This Veterans Day, we honor Lt Col Thomas Brittingham, a pilot, father, and veteran living with ALS, who regained his voice through the ElevenLabs Impact Program, one story among many showing how veterans are finding their voices again through technology.
When Lt Col Thomas Brittingham first heard his own voice again, it was Mother’s Day and his wedding anniversary. His wife Jessi was sitting beside him when he typed out a short message using his new ElevenLabs voice: “Hey Jessi, does this sound like me? Happy Mother’s Day and Happy Anniversary. I love you.”
The moment stopped her. “It brought tears to my eyes,” she recalled. “It was the most amazing gift I could have ever received—hearing his voice again.”
Lt Col Brittingham has dedicated his life to service and excellence. A 2006 graduate of the Coast Guard Academy and a 2004 Air Force Academy Exchange Cadet, he began his career aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Sequoia in Guam, where he conducted the first bilateral boardings of foreign ships in the Western Pacific.
From there, his path led to commanding his own vessel, the Coast Guard Cutter Haddock, and later serving as Military Aide to the Coast Guard’s Chief Acquisition Officer, overseeing $30 billion in modernization programs.
In 2011, he was selected for Air Force pilot training—a transition that would mark the next chapter in a distinguished career. Over the following decade, Lt Col Brittingham served as flight lead and mission commander across the Mediterranean, Atlantic, and Pacific. He deployed four times in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, logging nearly 1,000 combat hours.
In 2023, Thomas received a diagnosis that would change his life—amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The disease began in his legs and moved upward, affecting his arms, diaphragm, and eventually his ability to speak.
“His voice was always strong,” Jessi said. “Even as ALS progressed, it was something that made him feel like himself.” But as muscle weakness advanced, Thomas’s voice grew quieter until it disappeared entirely in April 2024.
Without a natural voice, Thomas initially relied on a generic computer-generated one that was robotic and difficult to understand. “We depended mostly on reading his screen,” Jessi said. “It didn’t sound like him. It didn’t sound human.”
Through Team Gleason, a nonprofit that supports people living with ALS, Thomas connected with Bridging Voice, an organization that helps individuals preserve and recreate their voices. There, he met Trinity, who guided him through the process of restoring his natural voice with ElevenLabs.
Bridging Voice guided his family through the process—collecting past videos, preparing samples, and building a model of how Thomas sounded before ALS. “It was healing to go back through those clips,” Jessi said. “We watched them with our two boys, who loved hearing their dad’s voice again.”
Once the recordings were submitted, the ElevenLabs team created a Professional Voice Clone for Thomas, a precise recreation of how he sounded before the disease.
When Thomas used his new AI voice for the first time, he chose to surprise Jessi. The words he typed carried all the warmth and cadence of his real speech. “I made him say it over and over again,” Jessi laughed. “Our family couldn’t believe how real it sounded. The boys thought it was hilarious hearing their dad’s voice saying silly things.”
It wasn’t just a technological milestone, it was a return of identity, presence, and connection.
“With two young children, it means everything for them to hear their dad’s voice,” Jessi said. “It keeps him present in their lives in a way that text alone can’t.”
For Lt Col Brittingham, Veterans Day carries deep meaning. It’s a reminder not only of service and sacrifice, but of the strength that comes from community and innovation.
He hopes his story shows what’s possible when technology serves humanity, especially for veterans facing the challenges of illness or injury.
Recent studies have shown that Air Force pilots are ten times more likely to be diagnosed with ALS than civilians. For Thomas, that statistic is personal. His experience underscores the urgency of advancing accessible technology that restores independence and dignity to those who have given so much in service.
The ElevenLabs Impact Program exists to help individuals like Lt Col Brittingham regain their voice and agency through AI. By combining advanced voice synthesis with human-centered design, the program ensures that every person can preserve the sound of who they are.
Thomas’s journey, from commanding aircraft across the world to communicating again in his own voice, shows what this technology makes possible. When so much is taken away, being able to speak again, even through an artificial voice, gives something profoundly human back.
This Veterans Day, we honor Lt Col Brittingham and all who have served, and recommit to building technology that gives them their voices back. It’s not just about speech. It’s about memory, identity, and the ability to stay connected to the people who matter most.
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Millions of people across Africa live with speech impairments or loss of voice. Through our partnership with Senses Hub, we’re developing personalized, culturally relevant voices that restore identity, confidence, and connection across the continent.
Debbie Lopez zamieniła vloga na YouTube w sposób na zachowanie swojego głosu w obliczu ALS.
Napędzane przez ElevenLabs Agenci
