Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band set to rock for a good cause at Cantigny

Actor Gary Sinise and his Lt. Dan Band will return to Cantigny Park on Saturday evening to culminate a daylong Rockin For the Troops benefit celebration to assist Operation Support Our Troops-Illinois.

Proceeds from the event at 1S151 Winfield Road, near Wheaton, go toward compiling and sending care packages to our troops serving overseas.

The Daily Herald recently caught up with the "CSI: NY" star to talk about his passion for the cause, experiences on past USO tours and current projects.

This is an edited version of the conversation.

Q. A lot of people talk about supporting our troops but you've taken it to heart. How did you get involved and why is it so important to you?

A. When we were attacked on Sept. 11 and we started deploying our troops to Afghanistan and Iraq, I just wanted to do something. So I started going on USO tours to show the troops they were supported and let them know we care about them.

I have veterans in my family and I have Vietnam veteran friends. I have been involved with Vietnam veterans groups over the years, so when we started sending our troops post 9/11 to war zones to chase bad guys, I just wanted to do what I could to let them know they were supported.

These are our volunteer defenders and without them we'd be a lot more vulnerable as a nation. Clearly there are people out there that are sworn to the destruction of the United States.

It's very very important to always remember the privileges and freedoms we have in this country have been bought and paid for by many, many military service members who have given their lives over the years for us.

There's nothing that says the United States gets to be free, all for nothing. When you go around the world and you see the way a lot of other people live under dictatorships and oppressive police states, you have to ask, how did we get so lucky that we happen to live here and someone else ended up in North Korea?

We have defenders out there that have sacrificed a lot for us and they continue to do so.

As a civilian, what can I do to help? Well, I have some celebrity and showing up on a USO tour to shake some hands and sign some autographs or play some music is one way I can help support them.

Q.Is there one moment that stands out for you in visiting our troops, either here or overseas ... one moment that made you say, "This is why I do this. This is why I care."

A. There've been many, many, many moments over the years.

Every time I go on tour, I meet families or wounded soldiers or somebody who's been affected by something I've done. It's helped them and that helps me.

It's rewarding to know you can take time out of your life and go shake hands with somebody and just that little gesture will help them get through the next three months.

I've been able to do some extraordinary things: flying in a F-16, landing on the Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier. I've been on submarines, I've been in simulators, I've been on training missions. I've just done all kinds of things and I have great respect for the type of people we have out there serving in our military.

Now are they all at the same level? Of course not; it's a big military and there's a lot of different people involved. Sometimes you are going to have a couple of screw-ups, but we have that everywhere.

The majority of the people are just doing their jobs and trying to be good role models.

I have met some great people in the military. I have great respect for those people who choose to serve.

Q.If you could speak to every American, what's the one message you'd want to share with them about our troops?

A. I think unless you're personally connected with somebody who is serving or who has served or something like that, you may have a perception that somebody who joins the military is somebody who can't do anything else.

For some people that might be the case. You might have somebody who comes from a very small town, a low-income family, and they don't have a lot of options for going to college or whatever because they just don't have the financial resources. For some of those folks, the military is a very good option.

Then there are other people who join who graduate college and become colonels and generals and whatever and they have master's degrees and all kinds of different things. They are highly qualified individuals. Maybe they worked their way up from nothing to achieve great things.

There's a wide variety of people who join the military for a wide variety of reasons. It's a diverse group of people with a lot of different backgrounds. The more you spend time with military service members on bases all over the world, the more you'll appreciate just how good they are.

Q.You've performed at Cantigny a few times now. What do you like about the venue and is there something you hope people take away from your performance?

A. It's an absolutely beautiful park. This concert supports Operation Support Our Troops-Illinois. The Web site for tickets is osotil.org and this was a grass-roots organization.

It was started by a woman named Deborah Rickert. Deborah started this organization because she had a son who was in the army and other friends in the area who had sons serving and they wanted to do something to support the troops.

So they started sending them boxes of goodies, and it's grown into something where they send thousands of care packages over to the troops every year.

It's important for people to know that if they buy this ticket ... the funds are all going to support Operation Support Our Troops and sending these care packages over to the troops.

I look forward to this concert every year because it's a great venue. It's a beautiful park, and the crowd has a great time and it's a great cause.

Q.What other projects are you working on? There's been some buzz about you someday running for president ... do you ever see yourself running for that or any other political office?

A. Oh, no. I don't know where that came from. It was some silly Internet thing. You can't believe everything you read on the Internet.

I start shooting my television show tomorrow, "CSI: NY." We are about to start shooting season six and the show is going strong.

I just got back a week ago from Korea and Okinawa where I did an eight-show USO tour and one of the things I noticed when I was at the hotel in Korea is that the show is very popular there. "CSI: NY" is very popular in Korea, Okinawa and Japan.

People are really watching the show. It's popular around the world. It doesn't look like it's going to slow down. The ratings are good and we're looking forward to season six.