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Thank you.
Mark, that was very moving story that you told
and you doing fantastic work. It really
was thrilling to to hear
the story and I intend personally to look into
the organization myself. And would encourage everybody else to
do that as well. This is a
this is a great country.
I've had the the privilege to to interact with the military community in
a very
intimate way over the years.
Twelve years ago
I never thought that I'd be standing making a speech at the CIA.
But twelve years ago
our country was attacked on Sept 11th.
And that changed
a lot for a lot of people.
Having veterans in my family on both my wife side of the family and and my
side of the family I had
a great respect and and passion for supporting them, but
it was that particular event
that drove me into a level of service that
I could have never predicted prior to that. As I said I'd been,
I have veterans on my side of the family and my wife side of the family. Her
her two brothers served in Vietnam, her sister was a captain in the Army when
she retired. Her
sister married a Vietnam veteran who stayed in there in the service for
twenty-two years. Their son
just returned from second deployment to Afghanistan.
On my side family my grandfather served in World War One is an ambulance driver
in France. My
two uncles served in World War Two. One in the Pacific on a ship, the other
navigator on a B-17. And my dad served in the Navy.
So I'm kinda surrounded by veterans. And then
having gotten involved with various Vietnam veterans groups in the Chicago
area in the eighties and playing one in the nineties,
I just felt that there was a role to play after September 11th in trying
to
highlight and support and raise awareness and and support for
the men and women who serve our country in reaction to September 11th. And that
that drove me to a level of service that I could have never
predicted before that. Which led to the founding a foundation
about three years ago.
Having been involved with so many different military charities over the
years and having
visited our troops on the battlefield and all around the world
I knew that there was an natural role that
that I could play in kind of continuing that level of service so I created a
foundation.
Let me just tell you a little bit about about that and some other things that
have motivated me.
Yes, I played a
wounded soldier twenty years ago that movie was, remembered it was
twenty years ago now! Yet somehow I'm
still associated with the film. It's on television every day so I think
that's probably why. But
it also led me to an association with the Disabled American Veterans
Organization, the DAV.
They contacted me about two weeks after the movie opened
and invited me to their national convention in Chicago.
So I didn't know anything about the Disabled American Veterans Organization.
So I went to that
the the convention and they wanted to present me with
an award for playing and injured soldier.
And I was very very moved by that that moment
where I walked out on stage and literally there was three thousand people
in the ballroom
you know two-thirds of them were disabled veterans
from going back to World War Two then.
I was just very very moved by the experience and I stayed very actively
involved with
with the Disabled American Veterans and have been
for twenty years now. And then after September 11th I started visiting the
hospitals
and to visit our active duty wounded from Afghanistan and Iraq and I'll
one of those hospitals was
Brooke Army Medical Center down in in San Antonio. I remember in 2009 on my
first visit there
and this is one of several visits to
visit the hospitals but I'll tell you this particular story because
its it's got a good good ending.
There was a Special Forces Marine who was
injured very very severely and he was in intensive care and I was making the
rounds around the
the hospital visiting our wounded and they asked me if I would go to the
intensive care unit to meet this family who was
the standing standing by waiting for
their loved one to come out of a coma
and I came in
met the family they asked me if I would go into the intensive care
room and meet
the wounded Marine they said he probably wouldn't know that I was there
but they asked me if I would go in anyway. So I ground-up
and went into the room and
this particular Wounded Warrior was one of the most severely wounded
that I had encountered. He had been, he lost all four limbs, he had a traumatic
brain injury and he was burned
ninety percent of his body. So I stood over him
and he had this burn jell all over his body and on his eyes and I could see his
eyes flickering
behind his eyelids as I spoke and I didn't know if that was a reaction to me
actually speaking to him or
whether it was just something that
physically he was going through. And I was very moved obviously by this moment
and I walked out
and spend another forty-five minutes with the family.
His resilient wife was standing strong.
Their little three-year-old daughter. His wife's
mother were there and then I stayed in touch
with the chaplain at the hospital for
a period of time just to check in on this particular wounded
Marine and then I lost touch after a while
and it was just last year in May that I was doing an event for the
Marine Corps Law Enforcement Association in Chicago
and I made a speech about some the work that we're doing on behalf of our
wounded.
And a former Marine came up to me said I wanna tell you about this wounded Marine
and he started to speak and I said wait a minute I know exactly who you're
talking about, where is he, what's happening with his family
what what's going on and he gave me a card of the guys battle buddy and said
call this guy he'll tell, he'll tell you what's going on with this Marine.
So I call them up a day later
and he put me in touch with the Marine's wife
who brought me up to speed on what was happening with them and they were going
from place to place trying to convalesce
and find services for this
particular Marine. Places that would
take care of him and he's not going to ever be able to take care of himself.
And I said where you living what is going on with you living conditions
she said well we don't have a place to live we're just going from place to
place.
I said where do you wanna live they said
they wan to live near Brooke Army Medical Center in San
Antonio
and I told her about a program that I was involved with
through my foundation to build specially-designed smart technology
homes for
our very very severely wounded we have over 60 triple amputees we have six
quadruple amputees. We have very very
seriously brain-injured traumatic brain injury
service members. Very very bad burns.
You all know, you're in that, you're in the fight here
and you know what our service members are going through on the front lines and
the number of wounded that we have a we're trying to address those needs and
I said to arm
let us build you a home.
And she burst into tears.
And obviously was very moved by that and I'm happy to say that she'll be moving
into her house
in about three weeks right near Brooke Army Medical Center.
So, we're (applause)
Now you all know the cost of freedom.
And this precious freedom that we enjoy that you
all work so hard to provide for us all should never be taken for granted
and those who serve and sacrifice should never be taken for granted.
If something that I can do is a public
figure, as somebody who's in the spotlight can shine a
have that light shine on me for a second
and allow me to shine that light on others
that's the way that I feel that I can serve and I can
give back to those who are trying to serve and provide our freedom for us.
It's, it's been a great privilege to be able to do that.
My foundation is engaged in several
home building projects throughout the country. Right now we have 26
projects that were involved in with several triple amputees we have three
quadruple amputees are already into their homes.
I'm happy to say that these are smart technology homes that we build
obviously if you're missing both arms and both legs or
you have traumatic brain injury or something or you're in a caregiver
situation where
you're dependent on somebody else we want to make that,
give you an opportunity have more manageable and independent life. So
building these homes
are very very important to somebody like that
because so many service members they they don't have the ability to
put in elevator in their house if they can't go up and down the stairs or
put smart technology in these homes or even
make the doorways wider they're just barely,
barely getting by so many of them. So there are some great foundations out
there they're trying to fill those gaps and I hope that my foundation could be
one of those that,
that lasts a long time and continues to give back for many many years to come
to our service members who continue to serve we all know it's a it's a very
dangerous world out there
21st century is not going to be less dangerous than any other century, in fact
it'll probably be more dangerous.
So we have to be prepared and we have to take care of our men and women
before during and after the battle if we if we don't take care for men and women
who serve our country and sacrifice
why would we expect anyone to serve? We have an all volunteer service, it's a
good thing that we have an all volunteer service,
we want people to want to be there. God bless you all for
for serving our country and doing whatever you can to keep us all safe and
free. I value my freedom. I've been around the world Afghanistan, Iraq,
the borders between North and South Korea where you know when you stand on
the border,
have you been to the DMZ? When you stand on border between North and South Korea and
you
and you look north and you see the North Korean guard staring at you
hundred yards away with their binoculars
and the South Koreans are behind you and you, you really realize you know
sixty years ago that people in North
were very unlucky and the people in the South have
been lucky that the United States of America has been defending and
protecting their freedom all that time
but the people in the North don't know what freedom is. They have no idea.
They've been enslaved for all that time.
So when you go to places like that you see the children of Afghanistan or
Iraq,
places where they they live under brutal dictatorship and they don't understand
the the precious freedom
that we enjoy each and every day you value your freedom providers all that
more
all the much more in the and and to me there's nothing more valuable than the
freedom that
allows us to do everything that we do and I understand where that comes from
is provided by you
and the United States military. God bless you for doing everything you do for our
country. Thank you very much