Volunteers Work to Provide Wounded Iraq Vet With Custom Home

Volunteers Work to Provide Wounded Iraq Vet With Custom Home
By ALEXIS SHAW
July 25, 2012

After months of renovations, a wounded Iraq War veteran and his wife are ready to move into their new home, thanks to the efforts of a volunteer project that customizes homes for wounded veterans.

Capt. Patrick Horan was serving in Iraq in 2007 when he was struck by a bullet that penetrated his skull and exploded. Horan was airlifted from Iraq to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where doctors removed half his skull, said his wife, Patty Horan.

"He had trouble speaking, but he also had trouble with the motor function of his mouth, just forming the words," she said.

For the past five years, Horan and his wife have moved around the country to get Horan the care he needs.

At last, they have a permanent home of their own, near family members and care givers, in McLean, Va.

"This house symbolizes enjoying life and just starting anew," said Patty Horan. "We can actually live life again instead of living 10 hours a day in a hospital. That's what we've been doing for five years."

Funding for the renovations came from a $10 million grant the Sears' Heroes at Home program gave to Rebuilding Together, a national volunteer home rehabilitation organization, specifically for veterans' housing, said Lee-Berkely Shaw, director of development at the Montgomery County, Va., chapter of Rebuilding Together.
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