Travis Mills, Quadruple Amputee Soldier, Gets Custom 'Smart Home' From Gary Sinise Foundation

Sergeant Travis Mills’ life changed forever when he lost all four limbs to an Improvised Explosive Device in Afghanistan. But two charities are making sure that his comforts of home remain intact.

While Mills recovers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation and the Gary Sinise Foundation are erecting a custom-built home for the wounded warrior, Fox News reports. The oversized rooms and iPad-controlled countertops -- among other amenities –- will give Mills the independence he wouldn’t otherwise have.

"It's a passion," John Hodge, director of operations for the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, told the news source. "It just rips your heart out to see these kids -- and they are kids -- who have such promise and have their whole lives ahead of them, and then this happens. We want to make sure they fulfill their promise and their dreams."

The organization was founded in memory of Hodge's cousin Stephen Siller, a New York City firefighter who died on September 11. To honor him, the group hosts runs and fundraisers and builds adaptive homes for amputees.

Earlier this year, Hodge’s organization teamed up with the Gary Sinise Foundation, established by the famed “Forrest Gump” actor who played the role of an amputee who served in Vietnam. The nonprofits built a smart home for Marine Lance Cpl. Juan Dominguez, who lost his legs and right arm in 2010, according to the Associated Press. Sinise and his band -- the Lt. Dan Band (named for his "Forrest Gump" character) performed a benefit concert in California to help the cause.

As Mills recuperates, his family and friends are keeping supporters updated on the soldier's progress through his website, TravisMills.org.

"Thank you everyone for your support," Tammy Buck, Mills’ mother-in-law, wrote on the site Tuesday. "Let's pray that tomorrow is a more settling, healing day. What a great man Travis is, and we'll be with him every step of the way."

To get involved with the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, click here.

To read more about the plight of wounded warriors and how you can help, check out HuffPost's Pulitzer-prize winning Beyond the Battlefield series.

READ ABOUT OTHERS HELPING VETERANS BELOW:

Loading Slideshow

• Chris Marvin, Revitalizes a neighborhood

  Chris Marvin, director of civilian-military partnerships for <a href="http://www.servicenation.org/" target="_hplink">ServiceNation </a>and Afghanistan war vet, will partake in <a href="http://www.servicenation.org/missionserve/detail/washington-dc-habitat-build" target="_hplink">one of 11 large-scale service missions his organization is hosting on Friday.</a> Marvin plans to head down to Washington, D.C. to join up with Habitat For Humanity and Blue Star families to help revitalize Ivy City, by building four new homes.

• William McNulty, Builds homes for wounded warriors

  <a href=" http://teamrubiconusa.org/" target="_hplink">Team Rubicon</a>, a nonprofit that dispenses veterans and medical professionals to disaster sites, is teaming up with five Habitat for Humanity projects on Friday to build homes for injured veterans. Team Rubicon founder and Marine, William McNulty, will join a project in Brooklyn."[Veterans] don't want to drink beer and share war stories in some dark beer hall," McNulty said. "What they do want to do is continue their service."

• Randy Ryan, Grows organic gardens

  Randy Ryan has joined forces with Teaching Gardens in order to teach inner city kids about growing healthful food and to employ veterans to help execute the mission. Ryan will head down to Hawaii to build a garden for kids who live on an airfare base. "These are children of military people," Ryan said. "These kids deserve a lot."

• Dylan Tete, Builds veteran communities

  After volunteering with kids who lost their dads in Iraq and Afghanistan, Dylan Tete decided to help veterans connect with one another to find healing. Tete came up with Bastion, a veteran housing community that will offer wounded warriors a residence equipped with all the resources they need. On Friday, Tete will participate in a two-day conference to get insight into fundraising and getting his project up and running.

Comments

[SueZbell]

05:04 PM on 04/22/2012

This act of charity and kindness serves two worthwhile purposes. It helps someone truly in need and the media coverage about it educates. Hopefully, the next generation of leaders will learn from it.

First: The more the teens know about the REAL consequences to war the less likely they are to enlist

Second: Let us also hope the next generation will find a way to peace with freedom on a global scale that has eluded prior generations.

[Kitten Kitty]

03:05 PM on 04/20/2012

Now this is a charity!!! I am MORE than honored to support Gary and our wounded warriors. Kudos Gary!!!!

[salgal877]

01:03 PM on 04/20/2012

i HOPE EVERYON WATCHED "DR. PHIL" YESTERDAY~~4/19/12 HE HAD 2 PSTD VETS ON, HOW SAID, WE CAN'T EVEN GET CLOSE TO IMAGIN WHAT THEY HAVE SEEN AND DONE! HAS TORN THEIR LIVES APART, AND THEIR FAMILIES!!! DR. PHIL IS GOING TO GET THESE TWO GUYS SOME HELP.
GOD BLESS EVERYONE OF THEM !!!!

[frenchyfoof]

01:46 PM on 04/20/2012

It's what "war" does to people... If only PEACE could be promoted instead.

[SueZbell]

05:05 PM on 04/22/2012

Like the bluebird, "hello" to you, too.

[Seafarer61]

02:02 AM on 04/20/2012

Gary.....

....thank you.

---USN Ret

[hammfam1]

01:44 AM on 04/20/2012

Gary Sinise is a work horse for wounded veterans. He is a Hollywood figure you can feel good about supporting. I have seen him in interviews and he is totally dedicated to his cause the passion is evident. If I ever have the means to give some millions away, he would be the first person I call. Thank you Gary Sinise.

[salgal877]

12:57 PM on 04/20/2012

DITTO !

[hammfam1]

01:34 AM on 04/20/2012

Well Libya and now Syria, looks like Obama doubled down not just on green energy but war too.

[towercrane147]

01:06 AM on 04/20/2012

I think it so great that organizations exist that help provide surcease for these severely wounded warriors, but it is a national shame that our government is not the first to step up on behalf of these brave souls and their families. The gov. doesn't provide half enough.

[harriscb]

11:14 PM on 04/19/2012

I hope that the USA quits all of these overseas police actions and adventures. All that we thought that we have gained in the middle east and east are not worth this young fathers four limbs.
I am retired Navy and was in the Viet Nam "conflict" from beginning to end as a combat aircrewman and never understood our objective. We advertised that we were stopping the domino--effect of the spread of communism when in-fact we should have helped Laos, Cambodia and Viet Nam get free of their French slave masters.
I apologize for my tone but I hate to see our national treasure (our young kids) being killed and maimed in the name of USA foriegn policy.

[RoonToon]

12:43 AM on 04/20/2012

I agree, war is obsolete in this era of instant international communication. Arms are for hugging. Hugs to you harriscb and all those who have served.

[hammfam1]

01:20 AM on 04/20/2012

yeah well Obama is about to go into Syria that makes 4 wars we are fighting. iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria. Bush had 911 as a pre-cursor to war. All Obama has is a bunch of protestors who the government has no clue who is the leader, or if they are pro-democracy or pro-chaos. When considering the middle east it is pro chaos. Obama is a SUCKER.

[Lindeen]

10:42 PM on 04/19/2012

That picture is heartbreaking isn't?

We are so insulated from what these soldiers have to go through. They're never done dealing with the after effects of war.

So grateful for organizations that focus on helping soldiers from their tour of duty.

[JoeQPublic for President]

06:53 PM on 04/19/2012

As an independent candidate for Congress, I propose using Arms Control regimes to stop the continued escalation of lethality in arms manufacturing...and divert aerospace to manufacturing "smart" homes- not just for vets, but also for the 10 billion people who will be on Earth by 2060. The fascist American military empire can NOT continue to stomp around the world, making enemies (so they can continue to be defeated as an American jobs program). The empire is collapsing. Nemesis is coming home (NDAA 2012)
http://www.JustBelieve2012.com

[metj1122]

06:13 PM on 04/19/2012

WHO'S CRYING OVER THIS MAN? NOT Hamid Karzai and the Afghans, you think maybe they'll send some of that money we give them to help this soldier get on with his life? NOT!!!! Don't cry for these people, they know no other way. This crap has been going on and on and on for centuries and we will never stop it. We need to spend those billions on this country and get America back on our feet and then we can help others but were hurting and it needs to be fixed at home.

[cashworth1]

09:44 PM on 04/19/2012

Tell Obama that. He said he was going to bring them home during his '08 campaign.

[RoonToon]

01:31 AM on 04/20/2012

I believe he is doing so as expeditiously as possible giving the safety of those in-field paramount protective concern. I believe the last round of surge was to rid the worst but also to give cover preparing for exit. The worst mistake was going into the wrong country and that preceeded OBama. It destroyed credibility here & abroad. Leaving any fight without totally crushing the adversay is difficult & tricky. We've agreed that it's not for us to annihilate for an array of realities. Our troops & force gear are halfway around the world. Plus OBama is up against the very powerfully entrenched military/industrial complex going back that Ike warned us about who'd just as soon blow up & shoot up there as anyplace building pipelines, flipping countries, & stuffing their pockets. Keep the faith, certainly in the one who's heading in the right direction amid unimaginable huddles.

[frenchyfoof]

01:54 PM on 04/20/2012

They all promise things they will deliver but always fail.

[hammfam1]

01:32 AM on 04/20/2012

I'm not crying but I definitely care. These young guys today know that they can lose limbs and their life. But they still sign up to fight. Nobody forces them, these kids signing up no would of been 10 or 11 when 9/11 happened. Yet, they still sign up without any draft or force. I as a 43 year old man envy these men. there are guys like my uncle who have done multiple tours of duty albiet in basically safe areas, who are older than me. My freinds sons and daughters who are just out of high school who join the military although they see what can happen. Half their lives we have been at war. I for one have faith in our youth, they step up, sometimes they f-up, but most of the time they make us proud, to see a yong man come home with no legs and then walk on prosthetics is inspiring, complaining about your allergies makes you a loser. I 100% love American youth. I thank you.

[Ebeth Martine]

05:40 PM on 04/19/2012

Unless we are willing to actually wage war, not a police action or not giving our troops all they need to wage war, we should never invade another country nor stay there for a decade. Either wage a war, defeat the enemy soundly, or use diplomacy in the first place and leave our troops at home. Sending young men & women to war, letting politicians run it from the safety of their D.C. hidey-holes, and then tying our military's hands behind their backs is immoral.

[LacenRoses8]

04:29 PM on 04/19/2012

We all love and admire Travis mills.
We need to stop this from happening again !

[LacenRoses8]

04:23 PM on 04/19/2012

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO US AS A NATION
THAT PEOPLE NOW ACT LIKE THIS IS NORMAL?
WE SHOULD BE FIGHTING LIKE HELL !!
OUR OWN GOVERNMENT, GETTING US KILLED
FOR NOTHING OF BENEFIT. WE LOOSE SON'S
DAUGHTERS,HUSBAND'S WIVES, ON AND ON !
. THEY BLOW US TO SMITHERINES
AND NO ONE PROTESTS.!!!
AM I THE ONLY ONE HERE THAT IS NOT DOING WEED ??
WE NEED TO TAKE ACTION AGAINST OUR OWN GOV.
JANE FONDA, NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT !!

[hammfam1]

01:40 AM on 04/20/2012

These brave soldiers VOLUNTEER no one forces them to do anything. They are honorable and brave. Who are you to cry foul? They graduate high school and go to war VOLUNTARILY. Your definitely doing WEED because yor praying to Jane Fonda.

[neverlieplease]

02:48 AM on 04/20/2012

they (volunteer) because their parents never told them what the reality was.
I hope you hammfam1 tell your kids the truth.

[salgal877]

01:07 PM on 04/20/2012

NO, NO, SHE WOULD NOT BE ON OUR SIDE !!

[LacenRoses8]

02:04 PM on 04/20/2012

Well someone needs to speak up !!

[Gator Girl]

04:17 PM on 04/19/2012

Travis, first of all, thank you for your service to our country and especially for your great sacrifice. My heart goes out to you and I pray you will somehow be able to adjust to your new life back home even though I know your life as you knew it has been changed forever. I won't say that I know what you are going through but I hope, maybe through counseling, you will find not only a new life but a happy one. I have witnessed young men, even teenagers, who were paralyzed, etc. from football injurys or other situations who have somehow used that circumstance to encourage others. No matter what, I pray for you and sincerely hope for much happiness in your life.

[towercrane147]

01:15 AM on 04/20/2012

Well said. The more disastrous one's past, the more one must focus on the future.