Gary Sinise Celebrates Life of Legendary WWII Hero

In a heartwarming tribute to a genuine hero, Academy Award-nominated actor Gary Sinise celebrated the life of Lawrence Brooks, a World War II veteran who died at the age of 112 on Wednesday. (RELATED: Read the Manliest Christmas Card Ever, Courtesy of General Patton)

Fox News reports:

Born in Norwood, La., in 1909, Brooks lived in New Orleans since 1929. Drafted in 1940, he was a private in the Army's mostly Black 91st Engineer Battalion, a unit that was stationed in New Guinea and the Philippines and built infrastructure such as bridges, roads and airstrips.

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Brooks celebrated his 112th birthday in September with a drive-by party at his New Orleans home hosted by the National World War II Museum, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reported. He also received greetings from Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, who tweeted, “Mr. Brooks, the entire state of Louisiana thanks you for your service and we all wish you a joyous birthday.”

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The museum has previously hosted parties for Brooks, although the coronavirus pandemic caused those events to shift to drive-by celebrations for the past two years.

Sinise, an actor whose credits include “Forrest Gump” and “Apollo 13” is now equally known for his service to America's heroes.

In a recent Fox News interview, Sinise talked about what he finds most rewarding about helping veterans.

Life can be very, very challenging for somebody in a wheelchair, somebody missing a limb, somebody with severe burns or traumatic brain injury, or blindness or whatever their particular challenges are. It can be very, very difficult just trying to function in an apartment or a small house that's not built for somebody with physical challenges like that. So what we try to do is provide everything that you could possibly think of that would help to make the life of the veteran and the family be more independent; to have the service member be more independent,” he shared at the time.