One might look at the work the Gary Sinise Foundation does for veterans and military families and assume that playing Lieutenant Dan in Forrest Gump deeply affected the actor.
However, according to The Epoch Times, Sinise has worked in support of veterans since the 1970s. So if anything, it's the other way around and his passion for veterans informed his portrayal of the character.
It is definitely true that his organization has found new solutions to ease the struggles that veterans can go through; perhaps the most sophisticated of these solutions is to be seen in the case of one Arizona man.