Marine Changed by War, Changed by Disrespect, Changed Again by Love

This shows the difference love, respect and appreciation can make. A 20 year old had been sent to Iraq. An IED blew up leaving him with a visible price tag for the Independence bought by those who risked their lives to retain it. He came home and was shown disrespect back then but as you'll see, nothing ended for this veteran and his family.

Disfigured veteran deals with disrespect at home
USA TODAY
Gregg Zoroya and Alan Gomez
April 25, 2013

BELTSVILLE, MD. — Six years have passed since a roadside bomb set Ronny "Tony" Porta on fire in Iraq when he was 20, and he's still trying to find his way home. Each reflection in the mirror bears witness to why that is not easy.

Marine Cpl. Ronny Porta was severely burned in May 2007 in Al Asad, Iraq, when his Humvee hit an improvised explosive device. Two other Marines died in the attack. (Photo: Jack Gruber, USA TODAY)

Every stranger who points or stares, every teenager who mocks with the word "monster" or couple that whisper behind his back that the disfigurement is the price for invading a country, tells Porta he hasn't quite left the battlefield behind.

"This is home for me," says Porta, 26, who grew up in suburban-Washington Beltsville after his family emigrated from Peru. "But sometimes, it's kind of hard saying, 'I am home.'"

Two months ago, a man approached Porta in a Home Depot. He stood studying the burns on Porta's face and asked if a car accident was to blame. Porta, wearing a Marine Corps sweatshirt, said, no, it was an IED explosion in Iraq.

What really stuck with Porta and angers him still were the words the man said next: "Was it worth it?" Is it so difficult, Porta asks, to see that those who volunteer in defense of the nation know it can carry a price? "Freedom is not free," he says, echoing an age-old American refrain.
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Disfigured by war, veteran now says 'I found my place'
USA TODAY
Gregg Zoroya
July 3, 2015

LOVETTSVILLE, Va. — Ronny "Tony" Porta was searching for a place where people could see past the disfigurement left by war, where cruel mutterings about his appearance or unfeeling questions about whether such wounds were "worth it" did not exist.

More than two years later, Porta says, "I found my place."

Porta, 28, a medically retired Marine corporal, stumbled upon this northernmost Virginia village in the windy, rolling countryside 55 miles from the nation's capital nearly two years ago. His head, face and much of his body were horribly scarred by a fiery roadside bomb attack in Iraq in 2007 that killed two other Marines. He lost his right arm and was left with only a few gnarled fingers on his left hand.

But in Lovettsville, Porta has been embraced without reservation.

The pinnacle of acceptance comes this Fourth of July weekend as Porta, his wife, son and mother settle into a state-of-the-art "smart" home built by grateful donors on a hill just outside the town limits. "I found the place where I want to spend the rest of my life," he said Wednesday as he watched the finishing touches put to his new home.


A town procession of a color guard, motorcycle escort and local dignitaries formally delivered Porta and his family to the doorstep of his new house Friday from another he's rented in Lovettsville since 2013. "It's become obviously a major event," said Mike Chapman, sheriff of surrounding Loudoun County, who plans to ride his motorcycle. "Everybody jumped on board."
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