September 30, 2019
By: Dwayne Page
The family of a fallen soldier from DeKalb County will soon be given a mortgage-free home thanks to the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
(Click link below to learn more)
https://tunnel2towers.org/gold_star_family/billy-anderson/
The foundation is honoring the late U.S. Army PFC Billy Anderson by providing a home to his wife Caitlin and daughter Lilly Grace who was just 8-months-old when her father was killed.
The home for the Anderson family is being paid for through the Foundation’s Gold Star Program, launched in September 2018, which honors the legacy of those who made the ultimate sacrifice while serving our country. The Foundation provides a 100 percent mortgage-free home to surviving spouses with young children. The Foundation is committed to raising $250 million to provide 1,000 homes to Gold Star Families.
U.S. Army PFC. Billy Anderson, 20, enlisted in the Army in June of 2009 and deployed to Afghanistan six months later in January of 2010.
With two months left on his deployment he was killed on May 17, 2010, when insurgents attacked his unit with IEDs.
Billy and Caitlin met in High School but didn’t start dating till after they graduated.
The two married in June of 2009 and then welcomed their daughter Lilly-Grace into the world.
Billy didn’t get to meet her until she was two months old and he graduated from basic training at Fort Leonard Wood Missouri.
Caitlin calls Billy a kind, good-hearted man, who was nurturing and a strong Christian.
Frank Siller is the chief executive officer of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation — a nonprofit organization created to honor his brother, Stephen Siller, a New York City firefighter who died on Sept. 11. Stephen Siller, the youngest of seven siblings, was finishing his shift when the attacks occurred on that day in 2001. Strapped with 60 lbs. of gear on his back, he ran from the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to the twin towers. He lost his life that day.
Foundation programming has expanded over the years as its team recognized the unique needs within the military and first responder communities. The Smart Home Program, as an example, builds mortgage-free smart homes for catastrophically-injured service members. To date, 85 homes have started construction or are in the design stage. Forty homes have been given to the families of law enforcement, firefighters and emergency workers that lose their lives in the line of duty through the Fallen First Responder Home Program. And in September 2018, the foundation launched a new program designed to support Gold Star spouses, like the Anderson family.
For more information about the foundation visit
https://tunnel2towers.org/