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.


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Wounded Marine Gets Grand Homecoming