Travis Mills focusing on inspirational message at CPAC

Travis Mills Speaks At CPAC In Washington
WABI 5 News
David Abe
February 25, 2018

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WABI) - "This is all about inspiring people to do greater things, and to never give up on themselves, and to never quit."

Staff Sargent Mills lost parts of all four limbs after an improvised explosive device went off near him during his third tour in Afghanistan.

After a long recovery, Mills now uses his foundation to bring fellow injured veterans and their families to a retreat in Maine, to experience moments they may have thought were no longer possible.

"Some really monumental moments have happened with some fathers and daughters or some fathers and sons that went kayaking for the first time, or found out they could, you know, go out there and go tubing with their loved ones."

Saturday, Mills spoke on stage at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

"I think the biggest problem facing our veterans today, when they get out of the military, is communication breakdown."

His panel, not political, but focused on delivering a message of how people can help veterans transition back into civilian life.
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Hundreds of bikers took over roads in Florida...on charity ride!

Today, hundreds of bikers got together to ride from Seminole Harley Davidson in Sanford Florida, to Ace Cafe in downtown Orlando.

The honorees of this year’s run are U.S. Marine Sgt. Steve Tovet and U.S. Navy Corpsman HM1 Kelly Smith.

Wounded Female Veteran Saved 500!

‘Molded and crafted by heroes’

Fayetteville Observer
Michael Futch
January 14, 2018 

Sellers, who previously served with the 1st Cavalry Division Sustainment Brigade at Fort Hood, Texas, said she helped save over 500 lives down range in Afghanistan by standing between the suicide bomber and the participants in a Veterans Day run.

India Sellers-Walker received the keys to her newly refurbished 2004 Chevrolet TrailBlazer from a skydiving former Army Golden Knight.

The 70 or so on hand, who witnessed Mike Elliott’s long descent from a darkening cloudy sky, loved it.

On Saturday afternoon, Sellers-Walker, a 26-year-old member of the Fort Bragg Warrior Transition Battalion, received the sports utility vehicle as a gift from Caliber Collision’s Changing Lanes Academy and the U.S. Veterans Corps. The car donation, part of the National Auto Body Council’s Recycled Rides program, was presented to her during a program held under cloudy skies on the parade field outside the Airborne & Special Operations Museum.

“This is a very special gift,” said Larry Keen, who is president of Fayetteville Technical Community College. “It has been molded and crafted by heroes.”

Changing Lanes was developed in partnership with FTCC and Fort Bragg’s Career Skills Program. It is one of the first programs in the nation to provide transitioning service members with training and employment opportunities in the collision repair industry.

The Warrior Transition Battalion nominated Sellers-Walker for the vehicle, which was donated by Jennifer and Mike Burch of Holly Springs.

She said she can use the extra room in it.

Since a Veterans Day suicide bomb attack inside Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan on Nov. 11, 2016, Sellers-Walker has undergone 26 surgeries for the extensive injuries that riddled her body. 
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Yukon Oklahoma Opens Arms for Wounded Veteran's Family

Volunteers Help Make Veteran's Family's Christmas
News On 6
Caleigh Bourgeois
December 23, 2017

“The feeling you get when you get to help somebody else that's in need is just a feeling everybody should experience,” Wade said. 

YUKON, Oklahoma -

A wounded warrior in Yukon and his family were given a Christmas miracle thanks to two friends and several volunteers.

Last week, Jessica Smith with the Red Cross received a phone call from a wounded warrior’s wife.

“He had just lost his job. They had no food in their cupboards. They were about to be evicted,” Smith said.

Determined to help the Yukon family, Smith called up her friend Ellie Wade, who works at First United Bank. 

“We have a fund where if we wear blue jeans on Friday we pay into it, and we collect all year long,” Wade said.

Wade and Smith took the money from that fund and started shopping. 

“We just started buying and paying the rent and utilities, and buying groceries and gifts,” Wade said. 

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Wounded Navy Seal Land Hawaii Five-0 Acting Gig

Gary Sinise Helps Wounded Navy Seal Land Hawaii Five-0 Acting Gig: He's Someone 'I Admire Very Much'
PEOPLE
KC BAKER
December 15, 2017

Wanting to help others wounded in combat, in 2009 Redman founded the non-profit Combat Wounded Coalition, inspiring vets to move past their physical and mental challenges and go on to live successful lives.

Retired Navy Seal Jason Redman is getting ready for his close up.

Severely wounded in Iraq in 2007, the highly decorated special ops vet – and winner of the American History Channel’s 2017 Red Bandanna Hero Award — will be making his TV debut on Friday’s episode of the hit CBS series Hawaii Five-O – thanks to his longtime friend, actor Gary Sinise.

Jason Redman in Afghanistan in 2007.Courtesy Jason Redman

“Peter Lenkov, who runs Hawaii Five-0, used to be one of our top writers and producers over at CSI:NY,” Sinise tells PEOPLE.

“He contacted me saying he was looking for a veteran for a part,” says Sinise, who has spent the last 40 years helping wounded and active members of the military and veterans, as well as creating the Gary Sinise Foundation.

Lenkov told Sinise he was looking for a veteran with a scar on his face for the role in question.
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Suicide Bomber in Afghanistan Wounded Four US Service Members

Suicide bomber injures 4 US troops in Kandahar

Stars and Stripes

November 13, 2017

KABUL, Afghanistan — Four U.S. servicemembers were injured Monday when a suicide bomber struck a military convoy in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province, officials said.

The incident occurred near Kandahar Air Field, where U.S. and coalition forces are based, said Qudratullah Khushbakht, a spokesman for the province’s governor.

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Quadruple Amputee Veteran Has New Arms

If you are having a bad time, take a look at his face, then read all he's gone through. You want some inspiration? You want some hope that life can change if our outlook does? Here it is!


Afghan war veteran who lost all his limbs learns to live with new arms
THE FREE LANCE–STAR
By KRISTIN DAVIS
November 12, 2017

He was a quadruple amputee, one of five from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it wasn’t long before a team of doctors visited Walter Reed to talk to him about an arm transplant—attaching the arms of a dying person onto what remained of his.

Peter Cihelka The Free Lance Star

After the 16-hour surgery, after the nerve blockers dented pain so torturous he nearly asked the doctors to undo all that he’d pinned his hopes on, John Peck looked down at his hands and wondered about the man they’d come from.

A tiny white scar, narrow as a hair’s breadth, ran like a dash across his right wrist. He turned them over. No calluses on the palms or fingers. The man who’d given him what a bomb blast took away had not played guitar or gardened or labored with his hands.

Peck lay in a hospital bed at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, 500 miles from his home in Spotsylvania County where the wait for a double-arm transplant had dragged on for more than two years.

In the weeks after he was approved for the surgery in 2014 and placed on a waiting list, Peck’s cellphone had become like a limb itself, never leaving his side. But weeks turned to months and soon a year had passed with no call. As a second year approached, he no longer clung to it in the same way.

Sometimes, he even wheeled himself outside without it.
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Veteran Needs Help With Medical Bills?

Bellevue community rallies around Iraq War veteran

KETV 7 ABC News 
James Wilcox 
November 10, 2017

And Justin also recently learned his prosthetic, part of a rare procedure done in Australia, also isn't covered by insurance. The cost is close to six figures.

BELLEVUE, Neb. — Justin Anderson was deployed to Iraq in 2003. He enlisted in the U.S. Army as a high school student in Bellevue. "Two weeks after after graduation he was on the plane heading to boot camp. He was ready to rock n roll," Justin's mom, Lisbeth Anderson, said. 

Nobody was ready for what happened next. Just four months into his tour, Justin and his fellow soldiers were attacked. Justin suffered a gunshot wound to the knee. "To date, I've had a total of 27 major surgeries. 23 of those were on my left knee," Justin said.

The injury eventually led to the amputation of his leg, which came a year after another setback. "In June of 2013 I was diagnosed with Astrocytoma, which is a form of brain cancer," Justin said. He fought the cancer with chemotherapy and radiation. The battle lasted more than two years, but Justin is now in remission. read more here