Everyday Heroes: Wounded Army veteran went from cynic to believer thanks to grand act of kindness
This Standard-Examiner file photo from 2019 shows retired Army Sgt. 1st Class Travis Vendela holding his son at a press conference in North Ogden where the New York-based Tunnel to Towers Foundation announced that they will provide a technologically smart home to Vendela.
This new home in Huntsville was unveiled for veteran Travis Vendela, who lost both legs after an IED attack in Iraq in 2007. Photo taken July 3, 2020.
The Vendela family in front of their new home, a surprise gift for the veteran's family. Photo taken July 3, 2020, in Huntsville.
This new home in Huntsville was unveiled for veteran Travis Vendela, who lost both legs after an IED attack in Iraq in 2007. Photo taken July 3, 2020 in Huntsville.
Travis Vendela’s children play in front of the new house that was a surprise for the wounded veteran. Photo taken July 3, 2020, in Huntsville.
Travis Vendela, a veteran who lost both legs after an IED attack in Iraq in 2007, was surprised with a new home. Photo taken July 3, 2020, in Huntsville.
This photo shows a new home that was unveiled for veteran Travis Vendela, who lost both legs after an IED attack in Iraq in 2007. Photo taken July 3, 2020, in Huntsville.
Veteran Travis Vendela, who lost both legs after an IED attack in Iraq in 2007, was surprised with a new home. This photo taken July 3, 2020, in Huntsville.
Veteran Travis Vendela, who lost both legs after an IED attack in Iraq in 2007, was surprised with a new home in Huntsville. Photo taken July 3, 2020.
Veteran Travis Vendela, who lost both legs after an IED attack in Iraq in 2007, in his new home in Huntsville. Photo taken July 3, 2020.
Veteran Travis Vendela and his family in their new home in Huntsville. Photo taken July 3, 2020.
New home unveiled for veteran, Travis Vendela, who lost both legs after an IED attack in Iraq in 2007, was surprised with a home. Photo taken July 3, 2020, in Huntsville.
Travis Vendela and his wife Tiffany salute the flag at their new house gifted to them. Vendela, who lost both legs after an IED attack in Iraq in 2007, was surprised with the home. Photo taken July 3, 2020, in Huntsville.
HUNTSVILLE — It’s not hard to understand why Travis Vendela was becoming a cynic.
The now 40-year-old Wyoming native is a retired Sergeant First Class in the Army and served multiple combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. In February of 2007, while working with a reconnaissance unit in Balad, Iraq, Vendela’s Humvee was hit by a hidden explosive device. The impact severely fractured his pelvis, left elbow, spine and jaw and he ended up losing both legs above his knees.
After the incident, he was medically discharged from the service. As he began down the long road of learning a completely new way of life, somewhere along the journey Vendela says his heart began to harden. But the experience of war wasn’t the primary driver of this change in his mindset. Rather, it was what Vendela saw as a lack of meaningful action by the people and organizations that asserted they were available to help people like him.
Despite serving his country honorably, and in doing so, losing his ability to walk and nearly losing his life, Vendela said it was difficult to get worthwhile assistance when he needed it most.
“Just one example, but I was working with the VA to get an elevator put in my house,” Vendela said, who uses a wheelchair. “But they had this list of reasons why they couldn’t do it. I felt like a lot of people would stand behind that ‘support the troops’ thing, but not really do anything about it. I was becoming a very cynical person. But just when I was getting ready to lose faith, here came Tunnel To Towers.”
Through several different programs, the New York City-based Tunnel to Towers Foundation aids U.S. service members and first responders who have been severely injured in the line of duty. The foundation also supports families of soldiers and first responders who died during service. The nonprofit is named after and honors chairman and CEO Frank Siller’s late brother, Stephen Siller, a firefighter who was killed in New York during the 9/11 attacks. After hearing of the attacks on the World Trade Center, Stephen Siller sped through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel on foot to help at Ground Zero. He died at the Trade Center.
As part of the organization’s Smart Home Program, Vendela is moving into a customized high-tech home, supplied by Tunnel To Towers, this week.
Mortgage free, Vendela’s new home is in Huntsville and features major functions that can be run from an iPad. It includes things like motorized kitchen cabinets, mechanized lifts that can move appliances to wheelchair height, customized bathrooms, oversized doorways and an HVAC system that allows for specialized body temperature challenges.
Vendela, who is married with three young boys (the oldest is 10), says the home will change his life.
“There are simple things like ADA doors that will be wide enough (to get a wheelchair through) so I don’t have to go to the bathroom with the door open,” he said. “Then, you’ve got things like, you hit a button and the countertop comes down to my height. That seems simple, but it’s huge. I like to cook, but my shoulders are jacked up from constantly reaching up to the counter. It’s just amazing because, since my injuries, I’ve always felt trapped in the homes I’ve lived in.”
Jennie Taylor, who’s been named by Siller as one of the program’s “ambassadors” is friends with Vendela and says she doesn’t know of anyone more deserving of the home than him. Taylor’s husband, Brent Taylor, a Utah Army National Guard major and former North Ogden mayor, was killed Nov. 3, 2018, while serving a yearlong deployment in Afghanistan. Tunnel to Towers paid off the outstanding debt on Taylor’s mortgage after her husband died.
“Travis hasn’t ever had access to the life he knew before he was injured,” Taylor said. “To feel trapped inside your own home, which should be your sanctuary? It just shouldn’t be that way for someone like Travis, who sacrificed so much for his country.”
Vendela said his new home and the overall support he’s received from Tunnel To Towers has caused a sea change in the way he sees the world.
“Like I said, I was getting cynical. But this has made me believe in that American spirit again — people helping one another,” he said. “I really don’t know how you even say thank you for something like this.”