Founder and President
The impetus behind the development of Project Gallantly Forward is the life experience of its founder and president, Lucas Lewis, who joined the army in October 2004. Lucas was stationed with the 10th Mountain division at Fort Drum, New York after completing Airborne school. During his military career, Lucas had two deployments to Iraq, serving first with 1/71 CAV as forward observer with the Charlie group quick reaction force and then with the 1/71 as the forward observer on the HHT sniper team. Lucas earned a Bronze Star with Valor for his participation in eliminating a terrorist cell in Baghdad.
Lucas left the military in good standing with a hardship discharge in 2008 to take over the care of his ailing father. Lucas and his wife, Christine, the co-founder of the organization, moved to the family farm while caring for Lucas’ father who died in 2012. The family farm would become the future site of Project Gallantly Forward. Lucas pursued a Master’s Degree in Public Health at UTC and graduated with his degree in 2021. He chose that educational path because he specifically wanted to better understand the concepts, best practices and intricacies of starting a non-profit that would provide veteran outreach. His desire to undertake this project is a result of his own lived experience of being a veteran dealing with serious issues stemming from PTSD.
“After I discharged from the military in 2008, I had to confront my own symptoms that were keeping me from moving forward. I sought help through various treatments and found that the one that focused on interaction with other veterans and my family helped the most. My desire with Project Gallantly Forward is to be able to offer those opportunities to other veterans and families so that they can find direction and meaning again.”
Contact: Lucas@projectgallantlyforward.org