Wounded Marine Receives Free $430k Home: Is It Our Duty To Support Disabled Veterans?


A wounded Marine named Gabe Martinez lost both his legs in Afghanistan, but now an organization called Homes For Our Troops gave him and his family a specially designed home costing $430,000.

In a related report by The Inquisitr, the Wounded Walk 2013 had two Marines crossing America in support of the Wounded Warrior Project.

Martinez described how he was disabled in a frank description:

“On Thanksgiving Day 2010, on my second deployment to Afghanistan, I stepped on a 20-pound improvised explosive device.”

Martinez also had a chance to meet with Boston Marathon bombing victim Celeste Corcoran, who also lost both legs in the terrorist attack. The fact that a fellow American could be disabled in a similar fashion while in the United States stuck with the Marine:

“When I saw that happened here on U.S. soil, it struck home. And I could really relate. That’s how I lost my legs, through an IED…. From the bottom of my heart, I thank the organization Homes for Our Troops and everyone else out there that supports myself and other troops.”

Gabe’s wife, Kayla, says the free home has changed their lives:

“It’s just a lot of stress relieved off our shoulders, if anything should happen to me I know Gabe can raise our kids in a home that accessible.”

Making a home accessible to a disabled person can be quite costly. The four-bedroom home came with 155 special adaptations, including automatic door openers, a wheelchair accessible roll-in shower, and roll-in countertops. Such a house can average about $430,000 but the amazing part is that the money all came from donations, did not involve any government funding at all, and the organization has built 166 homes in 39 states so far.

Although the former Marine Sargeant is receiving the home for free, Tim McHale, president of Home for Our Troops, says it is the duty of Americans to support disabled vets like Martinez:

“What we are doing today Gabe is not charity. We believe this is a moral obligation of our society to take care of our veterans.”

Do you agree that it should be the moral duty of all Americans to support wounded veterans?

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