The Clarke Family

Adam and Kari Clarke found each other recently in life – bonding over the many similar experiences they both encountered and realizing they had remarkably similar stories to one another. Army Sergeant, Kari Clarke, was deployed to Germany with three close friends — who were, each, sent to different stations. When Kari heard that two of them had been killed on duty in Iraq, feelings of heartbreak and guilt that ‘it could have easily been me’ haunted her. Simultaneously, these feelings fueled her determination to serve in the name of honor and sacrifice. In 2009, Kari's deployment to Iraq brought her face-to-face with some of the most brutal and horrific situations imaginable. From being exposed to toxic environments of burn pits to rescuing severely wounded casualties from the battlefield, the horrors of war never thwarted her drive to give everything she had. However, the after-effects of an accident during training which left her with several herniated discs in her spine and being diagnosed with auto-immune disease forced her to medically retire much earlier than she wanted to. Army Sergeant, Adam Clarke, also witnessed the horrors of war first-hand during his deployment in Afghanistan. In February 2007, an aircraft carrying several of his close friends to their operating base lost power in a snowstorm and went down. Adam remembers having to help load the coffins of his friends onto the plane home—one of the hardest days of his life. Just a few weeks later, a suicide bomber blew himself up at the front gate of Adam’s base–a place Adam was en-route to at the time. This devastating act of terrorism killed 38 people. Feeling the blast and seeing the aftermath of destruction and lifeless bodies still haunts Adam to this day and changed his life forever. Though both Adam and Kari continue to battle their emotional and physical scars – their unwavering resilience shines through. Having found each other through the VA, the support and love they provide for one another have helped them create a vibrant and happy family home with two sons and three dogs. With the help of Military Makeover and our devoted partners, the Clarke family will soon be able to call it their perfect ‘forever home’ as we complete our designs renovations as a way of saying “thank you” to two heroic and deserving military veterans.