Well, today is Memorial Day, and there's no better time to host my friend Gary Sinise. Of course, you know Gary from his film, TV, stage career. You know him as Lieutenant Dan from Forrest Gump. But the work that he's been doing on behalf of veterans for years and years is just incredible. He is the head of the Gary Sinise Foundation. Gary, great to talk to you. Hey, thanks for having me, Ben.

So why don't we begin just by talking about, you know, you've been working with soldiers for

decades at this point. What does Memorial Day mean to you?

You know, years ago, I remember as a kid, there was always a parade and there was always

barbecues and baseball games.

And it kind of went right over my head way back when.

And then as I got older and started to focus on the veterans and my own family and kind of learning their stories, my grandfather, World War I veteran, Army veteran, three sons,

two World War II veterans. And then my dad served in the Navy during Korea. And then my wife,

her brothers, served in Vietnam in the army. Her sister was in the army. Her sister's husband was in the army.

Their son was in the army.

A lot of veterans in my family.

I started to really focus on the actual meaning of Memorial Day and remembrance and

remembrance of the sacrifices of the men and women who have given their lives and service to our country.

And I started to really zero in on that. That's one of the reasons I do the National Memorial Day

concert every single year as co-hosts with Joe Montania. It's something very special, a meaningful way to remember those who have

fallen in service to our country. Gary, it is kind of amazing. I think that as the United

States has fewer and fewer as a percentage of our population, people going to the military,

fewer and fewer people who actually know members of the military, it starts to feel like Memorial

Day is very distant. I know that in other

countries, Israel comes to mind where everyone serves in the military because everybody is drafted.

They actually, on their Memorial Day, they actually stop traffic at a particular time in the day.

They sound sirens and literally everyone gets out of their car and they just stand there for

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