Two weeks after Army Staff Sgt. Travis Mills opened his lakeside retreat for combat-injured veterans in the town of Rome, he had an audience with the nation’s commander-in-chief.
On Monday, Mills, who lost his four limbs after surviving an explosion in Afghanistan, posted photos on Facebook of himself with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. They were meeting in what appeared to be the West Wing of the White House.
“Just making America great again for our veterans!” Mills wrote in the Facebook post. “On a serious note, thank you Vice President Mike Pence for hosting me and our team at the White House today. It was an honor to share our mission of hosting recalibrated warriors at the Travis Mills Veterans Retreat.”
Mills added, “And, President Donald J. Trump thank you for meeting with us impromptu as well.”
After Mills suffered his injuries in 2012, the 30-year-old Michigan native started a foundation to raise money for wounded veterans and moved to the Augusta area, where his wife Kelsey is from.
At the end of June, the foundation had the grand opening of its retreat overlooking Long Pond in Rome, where 56 veterans will stay along with their family members this summer.
The veterans staying there have all lost limbs and served in the Iraq or Afghanistan wars. The mission of the retreat is to provide them with a relaxing place to stay for a week, free-of-charge and in the company of veterans going through similar recoveries.
Built on the former estate of Elizabeth Arden, the cosmetics magnate, the retreat includes lake access, kayaks, bicycles, paddle boards, a movie theater, a children’s play space and other amenities.
The idea for starting a foundation came to Mills following his own injuries in 2012. The quadruple amputee benefited greatly from the support of his wife Kelsey, his daughter Chloe and other family, and he also discovered the restorative power of activities like mountain biking, he said during the grand opening of the retreat.
“I know what it was like to have family there to be able to do those things with you,” he said in his remarks.
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