American war hero, Gene Arden Vance Jr. was killed in The Global War on Terror in 2002.

 

Several years thereafter and out of concern for the war wounded, Gene's brother in-law and close friend, 

Michael M.J. Minc visited a military hospital as a volunteer.

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 Minc, the founder and chair of the Gene Vance Jr. Foundation is an artist, sculptor, creative strategist, and designer. He had been  extensively researching veterans returning home so severely wounded and disfigured they should not have survived.

 

The visit fueled a vision -

a day medical science could provide new faces, limbs and other therapies, allocated like other organs,

 to those suffering unimaginable catastrophic injuries.

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At the age of seven, his father suffered traumatic injuries from an automobile accident and was plagued with disfigurement and medical problems throughout his short life, including open heart surgery by the world renowned heart transplant pioneer surgeon Dr. Christiaan Neethling Barnard. Throughout his life his mother, a teacher psychologist, stressed the vital role of education.

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Therefore, even as a young child,

Minc imagined a world that brought together science fiction and science fact for

the betterment of people with trauma.

 

Born in South Africa, he served in the military abroad and

married into an accomplished four generation American military family.

 

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, like thousands of other American families, changed his life forever.

 Minc felt it was not only the military but everyone’s duty to stand up and help.

 So in 2007, he began an altruistic journey of discovery into the unknown...