Local veteran honored for service, business savvy

CHICAGO (WLS) -- A local veteran is getting top honors Tuesday night, not only for her military service but for her business savvy and beating the odds. After a devastating spinal cord injury, her military career was cut short, but it marked the beginning of a whole new journey.

Kaney O'Neill says she wanted to see the world. So like many others in her family, she joined the military. But everything changed when she was injured in 1997 during hurricane Floyd. She was stationed in Newport News, Virginia.

"I went on the balcony to look at the rain and the next thing I know, I was laying on the floor and I had severed my spinal cord at the fifth and sixth vertebrae," she said.

Her mother says throughout the ordeal, O'Neill has never lost hope.

"When I went in and saw her, I guess I was looking at all of the terrible, negative things," said Caroline O'Neill. "And I can honestly tell you to this day I have never really heard Kaney complain about the fact that 'Hey, I'm now a paralyzed person,'"

She went back to school and earned bachelors and masters degrees at Northwestern University. Then, she started her own roofing company.

"I'm actually a third generation roofer, so roofing made sense," Kaney O'Neill said. "In six years, we've been able to do some work for the federal government, for the Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Navy and some of the good larger corporations like Boeing."

Her company is currently working on the Hines VA Hospital, where O'Neill spent seven months in rehab.

She says battling back from her injury has been arduous, but being a woman and disabled in the male dominated construction industry presents its own challenges. She hopes other women who face obstacles will find the courage to push through.

"There's a really big need for women to have an opportunity to model after a successful woman and I hope that I can be that for some other women. I hope they'll be able to see me to say if she can do it, I can do it," she said.

O'Neill took several training classes through the women's business development center, including course work specifically targeted to women veterans. In a special ceremony Tuesday night, the group is awarding her "Woman Veteran of the Year."