US Military Veterans are American Heroes who make tremendous sacrifices and take on extraordinary risks for the benefit of the American public. It only makes sense that when their service is complete, these Military Veterans should have a place to call home.
Habitat For Heroes is a non-profit organization in the city of Santa Clarita (in north Los Angeles County). Their goal is to "address the needs of those heroes who have served our nation, and all of us, with courage and honor." The Habitat For Heroes does this specifically in the area of housing.
According to the Habitat For Heroes, roughly 80,000 US Military Veterans who served after 9/11 are spending more than 50% of their income on housing. This situation, along with a challenging economy, has created financial hardship for many veterans, especially in the city of Santa Clarita. Per capita, Santa Clarita has one of highest concentrations of Military Veterans. Of the city's 250,000 residents, over 10,000 are war veterans.
So Habitat For Heroes recently announced an exciting project, in coordination with the California Department of Veteran Affairs (CalVet).
CalVet will provide $21 million for Habitat For Heroes to develop and build 87 new homes in a village dedicated to veterans. Local veterans will then be able to apply to purchase one of these affordable homes!
This is a terrific program. And ought to be a model for other communities to follow!
Veterans Day is coming up... on Nov 11th. For the independence and freedom we all enjoy, our US Military Veterans deserve to be remembered and honored!!
He says, "I've lived in New York my whole life and you see a lot of strange things." So when he saw a woman floating on a log in the Hudson River earlier this year (March 2012), he simply knew she needed to be rescued.
He was riding his bike through NYC at 7:30am, headed to work. He knew the water would be cold if he jumped in to help the woman. In fact, the water was 48 degrees!
But he took the dive, swam out 40 feet, and brought the woman to shore. She surely would have been in serious trouble without Randy's rescue effort. He asked two other women to call 911. When the Police and EMS arrived he continued on to work.
Remarkably, Randy still arrived for his 9:00am shift a few minutes early!
He's a humble man who plays off the event as just being part of his job. But this is a great example of how American Heroism preserves and protects our quality of life!
Thanks for your service Randy!!
Check out this video of Randy talking about what happened...
Henry Miller (1891-1980) was an American author who said: "The ordinary man is involved in action, the hero acts. An immense difference."
These are American Military Heroes who did not just witness action, they acted! And their choice to act brought life-changing results. We owe them a deep sense of gratitude and honor. They have served the USA and our US Military well!
Dugie Denton - Army - Archery
Dugie was shot in the course of military service, which led to a plate being put in his ankle. He also suffers from a traumatic brain injury. He took 9th place in the Open Individual Compound Archery event.
Rob Jones - Marines - Rowing
Rob lost both legs above-the-knee after an IED blast in Afghanistan in 2010. He and his rowing partner, Oksana Masters, took home a Bronze Medal in the Mixed Double Sculls event!!
Josh Olson - Army - Shooting
Josh lost his right leg from the hip down during a rocket-propelled grenade attack in Iraq in 2004. He took 28th place in the 50m Prone Rifle event.
Jennifer Schuble - West Point Cadet - Cycling
Jennifer suffered a traumatic brain injury during hand-to-hand combat training at the Academy. Then a car accident crushed her right arm. And then in 2004 she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. She took home a Silver Medal and a Bronze Medal in the 500m Cycling and Mixed Team Sprint Cycling events, respectively!!
Gavin Sibayan - Army - Soccer
Gavin survived many roadside bombs, then suffered a stroke. Team USA took 8th place in the Soccer event.
Brad Snyder - Navy - Swimming
Brad lost his sight following a bomb blast in Afghanistan in 2011. He took home the following:
Silver Medal - 50m Freestyle!!
Gold Medal - 100m Freestyle!!
Gold Medal - 400m Freestyle!!
4th Place - 100m Butterfly
6th Place - 100m Breaststroke
5th Place - 100m Backstroke
6th Place - 200m Ind. Medley
Scott Winkler - Army - Shot Put
Scott was paralyzed from the chest down after falling from an ammo truck in Iraq in 2003. He took 13th place in the Shot Put event.
Melissa Stockwell is one of the (many) people who have served our country bravely and courageously!
As a Freshman at the University of Colorado, Boulder Melissa joined the US Army ROTC and committed to 4 years of active duty with the US Army. She started as a US Army officer in 2002, and was deployed to Iraq.
In 2004 Melissa was leading a convoy through Baghdad when a roadside bomb exploded and blew her unarmored Humvee into a guardrail and then a house. The result was that she lost her left leg.
Melissa is now an above-the-knee amputee on her left side. In fact, Melissa is the first woman soldier to lose a limb in the Iraq War. And for her honorable service, Melissa received a Bronze Star plus a Purple Heart.
But that's not the end of the story! Melissa is now a world class Para-Triathlete!!
After spending a year of recovery at the Walter Reed Medical Center, Melissa took up swimming (for the first time in her life!). She even became a member of Team USA Swimming at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.
Following this event, she chose to pursue Para-Triathlons. This is what she has to show for it:
2011 USA Female Para-Triathlete of the Year
1st Place -- 2011 ITU Para-Triathlon World Championship Beijing (TRI-2)
1st Place -- 2011 ITU Para-Triathlon National Championship NYC (TRI-2)
2010 USA Female Para-Triathlete of the Year
1st Place -- 2010 ITU Para-Triathlon World Championship Budapest (TRI-2)
2nd Place -- 2010 ITU Para-Triathlon National Championship (TRI-1)
1st Place -- 2009 Olympic Distance Triathlon Chicago (her division)
Melissa is not participating in the 2012 London Paralympics, only because her sport is not an event. But that will change soon! Para-Triathlon will make its debut at the 2016 Rio Paralympics!!!
Do know much about the Paralympics? If not, you should. This quadrennial event is getting bigger. This year is the biggest ever: 4,280 athletes from 165 countries competing.
Now, in these 2012 London Paralympics, Team USA has 227 members - 20 are US Military veterans and 6 of them were hurt while serving our country.
The Paralympic stories are amazing! Here's one of them.
Brad Snyder started swimming in St Petersburg, Florida when he was 11 years old. He continued as a club and high school swimmer. He eventually joined the Navy and was captain of the 2005-2006 Naval Academy swim team.
After graduating from the Naval Academy he became a bomb defusing specialist with the Explosive Ordinance Disposal Mobile Unit 12.
Brad was deployed to Afghanistan. In September 2011 he was working with another bomb defusing specialist and a group of Afghan soldiers. They were sweeping a section of land in a "particularly bad neighborhood" to look for suspicious signs of booby-trap bombs. One of the Afghan soldiers stepped on a homemade bomb, which immediately and traumatically amputated the legs of he and another Afghan soldier.
Brad responded to help them, and in doing so he stepped on a second bomb. He thought he had died, but he briefly looked down to see his whole body intact. This was his last sight. The next event he remembers is waking up at the Naval Hospital in Bethesda. Several days after his injury he was advised that he would not see again. He now has two glass eyes.
Part of how Brad has recovered is by jumping back in the swimming pool. It turns out his swim times qualified him for some financial support and travel expenses. Of course his training has not been without its challenges. He practices with sleeves on his arms due to his arms repeatedly hitting the swim lane barriers. And he's had a few painful crashes into the cement lane ending due to not flipping over soon enough.
Brad is now 28 years old, and competing in the 2012 London Paralympics for Team USA Swimming. In fact, he will compete in his best race - the 400-meter freestyle - on the one year anniversary of his accident (Sep 7th).
Brad said, "Its going to be a pretty amazing experience to compete on that day. To me, it means I conquered blindness. I won!"
