Bud Shepherd is familiar with the kinds of stress and danger war puts veterans through. In 1944, he was the tail gunner of a B-17 flying over Germany.
"They were shooting those 88mm at us and we had a shell go through the outer portion of the right wing on the airplane – left a big hole," Shepherd told Fox 8. "We lost three engines over the target. And then we started losing altitude and we flew for, oh maybe, two hours on one engine. We got back within 30 miles of France and that engine just quit – it just stopped like you turn a light switch off."
Shepherd and the others survived the descent only to be captured by the Germans when they reached the ground. For months he was held captive as a prisoner of war. When he returned to the States, he founded the Resources Exchanged Association, a company that sells food and other life essentials at low prices to help Americans, especially soldiers and their families.
Helping soldiers gave Shepherd the inspiration for another project – lending a hand to wounded veterans. Soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with wounds sometimes have their homes redesigned to accommodate their disabilities, so Shepherd decided that they could use the right tools to get the job done. The Reach Wounded Warrior Veterans Program was born.
Stephen Baker, who works at the program with Shepherd, helps deliver the deluxe toolboxes to veterans personally. "Seeing their face when you give it to them, even though it's just a toolbox with $800 worth of tools…they're thankful, they tear up, they always want their kids in the picture when we take one, because they say, 'I'm going to pass this down to my son,'" said Baker.
To assist veterans with a different kind of pursuit, the Veterans Outreach Center in Rochester, New York will make hundreds of donated suits, pants, vests and sports coats available to area veterans. Free tools and suits give veterans a chance to get a leg up on their life after service, both professionally and personally.