Showing posts with label wounded Marine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wounded Marine. Show all posts

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Tebow salutes war hero Marine by wearing wristband bearing his name

Tebow salutes war hero Marine by wearing wristband bearing his name
Tebow’s wrist salute to amputee Marine
By BOBBY MARTINEZ in Tampa, Fla., and RICH CALDER in NY
Last Updated: 7:16 AM, March 24, 2012
IAMAMARINE.COM
Michael Nicholson
Tim Tebow upon arriving in New York this week subtly paid tribute to a crippled war hero — a salute that left the Marine stunned.

“Oh, wow! Really?” Cpl. Michael Nicholson said after learning that Tebow was wearing a wristband bearing the hero’s name when the newest member of Gang Green came to town.

Tebow was photographed sporting the red wristband with Nicholson’s name emblazoned in yellow lettering after landing aboard a private jet Thursday in New Jersey and then en route to Gang Green’s Florham Park training headquarters.
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Monday, February 20, 2012

Wounded Marine welcomed home by 1,000 including veteran of Iwo Jima



Wounded Marine gets hero's welcome
By KEITH MORELLI
The Tampa Tribune
Published: February 20, 2012
TAMPA

More than 1,000 well-wishers greeted Marine Cpl. Mike Nicholson as he arrived home Sunday at Tampa International Airport. Jim Reed Staff
U.S. Marine Cpl. Mike Nicholson emerged from the Tampa International Airport Airside F shuttle Sunday to a resonating roar from about 1,000 people welcoming home the wounded soldier.

Nicholson lost both legs and his left arm in an explosion in Afghanistan seven months ago.

John Residence had something to say to him, and something to give him.

Nicholson slowly pushed his own wheelchair down the gauntlet of people thanking him for his service and sacrifice. The 22-year-old Tampa native and Plant High School graduate greeted everyone with a smile and handshake, appearing at times to be overcome with emotion.

Residence, an 85-year-old retired Marine from Clearwater, waited patiently for Nicholson to come his way.

"He's a hero," said Residence, dressed in a burgundy sport coat, a blue-and-white tie and a red cloth cap with gold lettering. He doesn't know Nicholson or his family, but Nicholson is part of the larger Marine family.

So is Residence. He fought the Japanese at Iwo Jima. For 36 days he was on the island, he said. He was wounded, but refused to be taken to a hospital ship.

"I told them that as long as Marines were being killed I wasn't going anywhere," he said.
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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Lance Cpl. Kyle Carpenter's actions deserve Medal of Honor

Marine hit by grenade rates MoH, buddies say
By Dan Lamothe - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Jan 29, 2012

Lance Cpls. Kyle Carpenter and Nick Eufrazio were posting security together on a dusty rooftop in Afghanistan when an insurgent tossed a hand grenade at them. The world melted in a white-hot blast, and the two men were rocked by an explosion that could be heard nearly a mile away.

More than a year later, the Marine Corps continues to investigate what occurred, said Lt. Col. James Fullwood and Capt. Michael Manocchio, who served as two of the senior officers in their unit, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, out of Camp Lejeune, N.C., during that deployment. Other personnel in the compound during the Nov. 21, 2010, attack insist there’s no doubt Carpenter shielded Eufrazio from most of the blast, and deserves the Medal of Honor.

“Kyle covered that grenade,” said Hospitalman 3rd Class Christopher Frend, the corpsman who first rendered medical care to Carpenter and Eufrazio. “Grenade blasts blow up; they don’t blow down. If he hadn’t done it, what we found would have looked completely different.”

The case’s profile was first elevated publicly after the state legislature in Carpenter’s native South Carolina credited him in a resolution last March with taking “the full blast from an enemy hand grenade in seeking to save a fellow Marine.”
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also

Marine Lance Cpl. William Kyle Carpenter, hero Marine honored


Marine Lance Cpl. Kyle Carpenter discusses recovery

Biden visits Pendleton's wounded Marines

Biden visits Pendleton's wounded Marines

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- Vice President Joe Biden visited with wounded Marines and their families at the Warrior Hope and Care Center at Camp Pendleton Friday, calling this generation of warriors the finest the world has ever seen.
read more here

Friday, January 27, 2012

Marine Lance Cpl. Kyle Carpenter, injured by a grenade, discusses his recovery

Video: Marine Lance Cpl. Kyle Carpenter, injured by a grenade, discusses his recovery
JANUARY 17TH, 2012

AFGHANISTAN AWARDS MARJAH WOUNDED WARRIORS
POSTED BY DAN LAMOTHE
As mentioned on this blog yesterday, this week’s Marine Corps Times cover story focuses on Lance Cpl. Kyle Carpenter, the Marine infantryman who has achieved a miraculous recovery after sustaining a grenade blast near Marjah, Afghanistan, in November 2010.

Marine Corps Times has taken some heat for reporting that there are questions over whether Carpenter covered the grenade to protect his buddy, Lance Cpl. Nick Eufrazio. Actions along those lines have yielded prestigious valor awards in the past, obviously.

read more here

September 24, 2011
U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. William Kyle Carpenter getting help from his neighbors

March 10, 2011
Marine Lance Cpl. William Kyle Carpenter, hero Marine honored

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Naval Hospital becomes training ground for program improvement

Naval Hospital becomes training ground for program improvement
January 25, 2012 10:40 AM
HOPE HODGE - DAILY NEWS STAFF
In October 2010, Camp Lejeune Naval Hospital was the worst in the Navy at returning findings for service members sidelined by wounds, injury or illness in a timely manner. A little more than a year later, officials from distant Marine Corps bases and even other services pay visits to the hospital to learn how to improve their own programs.

All it took, Lt. j.g. Lisa Cook said, was a number of sleepless nights and a different way of seeing things.

The process for wounded, ill, or injured troops deemed potentially unfit for further service is supposed to take a Congress-mandated 295 days from injury to military separation or re-joining a unit. The Camp Lejeune Naval Hospital, like other Navy medical centers, is responsible for 100 of those days: the time it takes to complete a service member’s physical exam and complete medical records and findings so that the service member can continue to receive a VA rating and transition to civilian life or begin re-integration into full-time service. And with the high rate of deployment of Camp Lejeune troops, the Naval Hospital processed 1,200 of these medical boards last year, more than any other naval medical center, including larger centers such as Camp Pendleton and Portsmouth.

Cook, the department head for Patient Administration, arrived at her post a year ago to find a staggering mess. In the office were 989 patient files, each representing a Marine or sailor waiting idle on base while his or her findings were completed. The oldest file was dated 2008.

“They’re in limbo; they don’t know if they can move on with their life, or they’re just sitting around,” Cook said. “You don’t know. ‘Do we move my spouse back home while I wait for my findings; do I not?’ We had members being told ‘This process is going to take 295 days and you’re going to be out,’ and they moved their spouse away so they could just sit here and relax and get better, but a year and a half later, they still have no findings.”
read more here

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Bidens Visit Wounded Warriors, Families at Pendleton

Bidens Visit Wounded Warriors, Families at Pendleton

By Elaine Sanchez
American Forces Press Service
Vice President Joe Biden speaks with wounded warrior Marine Corps Sgt. James Amos during a visit to the Warrior Hope and Care Center on Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., Jan. 20, 2012. DOD photo by Elaine Sanchez
MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., Jan. 21, 2012 – Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, thanked wounded warriors and their families for their service and sacrifice during a visit to the Warrior Hope and Care Center here yesterday.

The 30,000-square-foot center, part of the Wounded Warrior Battalion West, opened in October to offer counseling and transition services to wounded and ill Marines, sailors and their families.

The Bidens mingled with about a dozen wounded warriors -- some in wheelchairs and others seated alongside family members -- in a small room at the center.

The vice president said he and his wife visit service members and their families as often as possible for one reason: “To say thank you.”

“We only have one sacred obligation in the government,” Biden told the troops. “We have a lot of obligations -- to the old, to the young, to educate -- but we have only one sacred obligation, and that is to equip those we send to war and care for those we bring home from war.

“It is the single most significant obligation the United States of America has,” he added.

Biden said he’s been in and out of Afghanistan and Iraq 23 times, but “not like you,” he said, addressing a wounded Marine in front of him.
read more here

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Thousands welcome twice-injured Marine back home

Thousands welcome twice-injured Marine back home
Injured Marine Sgt. Ben Tomlinson is greeted by members of an honor guard following a welcome home celebration Wednesday in his hometown of Jacksonville. His father, Chuck Tomlinson, is pushing the wheelchair. / DAVE MARTIN/AP
Written by
Jay Reeves
The Associated Press
JACKSONVILLE -- A Marine twice injured in Afghanistan received a hero's welcome Wednesday from thousands of well-wishers waving flags and cheering in his Alabama hometown.

Sgt. Ben Tomlinson grinned widely from the family's minivan as a motorcade led by a long line of police cars roared into the city square in Jacksonville for a brief ceremony that included the mayor's declaration of "Ben Tomlinson Day." The one-time all-county football player and track athlete was shot in the chest on patrol about eight months ago during his second deployment to the country.

Two fire trucks held aloft a big flag between ladders, and motorcycle riders stood at attention with more flags. Elementary school students lined the streets.
read more here

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Marine survives bullet wound to neck while serving in Afghanistan

Local Marine survives bullet wound to neck while serving in Afghanistan

by Phil Anaya / KENS 5

Posted on November 29, 2011


Norma Szekely is the proud mother of Tony Szekely, 21, who is a Marine fighting for this country in Afghanistan. However, she will now forever remember what it was like to not know if her son would return alive.

It was Sunday when Norma received a call from a surgeon in Afghanistan notifying her that Tony had been shot in the neck. For several hours Norma and her husband were left wondering if Tony might be paralyzed, or even survive at all.

“We got a call from the surgeon at 10:36 a.m., we didn’t get a call from Quantico until 2 p.m. and that was to tell us our son was listed in serious critical condition,” said Norma.

Finally, after hours of suspense Norma and her husband received another call from the surgeon and made it clear how a miracle had happened to Tony.
read more here

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Coming Back: Battling the Invisible Wounds of War

Coming Back: Battling the Invisible Wounds of War
Military men and women now are returning with brain injuries that would have been fatal in earlier times. Here's how the nation's warriors and the medical teams that treat them are fighting these unseen battles.
By John Pekkanen Published Monday, September 12, 2011
In combat in Iraq, Justin Bunce was where he wanted to be. Then shrapnel from an exploding IED broke his leg and ripped into the right frontal part of his brain. Photograph by Chris Leaman

Justin Bunce struggles into the conference room dragging his left leg, using a cane, and looking as if he’d rather be somewhere else. He sits at a long table with members of a Traumatic Brain Injury medical team at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, awaiting their questions as part of his intake evaluation.

Bunce, 27, appears distracted. Despite lots of medications, he’s often unable to concentrate. He has had short-term-memory loss ever since an improvised explosive device (IED) planted in the wall of a cemetery detonated while he was on foot patrol in the Iraqi city of Husayba, near the Syrian border, in March 2004.

Shrapnel riddled his body, broke his leg, and ripped into the right frontal lobe of his brain and his right eye, leaving him effectively blind in that eye. At the time, he was a lance corporal in the Marine Corps, which he had wanted to join since his freshman year at Centreville High School in Fairfax County.

“What’s the toughest branch of the service?” he had asked his father, Peter, an Air Force colonel and career military man.
read more here

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Wounded Marine cheered at Angel Stadium

Angels honor local Marine's sacrifice in Afghanistan
Bob Tompkins


As Marine sergeant Micah Crooks walked with a slight limp to to the pitcher's mound at Angel Stadium of Anaheim, the Alexandria native was introduced to some 43,000 fans settling in to watch the Los Angeles Angels host the Atlanta Braves Saturday night.

Crooks, 25, had been invited by the Angels, as a Marine combat engineer who had been injured in Afghanistan, to help the team celebrate Armed Forces Day by throwing out the ceremonial first pitch.

"There was a low murmur from the crowd (during the intro), but when they said 'United States Marine,' everybody started cheering," Crooks said.

Crooks and his wife, Raelena, from Orange Country, Calif., live at the Marine base in Camp Pendleton, Calif., and they have season tickets for Angels home games.
read more here
Angels honor local Marine's sacrifice in Afghanistan

Friday, May 20, 2011

Festival to benefit wounded Marine

Festival to benefit wounded Marine

NEW PORT RICHEY --
Seven bands will help Rock the Park during a concert Saturday to benefit a badly wounded Marine, Justin Gaertner of Trinity.

The free event in Sims Park, in downtown New Port Richey, also will benefit the Center for Independence, a nonprofit organization that for 46 years has served Pasco County residents with developmental disabilities. The cash-strapped agency is grappling with state budget cuts.

From 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., some home-grown performers will take to the amphitheater stage, organizer Sean Kline said. He is the outreach coordinator for the Center for Independence and New Freedom Transportation.

The "free for all ages show" will feature a silent auction, food and fun, Kline said.

Among the bands will be Cyrenia, a group of Mitchell High School graduates determined to help Gaertner, who graduated from Mitchell in 2007.

Lance Cpl. Gaertner, 21, lost both legs in an explosion in Afghanistan on Nov. 26. His left arm was seriously injured.
read more here
Festival to benefit wounded Marine

Bikers gearing up to aid wounded Marine

Bikers gearing up to aid wounded Marine
by Staff Report

ARARAT, Va. — The hollows of this southwestern Patrick County community are expected to echo the sounds of motorcycles Saturday when members of various groups ride in support of a wounded local Marine.

The event to benefit Cpl. Joshua B. Kerns of Ararat will be held as part of the second-annual Ararat Heritage and Music Jamboree. It will feature a 10 a.m. parade through Ararat and a daylong slate of music and other activities at Dan River Park.

Roger Hayden, a member of the Patrick County Board of Supervisors representing that community and an avid motorcyclist, has organized the benefit ride.

Kerns, a 2008 graduate of Patrick County High School, was injured by the IED on April 7 during his third deployment to Afghanistan. He has lost both legs below the knees and his right arm below the elbow. The Marine is now hospitalized in Bethesda, Md.

His parents have faced travel, lost work and other expenses as a result of the situation, and once Kerns returns home alterations will be needed to make the family’s house handicapped-accessible. At last report, more than $40,000 had been generated, with additional fund-raising activities to come.

Read more: Mount Airy News -
Bikers gearing up to aid wounded Marine

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Wounded Marine has tomorrow in his power after loss of all limbs

‘He’s just a great guy’
By Diana Kuyper Special to The News-Sun May 10, 2011 2:19AM

ANTIOCH — Marine Sgt. John Peck wheeled into the VFW on Monday morning in his motorized wheelchair and was inundated with attention from area residents and officials. They wanted to thank him for his service and the sacrifice he made when he lost four limbs in an IED explosion in Afghanistan almost a year ago.

Peck arrived in a motorcade escorted by police and fire vehicles and a Patriot Guard motorcycle contingent. More than 2,500 supporters, including hundreds of grade and high school students, lined the sidewalks on Main Street and waved American flags as he passed by in a van donated by the Semper Fi Fund.

With parents Zenio and Lisa Krutyholowa by his side and his Siberian husky puppy, Mischa, on his lap, he at times looked overwhelmed, wiping tears from his face on his dad’s shirtfront. But then he playfully flexed the muscles in his upper left arm after someone mentioned the hours he’s spent in physical therapy over the past year.

“My arrival home this week was different than I expected. It is nice that people genuinely care, but all of this is overwhelming,” said Peck, who since arriving home a week ago has had several television interviews, was center court at a Bulls game and was treated to a weekend in Chicago courtesy of the Semper Fi Fund. “It is amazing to me how much effort people have made on my behalf.”

He readily admits at times he is down and depressed, “but I can’t do anything about what happened. I can’t get in a time machine and go back and change anything. But I have found out I can overcome a lot and still have a smile on my face. My goal is to wake up every morning and just do what I have to do. It’s not like I have a choice.”
read more here
‘He’s just a great guy’

Monday, April 11, 2011

Wounded Marine receives hero's welcome from Atlanta



Johnny Crawford, Jcrawford@ajc.com Mindi Bennett holds a sign welcoming Marine Cpl Todd Simpson Love home at McCollum Field on Saturday, Apr 9, 2011. Over 500 people welcomed him home from the hospital.
Wounded Marine receives hero's welcome from Atlanta

By Shelia M. Poole
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Cpl. Todd Simpson Love is a third-generation Marine, so the words quit and give up aren't found in his vocabulary.


Love was the point man on foot patrol in the Sangin district of Afghanistan on the morning of Oct. 25 last year, when he triggered an improvised explosive device. The most severely injured among his fellow Marines, he lost two legs and part of his left arm.

On Saturday, Love, 20, received a hero's welcome when he returned to Georgia. The wounded member of the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, B Company, which is stationed at Camp Pendleton, Calif., was met by a motorcade of cars and more than 250 motorcyclists from several groups, including Warrior Watch Riders and the American Legion Post 111, at Cobb County Airport-McCollum Field. He next was whisked to Dallas Landing Park in Acworth for a celebration and mayoral commendation.

A relative kept people informed of the Marine's arrival using Twitter and Facebook messages. When his plane landed from Virginia, courtesy of Angel Flight, he was greeted by hundreds of people with applause, cheers and more than a few tears. Streets to Acworth were lined with well-wishers, signs and American flags.
read more here
Wounded Marine receives hero's welcome from Atlanta

Virginia Community Surprises Returning Wounded Marine


Virginia Community Surprises Returning Wounded Marine – With Video
Posted By Angelia Phillips
April 10th, 2011
DALE CITY,Va. – Twenty-seven-year-old Josh Himan wept with gratitude, Saturday, when he returned to his family’s home after 18 months of recovery and rehabilitation at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Hundreds of residents of Dale City, Virginia lined the streets and held up homemade signs. 18 police motorcycle officers formed an honor guard. Then, when Josh reached home, he was shown the addition that volunteers constructed in the back of the house. That addition includes a wheelchair-friendly bedroom and bathroom.

An improvised roadside bomb destroyed the Humvee in which Himan was riding in Afghanistan in September of 2009. The Marine Corporal suffered severe spinal damage, among other injuries.
read more here
Virginia Community Surprises Returning Wounded Marine

Marine Sergeant Kenny Lyon received more than just a house

Marine Sergeant Kenny Lyon received more than just a house from Homes for Our Troops. Over 100 roaring motorcycle riders made sure he did not make the journey to the next part of his life alone. Ahead of this day, over 150 people donated supplies and labors of love so that Lyon would never have to worry about having a roof over his head ever again. Simple acts of kindness reminding the country there are still people out there thinking about others. Lyon had seen this kind of kindness before in Iraq when Col. Paulette Schank pumped her own blood into him so that he could live.

Lyon, for his part, was willing to give up his life if that day ever came. As a Marine, he served watching the backs of his brothers. Just as other men and women spend their days willing, able and ready to do whatever it takes to do what they were sent to do and take care of their "family" Lyon knew what it was like to be unselfish. With all the heroes in this story, the story won't end here. Everyone driving by this house, from this day on, will remember the story of the community coming together, working together, for the sake of someone willing to die in service. They will remember the story of Schank so determined to save Lyon, she took her own blood for his sake. They will remember that heroes come in and out of uniform and the next time they are asked to help someone, they may remember all of these wonderful people saying they wanted to help.

Sgt. Kenny Lyon (left) tells how Col. Paulette Schank (right) directly transfused her own blood into his in her successful attempt to save his life after a mortar attack in Iraq. Homes for Our Troops arranged for Col. Schank, seen here hugging Sgt. Lyon's mother, to surprise Sgt. Lyon on the day the organization presented him a new home. (Photo: Business Wire)
Homes for Our Troops Presents Home to Injured Marine
April 10, 2011
FREDERICKSBURG, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Over 100 motorcycles escorted Marine Sergeant Kenny Lyon to the home that will change his life. Homes for Our Troops, a national nonprofit presented Lyon the keys to a specially adapted home, completely mortgage-free.

Lyon suffered life-threatening injuries after a mortar attack, resulting in a left leg above the knee amputation. Homes for Our Troops, Atlantic Builders and 150 businesses and professional volunteers constructed the home in just four days. The home, the fastest built by the organization, marked the 100th home launched by Homes for Our Troops.

“I’ve travelled all over the country and witnessed communities stepping up for these veterans. Every now and then you’ll see one of these communities pull off something extra special, and what the Fredericksburg community did this week was absolutely amazing,” said John Gonsalves, founder and president of Homes for Our Troops.

The emotional high note of the ceremony came when Lyon reunited with the nurse who saved his life, Col. Paulette Schank. After a tearful embrace, Lyon explained how Schank directly transfused her own blood into his body, keeping him alive.

Lyon later expressed his appreciation to the crowd, saying, “The words ‘thank you’ feel so cheap when I won’t have to worry about anything anymore.”
read more here
Homes for Our Troops Presents Home to Injured Marine

Monday, April 4, 2011

Wounded Marine Gets Grand Homecoming

Woodbridge Wounded Marine Joshua Himan Gets Home Makeover and Homecoming

Written by
Brittany Morehouse

WOODBRIDGE, Va. (WUSA) - A wounded soldier returned home Saturday to a home makeover style welcome as hundreds of community members gathered for miles with flags and smiles.

Marine Corporal Joshua Himan, 27, was paralyzed from the waist down in September of 2009 when he was serving in Afghanistan as a machine gun operator for the marines. His Humvee hit an explosive device causing him to suffer life altering injuries.

Since then, Himan has spent 18 months of rehabilitation at Walter Reed Medical Center while back home, a community pulled together to raise enough money to build him a home addition.

"In 58 days we constructed a 1100 sq. ft. addition," said Jacob Koch, President of Northern Virginia Fuller Center for Housing, a non-profit that helps build homes for people in need. "We added a bathroom, a family room, his bedroom and a kitchen."

The Himan family addition marks the organization's first project for the the Center's Military Builders Program. While Himan knew about the plans, he had no idea what to expect until Saturday.


read more here
Wounded Marine Gets Grand Homecoming

Thursday, March 17, 2011

One tough Marine, declared dead three times survived Vietnam

This sounded like a good story as it was but when I read this Marine was declared dead three times, it turned into an amazing story.

Charles “Graves” Roth made sure this Marine stayed alive after he was told three times Gil Hernandez was dead at Graves Registration. He not only lived long enough to make it back home, after 43 years, he met the man who saved his life.


A Maine meets the man who saved his life 43 years ago.

Published: Wednesday, March 16, 2011
By Anne Neborak

For many the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall is a place to commemorate the dead for Charles “Graves” Roth, age 62 of Collingdale each year he would visit the Wall remembering those who died during the Tet Offensive and his best friend Robert L. Stanek who died on Feb. 4, 1968.


But on this breezy day on March 7, it was a day to celebrate life. Today he would meet the Marine whose life he had miraculously saved forty-three years ago.


Roth was in Graves Registration where he tended to over 2,700 bodies of the fallen soldiers, children and even military dogs in Vietnam. He would retrieve bodies during the day repelling out of helicopters and spend his nights preparing the dead for their trip home. He and another Marine would fingerprint the soldiers and then put them in body bags.

Roth began hollering “this Marine is alive” They continued working on Hernandez and found a faint pulse. Amazingly, Hernandez was pronounced dead three times before being sent to Japan for treatment. His injuries were so massive he never would have survived the plane ride home to the states.
read more here
Maine meets the man who saved his life 43 years ago

Monday, March 14, 2011

Home For Our Troops builds home for wounded Marine



Community Constructs Home for Marine
The sound of saws and hammering could be heard over strong wind, as hundreds worked to build a home for a marine. Sgt. Dylan Gray lost both legs when an anti-tank mine went off in Iraq.
Posted: 6:55 PM Mar 13, 2011
Reporter: Joe Harrington
The sound of saws and hammering could be heard over strong wind, as hundreds worked to build a home for a marine. Sgt. Dylan Gray lost both legs when an anti-tank mine went off in Iraq.

Gray and his family decided to settle in rural Smith Valley, where 'Home For Our Troops' is facilitating the building of a home. 'Home For Our Troops' is dependent on volunteers and donations to make the effort possible.

"All these people that don't know me that have dedicated their whole weekend to come out here and build me a home it's amazing," Sgt. Gray said.

The roof was being put on the home Sunday.

Gray, who uses prosthetic legs or a wheelchair, will have greater mobility in his new home. It will have wider doorways, low counters and a large roll-in shower, among other special features.

"The home he's in now the wheelchair he's in typically half the day can't go through some of the doorways," a 'Home For Our Troops' representative said.

'Home for Our Troops' has been building twenty to thirty homes each year.

Gray's home will be finished in several months.

click link for video on this from KOLO News