On the Friday after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, actor Gary Sinise felt a calling. Packed into a Los Angeles church with others looking for a sense of balance amid the chaos and loss on what then-President George W. Bush called a National Day of Prayer, Sinise was moved to action by words from the priest.

“Our priest was moving in his homily that day, talking about service and how service above self was very healing and that we all needed to try to do something to help our country heal … I heard that very specifically that Friday after September 11. That, I think, galvanized something in me, and I just felt called by God to do something to help heal the men and women who were deploying in response to that event,” Sinise recalled in a recent interview with Raymond Arroyo, host and managing editor of EWTN’s “The World Over.”

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The actor best known for his roles in “Forrest Gump” and “CSI: NY” had already been involved in helping Vietnam veterans. He had learned through family members who had served during the conflict about the toll that came in returning home to a divided nation, one that had an aggressive and at times hostile attitude toward veterans. Sinise did not want to see history repeated.

“Once we started deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan and we started losing people, [and] they started getting hurt, I thought, ‘That’s where I can place my energy. That’s where I can serve.’ I’d been involved with Vietnam veterans. I don’t want our active-duty folks deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan and to come home to a nation that treated them the way our Vietnam veterans were treated,” the 62-year-old actor said.

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It all led, in 2011, to the creation of the Gary Sinise Foundation, one of the most respected veteran charities around. Through the foundation, Sinise and others do everything from entertaining the troops (with the actor’s Lt. Dan Band, named after his iconic character from “Gump”), to building advanced homes for wounded veterans. (go to page 2 to continue reading) [lz_pagination]