For veteran, a new home, life, and wife

[unhappycamper]

Brian Fountaine will marry on June 8, the two-year anniversary of the day a roadside bomb in Iraq ripped apart the Humvee he was riding in. "I call it my 'alive day,' " he said.


For veteran, a new home, life, and wife
By Scott Allen
Globe Staff / April 6, 2008

Even when Brian Fountaine was lying face down in the Iraqi dirt, his lower legs mangled and bleeding from a roadside bomb explosion two years ago, he knew he was going to survive. The young tank commander also knew he was about to become a double amputee.

But what Fountaine could not have imagined was the overwhelming support he would get when he returned to the United States from the strangers who buy him dinner at restaurants to the pen pal who helped nurse him back to health and now plans to marry him. Last night, a Taunton-based charity gave Fountaine his most visible show of support: a new house in Plymouth designed with wide doors and open floors so he can get around easily even when using a wheelchair.

"It's an indescribable feeling being 26 years old and owning your own house," said Fountaine, who moved into the house with his fiancé, Mary Long, two weeks ago, but officially received the deed from the group Homes for Our Troops at a gala dinner last night. "It's a lot of weight off my shoulders."

Over the past four years, Homes for Our Troops has provided houses for 25 disabled veterans and their families, and it plans to build another 100 in the next three years. Founder John Gonsalves concedes that's not enough for the roughly 2,000 veterans who need handicap-accessible homes, but he's amazed at the rapid growth of an organization that started in his basement office: Billy Joel donated the revenues from his latest song, "Christmas in Fallujah," to Homes; President Bush has publicly praised the effort; and the group just received its biggest donation, an anonymous $10 million gift.

"It's really a testament to how many great people there are in our country," said Gonsalves, a former contractor and now full-time philanthropist. He estimates that his group spent no more than $40,000 to build Fountaine's home because so much of the labor and materials, as well as the land, were donated.


Rest of article at: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/04/06/for_veteran_a_new_home_life_and_wife/

[applegrove]

1. Nice to see the people at home sacrificing for those who served.