The Michael Wayne Hanks Legacy Foundation stands with Gold Star Families, veterans, and service members — because the bond forged in service does not end on the battlefield.
Fund Mission HANKS, Make It Weird training, and the reunions that bring families and units back together.
DonateGold Star family, veteran, or service member looking for connection, resources, or a memorial fight? Start here.
Get In TouchWe preserve the memory of the fallen. We support the Gold Star Families they left behind. We stand with the men and women who fought beside them. We help other families do the same work. Some had to figure this out alone. No one else should have to.
Michael was the kid who stood up for his friends. The Marine who never left one behind. The joker who kept morale up when everything else was breaking down.
During the Second Battle of Fallujah, Michael led his fire team through ten days of some of the fiercest urban combat of the Iraq War. He pulled wounded Marines out of ambushes. He eliminated enemy fighters preparing to strike passing American units. On November 17, 2004, he charged a fortified enemy position and was mortally wounded. He was 22 years old.
He was posthumously awarded the Silver Star and the Purple Heart. In 2024, he was inducted into the Michigan Military & Veterans Hall of Honor. In 2026, the bridge over I-96 in his hometown was named for him. But the words that stay with his family aren't from a citation. They're from his sister.
"He had everyone's back. That sums it up." — Melissa Hanks Ketchel, sisterRead His Full Story
When Melissa lost her brother in 2004, she did something most people don't. She reached out to the Marines who fought alongside him, and then she stayed.
Twenty years later she's still there, connecting Gold Star Families to the units their loved ones served in, training peers in suicide prevention, and turning nearly two decades of informal advocacy into lasting programs.
"Make it weird. Pick up the phone. Ask the uncomfortable question. Stay on the line long enough to hear the real answer." — Melissa Hanks Ketchel, Founder
We advise families and units on the logistics, outreach, and know-how it takes to bring people together the right way.
ExplorePeer training designed to ask hard, direct questions and intervene early with veterans and family members.
ExploreHelping families cut through state bureaucracy for bridge designations, memorial namings, and honors.
ExploreA living database connecting Gold Star Families to their fallen loved one's unit, reunions, and events.
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