October 21, 2009 3:10 pmJenny Montgomery wrote:
Ret. Marine Cpl. Donny Daughenbaugh's wife, Sarah, reacts to the announcement they'll be getting a house. Photo by Jimmy Loyd.By KIM MORGAN
CHRONICLE CORRESPONDENT
An Iowa soldier and his family will soon move to League City,(Tx) thanks to a gift from a group of local builders.
The Bay Area Builders Association, established in 2005 to provide custom homes to wounded and disabled veterans, will give retired Marine Cpl. Donny Daughenbaugh, 28, a new home in the Victory Lakes subdivision.
Daughenbaugh currently lives in the Des Moines area with his wife, Sarah, 6-year-old daughter Gabby and 17-month-old son Kollin.
In the spring, they’ll be Texans, as will their Yorkie-Poo, Cooper, and Gabby’s fish, Goldie.
“I am all about adding a little bit of spice to our cookbook of life,” Daughenbaugh said. “As long as I have my wife and my children, anywhere I live is my home.”
BABA Executive Director Daniel Vargas said the association can build a $275,000 home for about $30,000.
Most of the building supplies are donated, so the main cost is labor. Bly Team Re/Max is a major sponsor of the program.
“This is a nicer home than I could ever purchase or provide for my family,” Daughenbaugh said. “The (BABA) slogan of ‘changing lives one house at time’ is the honest to goodness unfiltered truth. When you have a home, you are able to overcome so many other obstacles.”
Vargas said the association hopes to break ground on the Daughenbaugh home in the next few weeks, with a potential move-in date of early spring 2010.
Daughenbaugh will also receive assistance from the Sentinels of Freedom Scholarship Foundation, a group that adopts a wounded service member for four years, providing for college courses, tutoring, job training and mentorship as the veteran readjusts to civilian life.
Daughenbaugh was severely injured in Iraq on Oct. 12, 2004, when his unit was doing a vehicle search in a little town south of Baghdad.
“We were looking in windows, that’s it,” Daughenbaugh said.
“The vehicle we had stopped tried to run over some of our Marines. The driver pulled out an AK-47 from under his seat and shot me in the face.”
The car then crashed into a building and people in the building started firing on the Marines.
Daughenbaugh was eventually airlifted out of the area, but the bullet from the AK-47 remains lodged where his spine meets his skull. Doctors decided it was too dangerous to risk removing it.
“I had seizures after I was first injured, and I get migraines regularly,” Daughenbaugh said.
Daughenbaugh said he can’t wait to get to Texas, and not only because Iowa doesn’t have professional sports teams.
Through his work as a spokesperson for The Coalition to Salute America’s Heroes, a nonprofit that helps veterans of the war on terror, Daughenbaugh has traveled across the country, and has been to Texas several times.
“Nowhere in the U.S. is it like Texas,” he said. “You have amazing amounts of patriotism. The appreciation you show to soldiers is like nowhere else. You all have won me over.”
An election for President and Commander in Chief of the Military must strive to be above reproach. Our public institutions must give the public confidence that a presidential candidate has complied with the election process that is prescribed by our Constitution and laws. It is only after a presidential candidate satisfies the rules of such a process that he/she can expect members of the public, regardless of their party affiliations, to give him/her the respect that the Office of President so much deserves.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.