Wounded Veteran Receives Gift Of New Home For Service
ARGYLE (CBSDFW.COM) - A wounded veteran dedicated to helping others that came home injured received a special gift Saturday as thanks for his service.
Complete with bagpipes and a procession of local first responders, SFC Randy Nantz got a hero's welcome as he received the gift of a newly built mortgage-free home. The retired army veteran calls the gift a life-saver.
"Recovery is long. Even your first couple of years are very long where you're injured to the point you have to learn how to walk again," Nantz said.
Nantz was serving in Iraq in 2006 when an IED hit his Humvee causing injuries that forced doctors to amputate part of his leg.
"Even after his injuries, what he does is he helps us find other veterans who are in need of help, and he helps other veterans in their day-to-day care," Andy Pujol, founder of Building Homes For Heroes, said.
Donated homes like Nantz's come with special features designed to make life easier for wounded warriors. It's a cause that received a generous donation of land from 98-year-old World War II veteran Jack Tolbert.
"I told him that I think he deserves this home, and it warms my heart that we can do something like this," Tolbert said.
Only weather stopped the former Army Air Corps pilot from performing a flyover in honor of Nantz, but Tolbert wasn't going to miss the celebration.
"What's going on here is the most important thing that can happen is we are taking care of those people who risked their lives for our freedom," Tolbert said.
It's an example Nantz says he'll follow as he continues to help younger veterans coming home.
"You never take care of yourself, right. You take care of your buddies to your left and right because if everybody does that, then everybody's taken care of, right, and no one has to take care of themselves as long as they're taking care of everybody else," Nantz said.