During his second tour in Vietnam, Maj. Carl Nunziato, USA (Ret), lost both of his legs when an enemy mortar round impacted less than 3 feet away from him. He spent the next 23 months recovering.

He said it wasn’t the physical wounds that took a toll on him, but rather how he and his fellow Vietnam War veterans were treated upon their return home. Those events are what set Nunziato on his path to make life easier for veterans.

After being discharged from then-Walter Reed Army Medical Center, he attended law school at Case Western Reserve School of Law in Ohio.

“The Vietnam War was still on, and I caught the brunt of the anti-war movement,” Nunziato recalled. “It was a bad time.”

After he graduated, Nunziato worked as an attorney at a bank in Youngstown — and continued working there for nearly 30 years.

He also co-founded the Youngstown Chapter of the Governor’s Subcommittee for Barrier Free Architecture.

“When I came back to Youngstown, I was in a wheelchair,” he said. “I couldn’t get into 90% of the buildings in my city — the courthouse, restaurants, churches, stores — because they all had steps or revolving doors.”

For close to 15 years, Nunziato and the committee surveyed buildings, wrote reports, advocated, and even funded some projects from their own pockets to build wheelchair ramps, modify sidewalks to install curb cuts, and add accessible parking spots in lots throughout the city.

He also led the charge to create a VA clinic in Youngstown to serve the 40,000 veterans in the area. The clinic opened in 1991, and in May 2022, it was renamed as the Carl Nunziato VA Clinic.

The veterans resource center at Youngstown State University also bears his name after he raised the $2 million to build the facility. “The greatest victims of the Vietnam War were the soldiers,” he said. “When I came back to Youngstown, that was subconsciously my goal, to try to turn what was basically negative into something positive. It took time and resolve, but I consider the efforts successful.” 

'When I came back to Youngstown, I was in a wheelchair. I couldn’t get into 90% of the buildings in my city — the courthouse, restaurants, churches, stores — because they all had steps or revolving doors.'