Wounded Green Beret Comes Home To New House

LAND O' LAKES, FL — He'd given everything in defense of his country — including his legs.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Anthony Kenworthy, a Green Beret, was completing his seventh combat deployment in Afghanistan in July 2014. His convoy was returning from a night mission when his truck hit an improvised explosive device.

The truck rolled, and Kenworthy was thrown from the vehicle and pinned beneath the machine gun turret.

His fellow Green Berets were able to lift the gun off him and save his life, but he suffered a spinal cord injury that left him a quadriplegic.

Now the country he sacrificed so much for is giving back.

Kenworthy, his wife and daughter were handed the keys to a new home in Land O' Lakes last week, thanks to the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation.

Kenworthy was overcome with emotion as he navigated his wheelchair down the sidewalk to his new home with his young daughter seated on his lap.

Kenworthy struggled for words to describe how he felt.

"Just happy, excited," he said. "I'm really relieved not to have to pay rent anymore."

The home is the first the family has owned. And thanks to the foundation, the Kenworthys don't have to worry about making mortgage payments.

"When you join the military, you never think about, 'What do I do if I get hurt? What do I do if something really bad happens to me?'" Kenworthy said.

As a result, he said, veterans with catastrophic injuries aren't prepared for life with a major disability and how it will impact their ability to provide for their families.

The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation was founded in honor of firefighter Stephen Siller, who died saving others at the Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001. It builds mortgage-free smart homes for catastrophically injured service members. Each home is custom designed to address the specific needs of the veteran.

The smart homes feature such conveniences as automated doors and lighting, wider halls and doorways, special showers to accommodate wheelchairs, automatic door openers, cabinets, counters and stove tops that can be raised and lowered, a track lift to help wheelchairs move freely throughout the house, faucets that turn on with a touch, back-up generators and central heating and air conditioning systems that can be controlled by tablets.

The foundation's mission is to provide injured veterans with homes that will enable them to live more independent lives, Tunnel to Towers Foundation CEO Frank Siller said.

"Guys are coming home from the battlefield with injuries they would have died from in the past, so there's a need for these homes. And when we build these houses, and we deliver them, the joy it brings to them ... it's like Christmas all over," Siller said.

On hand to watch Kenworthy receive the keys to his new home was Nancy Gass. Her late husband, Green Beret Staff Sgt. Girard "Jerry" Gass, was among the Green Berets who lifted the turret off Kenworthy and saved his life that day in 2014. Tragically, Gass died on the battlefield just two weeks later.

Gass and her children received the first home through the Tunnel to Towers Gold Star Family Home Program. The Gold Star Family Home Program, launched in September 2018, honors those who died serving the country by providing a 100 percent mortgage-free home to surviving spouses with young children. Gass left behind two young children when he died in August 2014.

His wife, Nancy, called Kenworthy "an American hero."

“He was an incredible friend to my husband — a brave, selfless Green Beret. He will forever be a Green Beret,” she said. “I am so grateful to attend this ceremony, which honors his service and reflects America’s commitment to honor and take care of those who serve and sacrifice for us. It's wonderful to see someone with a young child who has been through so much get a smart home that's going to help him be so much more independent."

“I didn’t do anything special," responded Kenworthy. "I just got hurt for it. I made it home, but one of my buddies didn’t. Jerry didn’t. When I found out they were giving Nancy a home, I was very excited because the wives and children deserve it so much more than I do. Now the country has come together to take care of me. It's really amazing to see."

Siller said Kenworthy is too modest.

“For a soldier who served seven combat deployments and one foreign defense tour during his nearly two-decade-long military career, this home is the least we can do to repay his service and sacrifice to this great country,” he said.

Pasco County Commissioner Mike Moore, joined by members of the Pasco County Fire Rescue, said he was proud to be on hand to see Kenworthy and his family enter their new home for the first time.

"I was honored to have participated," Moore said. "Please welcome a true American hero and our new neighbor to Pasco County."

In the decade since it was founded, the foundation has provided 85 homes to severely injured veterans and their families through fundraisers like the Tunnels to Tower 5K, the Tower Climb, barbecues and golf tournaments around the country.

People can also help by pledging $11 per month to the foundation.

Tampa Bay's 2019 Tunnel to Towers 5K Run & Walk will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Nov. 2 at Coachman Park, 301 Drew St., Clearwater.

To register, click here.