Posted on 05/27/2005 10:15:16 PM PDT by Eagles6
Perched on a tree stump stool, Sam Ross grinned and cocked his head in the direction of the concrete slab dangling from the enormous crane parked in his newly laid gravel driveway.
Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette Sam Ross sits in front of the handicap-accessible home being built for him near Dunbar, Fayette County, by Homes For Our Troops. Click photo for larger image.
Moments later, the rectangle of prefabricated concrete swung past Ross' face, then slipped into place in the muddy pit in front of him.
"What's happening?'' Ross asked yesterday, anxious for assurance that work truly had begun on the house he's vowed to build ever since a bomb exploded in Iraq two years ago, stealing his sight, his left leg, part of his hearing and his military career.
"This is my dream, and it's finally under way,'' said Ross, 22, of the handicapped-accessible log home being built for him on a Fayette County hilltop by Homes For Our Troops, a Massachusetts nonprofit organization that seeks donations of money, materials and labor to construct or remodel homes for severely wounded veterans.
"The big part of this house [is that] I'll be able to function on my own. I'll sit out here on the deck and catch the afternoon sun.''
The three-bedroom, two-bath Southern pine home with a loft, front porch and deck will crown a wooded lot overlooking the Chestnut Ridge that Ross bought after playing baseball there as a child. Several companies have donated supplies, labor or fixtures, and Homes For Our Troops hopes that additional donations will offset the estimated $100,000 needed to complete it.
For Ross, the slab laid yesterday was both the foundation of his new home and of a new life he yearns to lead when he moves in with his golden retriever, Diesel. His determination to accomplish that was a stark contrast to the severe depression that prompted him to threaten suicide and abruptly disappear two weeks ago.
Andy Starnes, Post-Gazette Mark Dragan, left, directs a crane operator as a pre-fabricated section of a foundation wall is lifted into place yesterday. Click photo for larger image.
His talk of suicide in a note and telephone call on May 9 prompted more than 80 relatives, friends and volunteers to search all the next day around his mobile home in rural Dunbar Township. Searchers found him that night on the Youghiogheny River bike trail.
"Everybody has a breaking point, and I had mine," he said of that night. "My life was forever changed, and part of me still doesn't want to accept that."
A former Army paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, Ross was critically injured May 19, 2003, while defusing a bomb in Baghdad. He returned three months later to a hometown that considered him a hero and to hundreds of pledges of support from well-wishers.
"If it wasn't for all those phone calls and letters, I wouldn't be here now," he said. "But for a while, everybody was there and then [they] all seemed to fall off the face of the earth. I had a hard time.''
Ross now walks with a prosthetic leg and cannot hear in his left ear. But by far, he said, the hardest thing to bear has been the loss of his sight and the isolation that resulted.
Despite several surgeries, he has regained only some perception of light in his left eye. More operations are planned, but he said he still is battling to accept that his vision may not improve. He also is regretful and worried about resolving assault and other charges that resulted from a fight with patrons and police in a Uniontown bar in February.
"I assumed everybody looked at me and thought, 'Look how good he's handling it,' " he said, recalling the roiling emotions that prompted his suicide threat. "But I wasn't."
Ross spent most of the past two weeks obtaining mental health treatment at the VA Medical Center in Lincoln-Lemington. He left the hospital Monday after working with therapists to set personal goals -- the completion of his house, a computer course and then college or a training program.
"I have no problem telling people I have problems and need help," he said.
Officials at Homes For Our Troops were only too willing to provide it after receiving several e-mails about Ross and his injuries last year, said Kirt M. Rebello, the organization's policies director.
They found that Ross qualified for a Veterans Affairs grant for a specially adapted home and already was making plans to build and to seek a construction loan.
"Sam had already organized a good chunk of what needed to be done, and that made us want to help him more," Rebello said as he stood beside Ross and described for him how the foundation was taking shape.
The house will accommodate the wheelchair Ross uses when the stump of his left leg becomes too sore for his prosthetic leg. Doors and shower entrances will be wider, cupboard doors will slide open to eliminate possible obstacles, and sinks will have room for Ross to slide his legs underneath.
Friends from Garletts Excavating of Dunbar dug his foundation without charge earlier this month. Officials from Superior Walls of America and its local dealer, Collier Foundation Systems Inc. of Heidelberg, donated and installed the foundation walls and concrete floor yesterday.
Homes For Our Troops will pay about $25,000 for the log cabin package from Gold Hill Homes of Champion and, weather permitting, will have it framed in by next week, Rebello said.
Simonton Windows also has pledged to help, and other firms have expressed interest in supplying kitchen and interior fixtures, he said.
Rebello isn't sure when or from where the remaining funds and supplies will arrive to finish and equip Ross' house, but said he's not worried.
"Nobody deserves the American Dream more than somebody who fought for it," he said. "This will happen."
For more information about Homes For Our Troops, go to www.homesforourtroops.org.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Cindi Lash can be reached at clash@post-gazette.com or at 412-263-1973.)
Would you guys link this into the Canteen?
Tonk: You may want to ping this again. I don't have a lot of the Canteen newbies on my ping list.
Ping. Bump. And other stuff! ;)
Dweeb BTTT!
:)
Pings to a couple of other dweebs.
"But for a while, everybody was there and then [they] all seemed to fall off the face of the earth. I had a hard time.''
Tonk: You may want to ping this again.
PING!
thanks!
Thank You for your service to our country!
Ping!
bump and ping!!!
"Nobody deserves the American Dream more than somebody who fought for it"
This is a great story, thanks!
~Corey
11B3P
87-2000
Neets, do you have a ping list for this?...Thsi is one of "those news stories" that deservses to be shouted from hill tops!
Thanks for the repost.
Sure hope he gets his sight back and am glad he's getting the help he deserves.
Mc
Thank you for the ping!
Thank You for this story!!
God Bless this young man.
No offense, Tonk, but I need to be de-pinged. I'll stay in touch.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.