Here's how you can volunteer to support a wounded Special Forces veteran
Check-in for the volunteer day is 9:30 a.m. May 10 at the First Baptist Church of Pinehurst, 7373 N.C. 211 in West End. Volunteers will be shuttled to the new home for retired Sgt. 1st Class Jacob Green, according to an April 30 news release from Homes For Our Troops.
According to the release, enlisted in the Army after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and served with the 3rd and 7th Special Forces groups, deploying six times — once to Peru and Colombia supporting the Global War on Terror and four times to Afghanistan, the news release states.
'I felt it was my duty to serve this wonderful country, and while I was in, the love of country is always there, but I think it's always second behind my teammates to the left and right of me,' he said in a video posted on the nonprofit's website.
In the video, Green said he first injured his ankle during a firefight while at Firebase Anaconda in Afghanistan, where he served from 2009 to 2010
'I felt the ankle pop. I felt the burn,' he said.
In the middle of the gunfight, he said, he ignored the pain.
He later wrapped his ankle and thought he was OK, until he deployed to South America, and a surgeon told him he'd severed most of the tendons and ligaments in his ankle.
Green deployed to Afghanistan again between 2013 to 2014 and fell off the back of a truck during another gunfight.
He said he's also suffered spinal and neck injuries and a traumatic brain injury during his deployments.
After the 2014 deployment, Green said, he went to Walter Reed Medical Center and has his first surgery Oct. 7, 2015.
His leg was amputated below the knee, but he required several more surgeries for three years because of 'so much damage.'
Green's wife, Kelly, said her husband never stops or gives up.
'He will always give his all, and he has given his all, knowing that life is much more valuable than a limb,' she said in the video.
Green, who lives in Pinehurst, said he's the type of person who doesn't like accepting help and has coped with scraping his knuckles on doorways while maneuvering in a wheelchair. He and his wife said a representative from Homes for Our Troops reached out multiple times before they accepted the offer for the organization to provide an adaptive home.
Green, who uses both a prosthetic leg and wheelchair depending on his needs, said that in the new, adaptive home, he won't have to worry about tripping or falling out of his wheelchair when reaching for something.
Not only will the home Greene receives be specially adapted, but it will also be mortgage-free.
'Knowing that financial freedom, I don't have a mortgage payment, is huge,' Green said.
Homes For Our Troops said volunteers are needed Saturday, May 10, to lay sod and plant trees and flowers in preparation for the upcoming ceremony when Green will receive the keys to the home, which has more than 40 adaptations including lower countertops and roll under sinks.
Volunteers are asked to bring gardening gloves and will receive a Homes For Our Troops T-shirt and lunch, according to the organization.
Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Nonprofit to provide adaptive home for wounded Special Forces veteran
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