Speaker 1: Here we are together again, my friend for a new episode,
Speaker 1: an exciting episode. I cannot tell you. I know I
Speaker 1: say this every time, but I am so thrilled to
Speaker 1: present this episode of Love Someone with you today. This
Speaker 1: podcast is for grads and dads especially. I want to
Speaker 1: honor all graduating seniors, whether it's from high school or college,
Speaker 1: and I'd like to honor dads as well, and I'm
Speaker 1: going to do that by dedicating this podcast to a
Speaker 1: couple of my sons. Isaiah, my oldest son, happens to
Speaker 1: be the most amazing father I have ever met. He's
Speaker 1: also a first responder who wears a police uniform and
Speaker 1: bears the responsibilities of being an officer, not the profession
Speaker 1: I would have guessed when who is a kid because
Speaker 1: he was such a sensitive child. Can't believe he decided
Speaker 1: to become a police officer and he has to face
Speaker 1: so much heartbreak every single day. I don't know how
Speaker 1: he bears up under it, but I understand without those qualities,
Speaker 1: without him having that sensitive heart, he probably would not
Speaker 1: be the stellar officer that he is serving and protecting
Speaker 1: with admirable strength and incredible compassion. And he is such
Speaker 1: a good, committed loving, nurturing, hands on, involved in every
Speaker 1: aspect of their life daddy, and I'm so proud of him.
Speaker 1: I also would like to dedicate this podcast to my son, Thomas.
Speaker 1: Thomas graduated high school a couple of days ago. He
Speaker 1: has had many hurdles to overcome in life. He experienced
Speaker 1: childhood trauma before he came to us and his forever family,
Speaker 1: and yet, in spite of is kind, he has emerged
Speaker 1: such a wonderful young man. I'm so proud of him.
Speaker 1: I'm so proud of his older brother Sonny. I'm so
Speaker 1: proud of all my boys that are fathers, and so
Speaker 1: I just wanted to dedicate this podcast to them. Today's
Speaker 1: guest joins me from the passenger seat of a car
Speaker 1: taking him to one stop after another on a frantic
Speaker 1: press day. He's on his cell phone, not in the
Speaker 1: studio with me, as my guests usually are, so the
Speaker 1: audio quality of our conversation isn't as good as it
Speaker 1: normally is, and I do apologize for that, but the
Speaker 1: conversation is so powerful and inspiring, so compelling. You will
Speaker 1: be grateful for these stolen moments out of the life
Speaker 1: of an incredibly busy man. Before I introduce you. I
Speaker 1: want to stop here for a few moments and take
Speaker 1: a moment for a message from our sponsor. Today we
Speaker 1: have the privilege of talking with the man admired by
Speaker 1: many for many different reasons. He's an actor, it's a
Speaker 1: talented musician. He's an advocate and activist, and now an author,
Speaker 1: amongst many other titles I could bestow upon him. He
Speaker 1: has spent his life in the entertainment industry, playing brave
Speaker 1: and honorable characters to great acclaim. Now, in addition to
Speaker 1: TV and movie roles, he devotes his life to bettering
Speaker 1: the lives of our service veterans, our first responders, and
Speaker 1: their families through his time, his resources, his great works organization,
Speaker 1: the Gary Sinise Foundation. Let's welcome Gary Sinise. Hi, Gary, Hello,
Speaker 1: I am so geeked out to get to talk to you.
Speaker 2: Thank you for taking time. So geeked out.
Speaker 1: When I heard about your new book that's just come out,
Speaker 1: grateful American for himself to service. I put my order
Speaker 1: in for a copy right away. I did not know
Speaker 1: I could love you anymore than I did when you
Speaker 1: played Lieutenant Dan. Now I love you all the more so.
Speaker 1: Thank you for taking the time. Gary to be on
Speaker 1: our podcast.
Speaker 3: Oh my pleasure.
Speaker 2: You're so inspiring. Thank you so say your name the
Speaker 2: way that it was before it was changed. I love that.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: I was saying it out loud after I read that
Speaker 1: in your book, and I see you in a whole new.
Speaker 3: Light now Italian.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm getting pinched on your cheek by a grandma.
Speaker 3: For my grandfather's laughing.
Speaker 1: So grateful American is a culmination of well, it's a
Speaker 1: story of your life, but it's a culmination of so
Speaker 1: many ways that but your heart has been impacted by
Speaker 1: the men and women who are there to serve. And
Speaker 1: I want to know, do you remember that first time
Speaker 1: that you felt your heart grow like ten times when
Speaker 1: it hit you or did you have that moment like
Speaker 1: I did, where the reality of that kind of sacrificial
Speaker 1: love hit you full force?
Speaker 3: Well, sure, in various ways over time. I have veterans
Speaker 3: in my family. Why it all begins there with my
Speaker 3: side of the family, my grandfather, my uncles, my dad,
Speaker 3: my wife's side of the family. Her brothers be a
Speaker 3: non veterans or sisters serving the army. Sister married to
Speaker 3: be a non veteran who was in the Army for
Speaker 3: twenty two years. They had a son that served in
Speaker 3: the army for thirteen years. A lot of veterans in
Speaker 3: my family into the kind of that that gets your men.
Speaker 3: Then I just got great compassion back in the seventies
Speaker 3: and eighties after meeting the Vietnam veterans on my wife's
Speaker 3: side of the family, because they were just slightly older than
Speaker 3: I was and had gone to war and come come
Speaker 3: back in the nation that was corn apart over the war,
Speaker 3: and the Vietnam veteran got gout in the middle of
Speaker 3: all that, and it was a it was a terrible
Speaker 3: period in our history when the way we treated them
Speaker 3: when they returned home. And so I felt great compassion
Speaker 3: there and I just tried to supporting veteran supers in
Speaker 3: various ways. And then I played the veteran and Chrest
Speaker 3: Gump that that started me working without wounded and I
Speaker 3: just started meaning, you know, multiple injured warriors, and you know,
Speaker 3: going back to World War Two and all the way
Speaker 3: up until that time. The Forrest Gumps came out a
Speaker 3: few years after the Golf War, and I met a
Speaker 3: lot of folks back then, and then after September eleventh,
Speaker 3: I just you know, there was a calling for serving
Speaker 3: a greater capacity after that, and it's just manifested itself
Speaker 3: into a full time commitment and a full time foundation, the.
Speaker 2: Gary Sonese Foundation.
Speaker 1: And if somebody would like to volunteer, like to get involved,
Speaker 1: like to say, hey, use me, I'll help, I'll jump
Speaker 1: in there.
Speaker 2: How can they do that?
Speaker 3: First thing to do is go look at the website, Garison,
Speaker 3: these foundations dot board, and I always recommend people go
Speaker 3: to the YouTube channel. It's at the bottom of the homepage.
Speaker 3: You just click on that little icon and that'll take
Speaker 3: you to the YouTube channel and you'll see all our
Speaker 3: programs and accinam videos from every one of our programs,
Speaker 3: ranging from building homes for our badly wounded service members
Speaker 3: to supporting World War Two veterans, taking them down in
Speaker 3: the National World War Two Museum in New Orleans and
Speaker 3: preparing them up with the high school kids. It's an
Speaker 3: educational trip that we do. Our Serving Heroes program. We
Speaker 3: go into usos and vas all over the world and
Speaker 3: provide appreciation with a big meal and everything, letting them
Speaker 3: know that we're not forgetting that they're serving out there.
Speaker 3: We have multiple programs and various capacities. Our Snowball Express
Speaker 3: program is focused on the children of our fallen heroes.
Speaker 3: Just dozens of things that are going on at the
Speaker 3: garis and Ees Foundation. You can learn more about it
Speaker 3: at Garisne Foundation dot org.
Speaker 1: So before anybody goes there, I have to say, though,
Speaker 1: please have a box or two of tissue, because when
Speaker 1: I watched the videos, I was a wreck.
Speaker 2: So inspiring.
Speaker 3: There's a lot of very moving things. You meet all
Speaker 3: these various people that we're working with and supporting them.
Speaker 3: We learn the stories, and we have profiles of everyone
Speaker 3: in the wounded service numbers that we're building homes or
Speaker 3: I'll do a special profile on their life and what happened.
Speaker 3: Those profiles are all on the YouTube channel. Yeah, and
Speaker 3: you know you can see us take We took over
Speaker 3: a thousand children of our fallen Heroes down to Disney
Speaker 3: World last December and treated them to four days of
Speaker 3: what we call hope and healing. You know, when you
Speaker 3: bring these kids together and they meet all these other
Speaker 3: kids who are going through the same thing having lost
Speaker 3: a parent in military service, it really is a very
Speaker 3: healing thing for them to meet these other kids. And
Speaker 3: then we provide a lot of fun and joy and
Speaker 3: love and just give them a lot of support, which
Speaker 3: they desperately need going through this grief. We can never forget,
Speaker 3: you know, these families and what they go through. So
Speaker 3: and they do it, you know, selflessly in any ways,
Speaker 3: and they don't ask for a lot. I just want
Speaker 3: to take a proactive approach to making sure that they
Speaker 3: get the services they need when they need them.
Speaker 2: And you're not just building homes.
Speaker 1: When I was watching and reading, I was fascinated Gary
Speaker 1: with the fact that you're finding the latest technology that
Speaker 1: makes life livable for somebody who's been seriously wounded. I
Speaker 1: mean everything from appliances that they can work using computers
Speaker 1: and that sort of thing. I was like, dang, you're
Speaker 1: not just putting in a ramp for wheelchair. You're giving
Speaker 1: back the fullness of life.
Speaker 3: What we you know, I started doing this home building
Speaker 3: back in two times. We met a soldier who has
Speaker 3: blown up and he lost both his arms and both
Speaker 3: his legs. He was opposed to survive the prabupal amputation,
Speaker 3: so obviously he's going to have some special needs. And
Speaker 3: we get a concert to raise money and stat In
Speaker 3: Island to build him especially adapted house that he would
Speaker 3: be comfortable in and feel more independent of them because
Speaker 3: of the things that we provide inside there. You know,
Speaker 3: he had obviously special needs, and that was quite a
Speaker 3: while ago and in between them and now we're with
Speaker 3: all the homes that we've completed and the ones that
Speaker 3: are under construction and then planning stages. We're over about
Speaker 3: seventy houses now. So our guys that these are all
Speaker 3: professional builders and we've learned a lot over the years
Speaker 3: about the needs of these wounded service members. We try
Speaker 3: to provide each individual with, you know, the special things
Speaker 3: that that person might need. We want them to be
Speaker 3: able to be more independent in their home. The program
Speaker 3: is called RISE Restoring Independence Supporting in Parliament and we
Speaker 3: want to give them their independence back. You know, they've
Speaker 3: kind of taken away. They have to depend on people
Speaker 3: to help them, and we provide this smart technology in
Speaker 3: the house that helps them to take better care of
Speaker 3: themselves and that that provides more independence for the people
Speaker 3: that are they're living with it because they can worry
Speaker 3: a lot us and as the wounded serviceman can take
Speaker 3: better care of themselves on their own.
Speaker 1: You're sharing so much with me and my listeners, Gary
Speaker 1: that I'm having trouble wrapping up my brain around all
Speaker 1: it is that you and your foundation do for some
Speaker 1: of the most deserving people in our country. We're going
Speaker 1: to pause here and let some of it sink in,
Speaker 1: and I'll take this time to talk about my podcast sponsor,
Speaker 1: who is behind you all the way they love our
Speaker 1: servicemen and women. I want to talk about the Home Depot.
Speaker 1: I am always proud to have the Home Depot sponsor
Speaker 1: my radio show at night, and now proud to have
Speaker 1: them a sponsor this podcast. They help so many people
Speaker 1: in times of need, in times of ambitious projects about
Speaker 1: to take off, in times of changing your paint color
Speaker 1: for the emptyenth time, no questions ask. The Home Depot
Speaker 1: staff includes more than thirty five thousand men and women
Speaker 1: who have served our new within our military ranks. They
Speaker 1: came home and found a career with the Home Depot.
Speaker 1: That's just one of the things I think of when
Speaker 1: choosing where to go for any home improvement project. I
Speaker 1: am thinking about taking on the Home Depot more saving,
Speaker 1: more doing well the Garysonese Foundation. Like you said, go
Speaker 1: to Garysonese Foundation dot org and and don't just be touched.
Speaker 1: I really want to encourage people to step outside of
Speaker 1: their comfort zone Gary and raise their hand and say
Speaker 1: I can do this, I can help, I can do this,
Speaker 1: I can get involved with. You know, almost every state
Speaker 1: has a hospital or someplace that you can go, a
Speaker 1: naval base, a military base where you can go and
Speaker 1: get involved.
Speaker 3: The one thing that I always say to folks, you know,
Speaker 3: they asked me, you know who should I donate to?
Speaker 3: And you know, while you can certainly donate to the
Speaker 3: Garisonese Foundation and other great nonprofits, there's a different ways
Speaker 3: that you can help if everybody in every neighborhood and
Speaker 3: every community in every town and city just took a
Speaker 3: little responsibility to plant their veterans on the back and
Speaker 3: ask them what they need. These are all freedom providers.
Speaker 3: They're out there all the sacrificing. Our first responders are
Speaker 3: doing that on a great daily basis. You know, just
Speaker 3: consider this. We support first responders in my foundation as well.
Speaker 3: And you have police officers and firefighters that on a
Speaker 3: daily basis they that they could see a lot of
Speaker 3: bad things. I mean, just consider a massive car wreck
Speaker 3: and the firefighters that have to go in there and
Speaker 3: they see those things, and then they go home and
Speaker 3: want and they have to go to sleep and get
Speaker 3: up the next day and do the same thing all
Speaker 3: over again. That can take its toll. And we know
Speaker 3: that the community is behind them, supporting them and providing
Speaker 3: services or support that can make a difference in the
Speaker 3: morales somebody who's going through some difficult times like them.
Speaker 1: You know, my oldest son is a police officer and
Speaker 1: a member of the SWAT team, and my stepdaughter is
Speaker 1: a police officer, and her fiance is a police officer
Speaker 1: and an investigator, and my husband is a former Green
Speaker 1: Beret and a former police officer. So we love our
Speaker 1: first responders and the heroes, but truly, Gary, unless you
Speaker 1: hear their stories. And I talk to my son, I
Speaker 1: try to talk to him at least two or three
Speaker 1: times a week. My heart is broken for him over
Speaker 1: what you just said. And when he has to respond
Speaker 1: to a situation where a child's been hurt or abused,
Speaker 1: his heart is broken. My heart is broken for him.
Speaker 3: It's difficult stuff. And then they have to put on
Speaker 3: a uniform again the next day and go on go
Speaker 3: back out, So you know what I mean, It can
Speaker 3: happen to know that people appreciate what they're going through.
Speaker 3: And they don't take it for granted, and we want
Speaker 3: to do something. I write a book called Grateful America,
Speaker 3: a Journey from Self to Service, and it was really
Speaker 3: about the moments in my life that has led to
Speaker 3: this full on service work. One of the people who
Speaker 3: have inspired me along the way and are police officers
Speaker 3: of firefighters, are military personnel. I've met extraordinary people. There
Speaker 3: may be a lot of self with work. They don't
Speaker 3: get a lot of packs on the back, and if
Speaker 3: I can do something to help them, I'm not a
Speaker 3: great way that I can serve.
Speaker 2: And you do.
Speaker 1: You and your Lieutenant Dan band, which is really really good,
Speaker 1: Well thank you.
Speaker 3: You know, we've played hundreds of concerts over the years
Speaker 3: for the troops. I've started taking a band out about
Speaker 3: two thousand and three, fifteen or sixteen years now. We've
Speaker 3: just played hundreds and hundreds of shows and the band
Speaker 3: is a program of the Jars and Ease Foundation. I
Speaker 3: play for free, but I have to pay the expenses
Speaker 3: of paying the band members their own musicians, that's how
Speaker 3: they make their living. I have to pay them, and
Speaker 3: I have to pay that production costs and things like that.
Speaker 3: So much like when you donate to the USO. You know,
Speaker 3: the USA provides entertainment to the troops if you donate
Speaker 3: to the Gerris and Ease Foundation. One of our programs
Speaker 3: is Gerris Andise and the Lieutenant Van Dam and that
Speaker 3: allows me to multiple times a year go on to
Speaker 3: military bases or do fundraiser for first responders support concerts
Speaker 3: all over the country. I'd do maybe thirty some shows
Speaker 3: a year, and it's all for the military and our
Speaker 3: first responder community. John Andrasik and I just did a
Speaker 3: contract that my foundations produced right down here in California
Speaker 3: in Thousand Oaks. You know, we had those terrible shootings
Speaker 3: at Borderline Bar and Grill and then you know, ten
Speaker 3: within ten hours, the hills were on fire and burning everywhere.
Speaker 3: So we did we did something called Contract for the
Speaker 3: Fenders and it was just a free concert to support
Speaker 3: that community and to bring our first responders some joy
Speaker 3: and to support the Borderline families. The foundation allows me
Speaker 3: to do that. The people that donate to the Gears
Speaker 3: and each foundation are generously helping me to help other people,
Speaker 3: and that's a good thing.
Speaker 1: So the book title again, Grateful American. It's available everywhere now,
Speaker 1: I would say to listeners even if you are not
Speaker 1: an avid reader, that you don't you go to bed
Speaker 1: every night with the book in your hand. This is
Speaker 1: a book that you need to get and then you
Speaker 1: need to give it away to bless somebody else that
Speaker 1: when you're.
Speaker 2: Done with it.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you. That's a great endorsement, and I really
Speaker 3: appreciate it. I hope people we'll pick up a copy.
Speaker 1: I hope they will pick up a copy, and I
Speaker 1: hope they will be motivated. And I hope every time
Speaker 1: they see a police officer, a fireman, an EMT, member
Speaker 1: of the military, they sincerely thank them and their fans families.
Speaker 3: Awesome.
Speaker 1: Indeed, Gary Sonise, thank you so much for being here
Speaker 1: on love Someone with Delilah, and God bless you and
Speaker 1: your family and your wife, your kids, your grandkids and
Speaker 1: everything that you put.
Speaker 2: Your hand to. I just pray that God blesses you
Speaker 2: and protects you.
Speaker 3: Thanks so much. You have a wonderful day.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, thank you.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it. Well.
Speaker 1: Gary shared so much with us about all that his
Speaker 1: foundation does. Now you know why I ask you to
Speaker 1: listen to this podcast. Even though there was some static
Speaker 1: over the line, many of you know that I am
Speaker 1: a loud and proud supporter of the men and women
Speaker 1: who serve our freedom providers, as Gary calls them, and
Speaker 1: during our conversation, he and I both mentioned all of
Speaker 1: our family members who wear uniforms. What many of you
Speaker 1: may not know is the story of my own awakening revelation,
Speaker 1: the moment and when the enormity of the sacrificial love
Speaker 1: that service members embody hit me and changed me forever.
Speaker 1: It's one of the two or three things that have
Speaker 1: happened in my life that I believe changed me on
Speaker 1: a cellular level. Before I went to Iraq and Afghanistan,
Speaker 1: before I was asked to be a part of the
Speaker 1: Air Force Reserves, I loved our servicemen and women I did.
Speaker 1: I thank them, I respected them, I appreciated what they did.
Speaker 2: But I had no clue.
Speaker 1: I truly had no clue what sacrificial love was, because
Speaker 1: in my life and my experience, love happens between people
Speaker 1: that are connected, that are family members, or sweethearts, or
Speaker 1: husbands and wives, or in a committed relationship. Love is
Speaker 1: demonstrated for your cousins or your best people you went
Speaker 1: to high school with. I never knew what sacrificial love was.
Speaker 1: Until I went with our military to Afghanistan and Iraq,
Speaker 1: and I met men and women in our military that
Speaker 1: were willing to lay down their lives not just for
Speaker 1: their family members, not just for a friend, but for
Speaker 1: complete strangers, for people that might not even like them
Speaker 1: or respect them. And I saw it in action. I
Speaker 1: saw it in action. I met men and women on
Speaker 1: a Thursday night, Thanksgiving night, in fact that I saw
Speaker 1: one week later, exactly one week later, coming into Ramstein,
Speaker 1: Germany and too Ramstein the military hospital missing limbs because
Speaker 1: they were at war, and their lives were forever changed
Speaker 1: for you, for me, for our country. And even though
Speaker 1: I might disagree with what they are asked to do,
Speaker 1: I love and respect our military men and women so
Speaker 1: much and what they do for us. Like I said,
Speaker 1: I was changed forever. I hope you have been inspired
Speaker 1: by this podcast to become more involved wherever your heart leads.
Speaker 1: Helping our veterans, helping first responders might be what you're
Speaker 1: called to do.
Speaker 2: I hope it is.
Speaker 1: I encourage you to pick up a copy of Grateful American.
Speaker 1: It is such a good book, such a good read,
Speaker 1: and to visit the Garysiniz Foundation dot org. You can
Speaker 1: also visit my American Forces Network section of Delilah dot
Speaker 1: com for further inspiration and help a veteran bless somebody.
Speaker 1: I'd also like to wish all the dads out there
Speaker 1: are very happy Father's Day. It's an important job, this
Speaker 1: datting business, and deserves much applod recognition and respect, as
Speaker 1: do all the accomplishments of the cap tossing graduates life
Speaker 1: Like my son TK Toma is so proud of you,
Speaker 1: Lindsey Piper, so proud of my niece. Good luck in
Speaker 1: all that you do in life. Subscribe to my podcast
Speaker 1: Love Someone with Delilah for access to new episodes as
Speaker 1: soon as they drop. Also tune into my nightly radio
Speaker 1: show of course, thank you for joining me. My friends.
Speaker 1: We'll be back together soon.
Speaker 2: Do me a favor.
Speaker 1: Slow down and love someone.
Speaker 3: Slow down and love someone
Speaker 2: With love