Clarksville, TN (May9, 2019)
The Gary Sinise Foundation will be giving a specially adapted smart home to United States Army Chief Warrant Officer 5 Gary Linfoot (Ret.) Friday, May 10th near Clarksville, TN.

Chief Warrant Officer 5 Gary Linfoot grew up in Los Angeles. He initially enlisted in the Army Reserves after graduating high school in the hopes of becoming a helicopter pilot. After attending Flight School and graduating a Warrant Officer in 1990, Gary joined the Army’s elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne) (SOAR(A)) in 1997.

On May 31, 2008, while conducting operations in Iraq, Gary’s helicopter suffered a catastrophic mechanical failure. The helicopter crash-landed, injuring Gary severely. Medics evacuated him to Germany for a spine stabilization surgery, and treatment took him from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, to the Tampa VA Hospital and finally the Shepherd Center in GA. His broken back paralyzed Gary from the waist down. After three months of recovery, Gary returned home to a very new kind of life.

Gary and his wife Mari have raised three children over their twenty-six-year marriage. As with every other challenge they have confronted, they fight to overcome Gary’s disability together and have had remarkable success. Wearing an exoskeleton suit, Gary walked his oldest daughter Allyssa down the aisle on her wedding day in 2016, and he currently works as a helicopter simulator instructor pilot with the 160th SOAR(A) at Fort Campbell, KY. A specially adapted smart home will help the Linfoot family continue to overcome the challenges before them.

Gary Sinise Foundation’s R.I.S.E. program (Restoring Independence Supporting Empowerment), along with our donors, The Marcus Foundation, The Home Depot Foundation, Semper Fi Fund and Hope For The Warriors, as well as our building partners, will join the greater Clarksville-area community in this specially adapted smart home dedication ceremony.

Simple tasks of everyday life like climbing stairs, reaching a high shelf, getting in and out of the bathroom are easy to take for granted. Because for most of us, they’re done without a second thought. But that’s often the reality for our severely wounded heroes, where basic tasks are impossible obstacles and the enduring ambition of rehabilitation is to achieve a semblance of normalcy. Through its R.I.S.E. programthe Gary Sinise Foundation is builds specially adapted smart homes for our nation’s most severely wounded veterans and first responders. They construct these one-of-a-kind homes all across the country for a wounded hero, their caregivers and their families. With a place to truly call home they are now be able to move forward with their lives.

Visit www.GarySiniseFoundation.org

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