ASHVILLE – An Ashville Air Force Veteran and his family will be featured on Lifetime’s Military Makeover show, hosted by Montel Williams, in May.
“My father was in the Military. He was a scout sniper in the Marine Corps,” said Cody Willett, who joined the Air Force only a couple years out of high school at age 20, following in his father’s footsteps.
Willett served as an Air Force weapons and supply technician for Special Operations teams in Iraq and Afghanistan starting in 2009.
During a mission in Kandahār, Afghanistan, the airman was severely injured in a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) attack.
“A RPG came down, kind of blew me back, and I ended up hitting my body into a ISU 90 Box. It’s like a cargo box, and my shoulder came out-of-place at the same time,” said Willett. “From there I ended up getting medevaced out and came home shortly after that incident.”
The father of two said he still feels pain from the incident that occurred many years ago. But, most recently, Willett is overcoming another obstacle after he slipped and fell on the ice.
“It was just another morning in Western New York with the ice,” explained Willett. “I slipped on it and broke my tibia, so I am dealing with that now. I got a boot on, it’s just another battle.”
Recently, Willett saw an ad for the Lifetime’s Military Makeover show while attending an online class and figured he would fill out the form and see what happened.
“I filled one out and supposedly someone else in the school filled one out for me, I don’t know who that individual was,” explained Willett. “I was in the running with three other people and I got chosen.”
“It is amazing, just to sit back and think about all the people that deserve something like that and for me to be the one that gets it, it is one of those things that you see on TV but never think it will happen to you, and especially here in small town Ashville and Western New York; things like that don’t really pop up that often,” said Willett.
Willett said the reason he signed up for the show isn’t to just improve his home; but to create a better place for his wife, three-year-old son and newborn baby girl.
The Air Force Vet currently works as an IT Technician for the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office.
Willett credits the Joseph P. Dwyer Program for helping him adjust to civilian life. The group, ran by Cindy Reidy, is helping coordinate local efforts for the home makeover. To learn more, contact Reidy at (716) 661-8447 or via email at reidyc@co.chautauqua.ny.us.
WNYNewsNow will continue to follow this story as the Willett’s home is transformed.
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