Jay Leno Buys Wounded Veteran A Dodge Challenger Hellcat


Jay Leno surprised a wounded soldier by not only taking him for a spin in a 2015 Dodge SRT Hellcat but by then giving him the car.

The vehicle is usually worth around $40,000, but the former talk-show host decided to give it to Cpl. Ethan Laberge because of his service as a United States armed forces veteran.

Jay Leno explained on the Today show how he came to the decision to help out Laberge as part of the morning program’s “Shine A Light” series.

“We took all these wounded warriors and did sort of a lottery and reached in and picked a soldier at random (to) do something for him and hopefully it expresses what we want to do for all the soldiers.”

Cpl. Ethan Laberge was the soldier that was picked. He had been injured while on foot patrol in Afghanistan, when a suicide bomber had driven up to Laberge and two other soldiers and detonated himself. Laberge was seriously injured in the attack, while his two comrades perished.

Discussing the injuries that he received, which included a brain injury that left him with memory issues, Laberge admitted that he had shrapnel that went through his foot and then into his left knee, while he was also left with “a hole in the back of my left leg.”

“I had a superficial wound above my right knee and I also had shrapnel that went into my arm, broke off the end of my radius, broke up a couple of bones in my wrist and essentially shattered my thumb.”

Jay Leno admitted that when we first met Laberge he was worried that he wouldn’t have too much in common with the soldier. However they soon bonded over their love of cars.

Leno then asked Laberge if he would like to go for a drive in the automobile and he was instantly met with a “hell yeah!”

After they went for a ride in the car along various roads near Laberge’s base in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. When the pair arrived back at his base, Laberge was asked to review the Hellcat, and he declared, “That was awesome… I wouldn’t mind having one of these.”

After hearing his remarks Leno responded, “It’s yours. America loves you. Thank you buddy. Have a lot of fun. Don’t get any tickets.”

Clearly overjoyed at his new car, Laberge then admitted, “I can’t promise that.”

[Image via Go Media Network]

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