Volunteers building home to honor Utah veteran
By Jacob Hancock
Deseret News
Published: Tuesday, May 5, 2009 11:53 p.m. UTC
HERRIMAN — After his mangled body violently plummeted to the earth, the young soldier raised his face, noticed a finger was missing and wondered why he couldn't breathe.
Seconds before the 24-year-old Army specialist lay prostrate, gasping for breath, he had been patrolling a northern road in Iraq from the back bench of his unit's Humvee.
Cruising at 55 mph, the troops were clearing a route near the city of Kirkuk early in December 2004 when their truck hit a roadside bomb that obliterated their Humvee. (watch an 11 second video of a similar IED blast here)
"I couldn't get comfortable," Spec. Bryant Jacobs said he remembered thinking as he laid face down in the sand. "I couldn't really see it, but shrapnel went through my back and blew my large intestines out."
Five years and 37 surgeries later, the heavily scarred veteran appeared to be sitting a little more comfortably Tuesday morning in what will soon become his own upper-bench Herriman neighborhood.
Jacobs watched as a crowd of local volunteers strapped on tool belts and went to work framing him a rambler in The Cove at Herriman Springs subdivision.
The national organization Homes for Our Troops will give Jacobs the house mortgage free.
The nonprofit homebuilding group has partnered with Rainey Homes, Dunkin' Brands Community Foundation, the charitable arm of Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin Robbins, to build free homes for severely injured veterans across the country by rallying locals to donate time and materials.
Utah homebuilder Rainey Homes volunteered to supply a host of motivated men to complete the framing phase in three days — a task that normally takes a couple weeks or more.
"We got involved a couple months ago because we felt it was the right thing to do," said Justin Taylor, Rainey Homes construction vice president.
Rainey crews and a handful of other volunteers raised all 13 sections of the exterior wall in the first three hours and quickly moved into a buzz when a flatbed truck pulled up to deliver the roof truss package.
That's when Taylor morphed from a dapperly dressed company spokesman into a hands-on leader. He ripped off his nice button-up shirt, tossed it aside and poked his head through a T-shirt so he could get dirty with the rest of his crew.
Jacobs' sister from Midvale, Jennica Jacobs, also showed up and hauled a few 2x6s for the framers in support of her brother.
"I'd feel useless just sitting back and watching," she said.
When completed at summer's end, the approximate 2,000-square-foot home will feature things to make Jacobs' life-altering injuries more tolerable: hardwood floors to keep him from tripping with his drop-foot shuffle steps; a wide shower equipped with a seat; and shallow ramps to take the place of any front porch and garage steps.
Jacobs currently lives in a small apartment with none of those amenities.
Crews easily met their goal Tuesday of framing all the walls. Today's goal of setting all the trusses and sheathing the roof should come with the same simplicity, especially if the Baskin Robbin's refreshment staff maintains its tented post conveniently across the street ready to reward the hungry.
"I'll be here forever," Jacobs said while looking at the unfinished house from a chair on the sidewalk. "This is really the house I want to grow old in. It's perfect."
E-MAIL: jhancock@desnews.com
Thanks for the excellent pics from Kathryn Michaels Photography.
Visit her web site and see her beautiful work at http://www.kathryn-michaels.com/
(all rights reserved KMP LLC 2009) |
