Gary Sinise and Joe Rogan Experience #2579, Digi Mart USA News: Actor Gary Sinise argues that veterans of the post-9/11 generation are being failed less by public indifference than by their own reluctance to seek help. In the episode, he says the suicide toll among these veterans now far exceeds combat deaths.
Citing a Costs of War study at Brown University’s Watson Institute, Sinise noted an estimated 30,177 suicides among post-9/11 service members and veterans, compared with 7,057 U.S. military deaths in post-9/11 war operations, or 4.3 times as many.
He framed the problem as one of disclosure rather than missing services, saying many veterans isolate and never ask for help.
Sinise described his foundation’s approach as calling veterans rather than waiting for them to call. He stressed the value of peer-to-peer contact, such as battle buddies checking in, which he described as potentially lifesaving.
Rogan linked the problem to the difficulty of reintegrating into civilian life after combat.
Sinise traced his involvement with veterans to his wife Moira’s family, several of whom served in Vietnam. He said Vietnam veterans were treated poorly when they returned, and that he wanted Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to be spared the same treatment.
He credited his 1994 film Forrest Gump with presenting a Vietnam veteran story with a happy ending, which he said few other films had offered.
On his first USO tour to Iraq in June 2003, Sinise performed for troops at Baghdad airport. A November 2003 trip took him to the Abu Hastan school in Balad, where he said the children ran out to greet the troops.
He then started Operation Iraqi Children, later renamed Operation International Children, which shipped school supplies to troops and ran from 2004 to about 2012. Sinise said letters from service members credited the supplies with helping build trust with local communities.
Sinise also criticized media coverage that focused on attacks on convoys rather than on programs like this one. He called the 2021 U.S.
withdrawal from Afghanistan a botched exit, citing abandoned equipment, the fate of Afghan translators and allies, and the choice of September 11 as the exit date. Rogan was similarly critical of the decision.
The Gary Sinise Foundation, which Sinise said is in its 16th year, runs programs including Snowball Express, which takes children who lost a parent in military service to Disney World, and Soaring Valor, which has flown World War II veterans to the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. Sinise also described the foundation’s mental-wellness work and its support for ibogaine research, which he said he discussed at the White House.
The final segment addresses Sinise’s son Mac, who was diagnosed with chordoma, a rare cancer, in August 2018. Mac later released the album Resurrection and Revival and died January 5, 2024.
Sinise’s book Graceful Warrior is scheduled for publication November 10, 2026, which would have been Mac’s 36th birthday. Sinise said he hopes sharing grief helps both himself and others, and he described grief as something people learn to manage over time.
