Gary Sinise Salutes the Greatest Generation

For those WWII veterans who can no longer travel, we sponsor a historian to conduct interviews with them in the comfort of their homes. So far, 1,121 veterans and their guardians have participated in our Soaring Valor experiences while 203 high school students have accompanied them.

I have many joyful memories of getting Jack and my father together each year for the National Memorial Day Concert and the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation’s Celebration of Freedom events at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum in Simi Valley, California.

Many years ago, through kind friends at the Disabled American Veterans organization, I was able to arrange a flight for Uncle Jack on a B-17. He came to a few of my veterans concerts at the AirVenture Air Show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and felt so proud to be among his fellow veterans there. He also traveled with many WWII veterans to Washington on an Honor Flight. 

I’ve been a part of more than a dozen of these special Soaring Valor events and have met so many humble heroes. On our 2016 trip, I met 106-year-old Lawrence Brooks. A wonderful man, a great American WWII hero, he died just last year at the age of 112. 

In 2019, I spent time at the WWII museum with Teddy Kirkpatrick, who served with the 379th Bomb Group and flew B-17 missions with Uncle Jack out of Kimbolton, England. To mark his 96th birthday, Teddy went skydiving. Sadly, Teddy died in February this year, five months short of his 100th birthday. 

There’s my friend Les Jones, a Navy veteran who was in the European theater, American theater and Pacific theater during WWII and is now 97. On Memorial Day, he noted that he was “the only one left” from his group of service friends and remarked, “I love our country.” 

Still looking forward in his life rather than back, Les shook hands with one young man and told him, “You’re the kind of guy I put my life on the line for.”

When I caught up with Les in a video phone call, he greeted me with “Gary, you son of a gun,” then teased me about my graying hair. He stroked his own full head of white hair and told me, “We still have it, Gary. We don’t like the color of it, but we still have it.”

And there’s George Ciampa, also 97, who was fresh from high school when he spent 11 months with the U.S. Army’s 607th Graves Registration Company, collecting the bodies of fallen soldiers from the invasion of Normandy and Battle of the Bulge.

“If anyone saw the high price of freedom, we did,” George tells us. He reminds people of the American cemeteries across Europe today: “When I talk to people about the high price of freedom, I tell them you have to put a face on every one of those crosses or stars of David.”

George has spent his life as a documentary filmmaker, preserving the stories of WWII, and I have had the great privilege of narrating a few of his films. God bless you, my friend.

I talk to WWII veterans whenever I can. I am conscious that I will not always have this privilege. I feel this is what we should all do for those who gave so much for us by serving — checking in, catching up and thanking them. It is our goal to send as many of these heroes to the museum as possible in the next few years and record many more stories for the museum archive. These great Americans did their duty and made history. I feel proud that this country produced such people. We stand on their shoulders. Without their sacrifice, where would our country and the world be? They saved the world during one of the darkest periods in human history. 

To our beloved WWII veterans, we are all in your debt. God bless you and thank you. 

Your grateful American pal,

Gary Sinise 

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