Monday, August 13, 2007

Wounded Hero Home Program

What a great story out of Sugar Land, Texas:

It wasn’t your typical move-in day for former Marine Cpl. Paul Gardner and his new bride, Ashley.

While Ashley stood beside her husband, seated in his wheel chair, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, presented the couple with a ceremonial key to their new Sugar Land home, bought and paid for through the Rotary Club of Houston’s “Wounded Hero Home Program.”

“I didn’t think I would have this nice of a house at the age of 25,” said Garnder, who was paralyzed from the waist down after he was shot during a house-to-house search for insurgents near Baghdad in 2003.

“Every time I come into this home I feel so blessed.”

The Gardners are the first couple to receive a new home, but Rotarians hope to provide homes to 14 other veterans wounded in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Every inch of the more than 2,700- square-foot home was built with Gardner’s needs in mind. Doorways are widened to three-feet, the floors are covered in tile or hardwoods so he can maneuver easily and countertops are within his reach. The master bath also has a “roll in” shower entry.

 

 

(4) Comments
Posted by Jed at 1722 hrs
Culture

  1. “I didn’t think I would have this nice of a house at the age of 25,”

    I can’t imagine that kids will be lining up to get these homes.  Wouldn’t the story have been so much better if that young man and his family hadn’t needed to be given a house because he got all shot to Hell in Afghanistan?  I’ll bet the Rotarians could have found some other cause just as worthy to support.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on August 13, 2007 at 2009 hrs


  2. Wouldn’t it be even nicer if terrorists, largely trained in Afghanistan hadn’t blown 3000+ American citizens all to hell, making it neccesary for US Soldiers like this young man to have to make the kind of sacrifice that he did.  But thank god there are men like him, and god bless those Rotarians for donating the time and money to give something back to this man and his family who gave so much.  Sure, the Rotarians could have found other very worthy causes to support instead of this one ... but they are to be comended for doing this and you dishonor him, his family, thier sacrifices and the fine work of the Rotarians with your post.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on August 13, 2007 at 2107 hrs


  3. grumps you typify the lib. If they did not spend their money here they could have spent it on some other pet project. What did you have in mind my good man? Another Carter style housing project for folks that could not figure out how to get a job at 14 or 15 like the smart ones?

    Thank goodness I am not one of the wheelchair folks but I am separated from my family training to protect folks like you grumps and if I don’t get sent to Iraq then if a lib gets into office it will be Darfur or Pakistan or some other hell hole. After all these years in the Navy I have learned that no matter who is in control, the other side will be ticked off because it is not their pet war, corrective action, police action, peace keeping mission…you name the term.

    These guys have done a job whether you like it or not. My current instructor was part of the Carter fiasco many years ago…He likes to tell stories about how your side decided to send guys in with piss poor planning and the wrong equipment but it was a democrat that got us into that one so…what…

    I am kind tired of hearing how this was a mistake and this was a lie. WW2 was started with shear incompetency, and it was full of men dying because of equipment failures and bad planning. Korea was no better. Vietnam was the best example of the spineless making war decisions. What you forget is that whoever is making the decisions does not matter. Men and women will die, be maimed, and will pay the psychological price for those decisions. You say this was wrong but I say it does not matter. Stop putting the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines in the middle of your little safe, little, meaningless battle. If you do truly care about the troops then be happy when one of them can put a little good back in their life. If you truly care then let them do their jobs, wait your turn to send them into hell and if you have a problem with the current situation take it up with the folks that sent them and leave them out of it.

    Sorry Owen and Jed and the others, I have had it up to my eyeballs with this “I care about the troops but have to get every jab in when I here about them suffering” We are tools of warfighting and I am losing my patience with these petty little remarks and snide comments about how we would somehow be better off if there was a democrat/republican/libertarian/little green whatever in office. These barracks look the same no matter who is in office.

    Posted by fishaddict on August 13, 2007 at 2220 hrs


  4. fishaddict, you are wise beyond your years.
    You first must understand though that the left supports you, Dick Durbin calling you NAZI’s and PolPot (combined 9 MILLION innocent people eliminated through a progrom). Then he caps that off with the Gulag comment. The Gulag is not per se a prison but rather a geographic location. This geographic location was the staging ground of 20 -23 MILLION deaths of men women and children.
    This is how this man supports you.
    Hitler was a piker compared to Stalin and Communism.
    The Marines that were just released today, after a trial, were called murderers by Jon Murtha. They were called vigilantes by the New York Times.
    These Marines who were exhonerated by a jury of their peers will be forever branded as criminals by the left.
    Waiting for Murtha to apologize? The N.Y Times? The Washington Post? Keep waiting. It’s not forthcoming.
    Grump’s is an idiot. Lets face it. Lining up for a home at the expense of dismemberment? That is what that idiot is saying.
    Just keep doing your thing fishaddict.
    There are alot of Americans who appreciate your service.
    If you here someone say, I support the troops but not the mission, that would be Durbin himself.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on August 14, 2007 at 0055 hrs


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