The Oscar-nominated actor Gary Sinise of Forrest Gump fame has long been one of the only stars in Hollywood who actually loves and respects American veterans. He showed that once again on Tuesday when he celebrated Veterans Day in a powerful way.

Sinise Celebrates Veterans Day

The Golden Globe-winning star founded the Gary Sinise Foundation back in 2011. Since then, he has tirelessly used it to help U.S. veterans, first responders and their families.

“We’re always going to change with the needs as the needs shift,” Sinise, 70, told Fox News. “I made a pretty flexible mission statement at the beginning that I wanted to be able to adapt as the needs changed, because I wanted to continue to help folks.”

Sinise is celebrating Veterans Day today by presenting the keys to a specially adapted, mortgage-free home that was built for a wounded service member and their family. This is the 99th home that Sinise and his foundation has gifted in this manner.

“Perhaps there will come a time, we hope, where there’s just fewer and fewer wounded service members that are in need of these adaptive homes that we build,” Sinise stated. “That doesn’t mean that the Gary Sinise Foundation will cease to exist because that particular need, it’s not as urgent for us to build those. Maybe that will change, but it doesn’t mean that other needs won’t arise. And we want to always be flexible to shift with those needs.”

“When the foundation was launched, it was in the middle of the Iraq conflict,” he continued. “We still had many, many service members in Iraq. It was when the battles were raging. We still have many service members in Afghanistan now. So we were dealing with active duty, line of duty deaths. We were dealing with a lot of wounded coming home. Those needs have shifted somewhat, but yet, within the veteran community, there are always going to be ways that we can support.”

This Veterans Day, we honor the brave men and women who have worn the cloth of our nation. To all who have served and to the families who have supported them, thank you for your courage, sacrifice, and enduring commitment to our country.

Your service and strength inspires… pic.twitter.com/7gX5pVat9l

— GarySiniseFoundation (@GarySiniseFound) November 11, 2025

Sinise Doubles Down

Sinise went on to say that nonprofits play a “pretty significant role” in helping veterans overcome residual effects. This is especially the case with those who don’t have convenient resources.

“I don’t think the government can do everything, and we know that the government can’t,” Sinise added. “So while the VA system is a system that’s helped many, many veterans over the years and everything like that, when you’ve had 20 years of war, you have a lot of residual effects from 20 years of war. People that are in need … sometimes they’re hundreds of miles away from a VA center or something like that, but nonprofits can play a pretty significant role in helping them.”

That’s why Sinise is determined to keep helping veterans through his foundation.

“The Gary Sinise Foundation will continue to shift and adapt as the needs change within the community,” he pledged. “We are building pretty significant ongoing programs. We have a very vigorous first responder outreach that has shifted somewhat over the years as we discover where we can play a role, a more effective role in helping our firefighters and police officers and people that deal with these things.”

“The important thing is that for someone who is struggling through a trauma or a series of traumas and really containing a lot and not really working to process that in a healthy way, so often our defenders, our veterans, our active duty folks, our firefighters, police officers, they don’t want to be vulnerable at all, and they don’t want to express that they can’t take it,” Sinise explained. “So they contain, and we have programs at the Gary Sinise Foundation that are trying to address that.”

Sinise’s Goal

In the end, Sinise’s goal is simple.

“I want to always be able to provide the support that’s necessary as times change,” he concluded.

Sinise was inspired to start helping veterans after playing the iconic role of Lt. Dan in Forrest Gump. We applaud Sinise for continuing to use his platform to give back to American veterans.

Gary Sinise, known for his role as Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump, has raised over $300 million to support wounded veterans. pic.twitter.com/6vACT2ewAn

— Thrilla the Gorilla (@ThrillaRilla369) October 11, 2025

God bless you, Gary Sinise, and God bless all U.S. veterans. Thank you all for your service!