on, so many programs, so many initiatives. A lot of what we do is based on what I was doing before. I had the foundation. I've been involved with supporting and, you know, helping veterans for many, many years

and supported a lot of different military charities, nonprofits out there, the U.S.O, and Hope for the Warriors and Semperfy Fund and the DAV disabled American veterans and so many different organizations over the years that eventually became very, very clear. And this happened very actively after September 11th. The seeds were planted in the 80s and 90s, but after the attack on our country on September 11th, I just, I wanted to do more. And so I raised my hand for a lot of nonprofits that were in the military and veteran support space, including our first responders and their service to our country. So I started giving back in various ways, and it all kind of snowballed into the creation of my own foundation, the Gary Seney Foundation. So when you look at the mission of the Gary Seney's Foundation, it's very important.

broad. There's a lot of things going on, and that's because I was doing a lot of different types of things prior to starting the foundation. But we are all over the place, all the time. We just had a group of fallen first responder spouses in New York City for what we call our New York adventure to support these widows who've lost a loved one in service as first responders around the country. And the same week, we had a tour up to Alaska, Alaska recently in a crash up there and they lost some people in a helicopter. And, you know, serving up in Alaska can be tough. So we sent a tour up there, an entertainment tour.

And that just concluded yesterday. We gave a home away last week. We have a lot of things coming up in May, of course. We're doing a concert the day before, May 26th. On May 25th, we're doing one of our Invincible Spirit festivals at Fort Belvoir, where my band will play and we'll have food. moon bounces and all kinds of things for the kids. So we're doing things all over to make sure that the men and women who serve our country

know they're appreciated and that we do not forget what they're doing in service to our country each and every day. Now you mentioned giving away a home last week. One of your projects, the RISE program, has given away over 80 homes, correct? Yeah, actually just last week we gave away our 83rd home in Florida. us. So we build these smart technology mortgage-free, special smart homes that are really addressed the needs of somebody who's been severely injured in service, missing limbs, traumatic brain injuries, burns. And we build these smart technology homes that has all kinds of things in there to help

provide more independence for the person who has been injured. And that, of course, provides more independence for the family who's there to care for them. So we build these homes. I've been doing it now for many, many years. You know, we have probably 20 in the queue right now. So by probably 20, 25, we'll kind of go over 100 homes. And these are all very, very severely wounded folks who have given a lot for their country and we want to give something back to them. An innovative and powerful way to do so. Final question, for those who are interested in learning more about the various initiatives, you're leading, where should they go? I encourage people to go to Gary Sneeze Foundation.org.

And one thing I always encourage people to do is to go on our YouTube channel. Scroll down at the bottom of the home page, you'll see our YouTube channel, click on that. You'll see dozens of videos, very beautiful videos that show our programs in action. They introduce you to the people that we're helping. Really is a good way to see exactly what we're doing out there and we're doing a lot. I'm kind of focused on this concert. We have almost 4,000 seats in Constitution Hall. and we've got something left, and we want to make sure that we fill those up.

And hopefully, as many Vietnam veterans will come and let us entertain them, let us honor them, let us salute them, let us celebrate them, and let us welcome them home. Well, Gary, again, we, like so many others, really appreciate all you're doing for our veterans. Thank you so much for joining us. Well, thank you. You guys are doing great work. Thanks for having me honored.

That was actor at Humanitarian Gary Sinise, and this has been an extra edition of Morning Wire.