A North Texas Veteran is getting a new home as a thank you for his service.
Staff Sgt. Johnny Wilson stood on the Arlington property that will be his new home and shoveled the first scoop of dirt in a ground-breaking ceremony for a program designed specifically to assist veterans.
"It hasn't hit me yet," he said.
That he's able to receive such a gift honoring his service may be a miracle. Wilson was badly burned during a tour in Iraq in 2004. The next year, he returned to Iraq and was injured again and his left leg was amputated from the knee down. Recently, his wife, Elizabeth, had a stroke and is now partially disabled.
"It seemed like life had just kicked us again," Wilson said. "I had already put my wife through so much."
The couple has three children, and their medical bills were mounting. But Rad WBAP-AM, veterans groups and developers teamed up to raise money for Welcome Home Hero, a program to build homes for wounded soldiers with disabilities.
Elizabeth Wilson described the gift of a new home was "overwhelming."
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"Now we have a chance to live the rest of our lives and have a really really great life," she said.
Organizers say the Wilsons home will be ready in late August or early September.
Volunteers are already working to build homes for other veterans.
"There's soldiers now that are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan that are homeless," Johnny Wilson said.
Welcome Home Hero is a collaboration between WBAP-AM, The Bay Area Builders Association, The Texas Sentinels Foundation, REMAX, Sierra Fine Custom Homes and some of WBAP's sponsors. You can donate at the Bay Area Builders Association website.
