Since 2010, Military Warriors Support Foundation has awarded more than 900 mortgage-free homes in all 50 states.
Homes-4-Wounded-Heroes is one of the vehicles it uses to support wounded veterans as they transition out of the military and into their civilian life.
A year ago, one Dayton-area veteran and his family received a mortgage-free home from the program. But their journey to this happy spot begins in 2009.
Eager to enlist
That year, Cody Blevins eagerly graduated high school and enlisted in the U.S. Army. He was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division as an infantryman. His goal: joining special forces and jumping from planes.
“I was in charge of handling the mounted guns, the 50 calibers, the mark 19 grenade launchers, the 240 Bravos,” he said. “So really the big support weapons for the infantry guys.”
In 2010, Blevins deployed to the Kandahar Providence in southern Afghanistan. His team’s missions were mostly uneventful.
Then in March, as they were unpacking from a two-day overnight patrol, Blevins and several other soldiers were told to ‘gear-up’ again for a transport mission.
They had to pick up their sergeant major at Combat Outpost Nolan. Their three-vehicle convoy took off.
“We had to go over this tiny little bridge. And our tires, they almost overhung on the bridge. So we had to go roll over it pretty slow and we had a guy. He got out. He checked for IEDs,” Blevins recalled. “I was the last truck in the convoy, and I was on the radio, on comms. I gave truck's clear, trailer clear, vehicle all clear."
"And as soon as I gave the all clear, that's when dirt came up. I heard the explosion. And next thing I know, I was laying on my back and looking up at the sky in Afghanistan in the Arghandab River Valley,” Blevins said.
He said he couldn't really feel anything from his waist down and thought he was paralyzed.
"And then I looked around and seen that I had my legs. I can move them. And I seen the truck flipped on its side and just confusion. And then I remember being pulled, pulled back to the cover."
The blast killed Blevins' platoon leader, Sgt. Carlos Santos Silva. Both of Blevins' ankles were broken, his left more severely. He also suffered a traumatic brain injury. Blevins was first flown to a field hospital in Afghanistan, then sent to Germany for several surgeries.
Finally, he was shipped to Fort Bragg in North Carolina for extensive rehab.
Long road to recovery
Over the next two years, he had to relearn how to stand, how to walk, how to focus.
He fought through headaches and unrelenting pain. Blevins was determined to rejoin his unit and to resume active duty.
“I got sent to an adaptive PT program to return to duty. And the trainer, she stopped me and said that I was doing great. But she said your ankle looks like a bowl of Jello. And I can't have you in the class and get hurt. So I got kicked out of that PT program, they started the med board process,” he said.
Two years later in 2012, the Army honorably retired Blevins with a medical discharge. He recalls a torrent of emotions erupting inside him: anger because he could no longer be a soldier, disappointment at being discharged from the Army, frustration over his medical injuries.
This highly trained soldier was on track to advance into Special Force, but now he needed mobility aids to simply walk 10 feet.
“I was super angry just because I didn't want to get out. I wanted to stay and I didn't want to be back in civilian life,” Blevins aid.
Then came the depression.
“Then one day, it just kind of hit me where I was, like, super freaking depressed, and I've never, never dealt with anything like that, ended up reaching out and, you know, talking to a counselor about it," Blevins said.
Blevins never signed an amputation order as part of his military medical documents, thus his military dreams were quickly replaced with surgeries, doctors, physical therapy. And always pain.
He struggled with headaches, ragged sleeping. Energy came in spurts and was short lived. At one point, Blevins had to use a wheelchair for almost a year.
Starting a family
But there were bright moments. Blevins resettled in Miamisburg and friends helped him get a couple of jobs.
One was at an aerospace company in Franklin where he met Jessica.
“I was one of the people that had to stamp all the brackets, with their lot numbers,” she said. “He (Cody) was a bench man who had to make sure they fit where they were supposed to go.”
Six days a week, 12 hours a day, Jessica and Cody worked around each other. Friendship blossomed into romance. Romance flourished into marriage.
They now have three children — Haiden, Kaleb and Raelynn — plus two beagles.
Meanwhile, Blevins had another major surgery removing military hardware from his ankles.
The 33-year-old continues struggling with excruciating pain, and swollen ankles that refuse to hold up his body, making it hard for him to secure steady employment.
And for year, the entire Blevin family has lived in a small rental house in Huber Heights.
“A little 900 square foot, three bedroom, one bath. We paid almost $1,000 a month for a 900 square foot house, And, you know, it never was ours.”
All they could afford at the time.
They were there for seven years.
But last December, an unexpected phone call changed everything for this family.
“I got a call from a Texas phone number. And I didn't answer because, you know, I don't have numbers. I don't know nobody from Texas. Then I got a voicemail and it was a fellow named Jason. He told me he would work for military warrior support, there was a home in Dayton and he wanted to know if I was interested in that. And I was super confused. So I called my wife and it was like, ‘I think a scammer just called me.’ And she said, ‘About a house in Dayton? I got it too.’”
A mission to serve wounded veterans
Turns out, about a year after moving into the Huber Heights rental, Jessica learned about the Military Warriors Support Foundation.
Casey Kinser, the foundation’s executive vice president, said the foundation supports these populations through specialized programs including leadership training, recreation outings, loan free cars and mortgage-free homes.
“Our mission is to serve our nation's combat wounded veterans and Gold Star spouses,” Kinser said.
According to Kinser, this support is designed to reduce some financial stress that drastically unsettles a majority of these individuals and families.
“A lot of times due to injuries, either the veteran's income potential is compromised and their spouse sometimes has to become the caregiver,” says Kinser. “An additional stressor for the family in addition to just the veteran healing and, you know, him or her healing physically and mentally and then, them healing as a family.”
Jessica applied to the foundation’s Homes4WoundedHeroes program. In partnership with Wells Fargo, it awards eligible veterans a mortgage free home.
She had her eye on a house in Texas. However, five years later, they were in the running for a house closer to home in Riverside.
Cody and Jessica quickly submitted additional information and then waited. And waited. And waited.
Until this past May, when they got another phone call telling them to meet at a specific place where Blevins would share his story with other veterans and foundation members.
So on May 26, Cody, Jessica and the children drove into a pleasant neighborhood and pulled up to a nice, single story house. The couple was puzzled–what an odd place for a meeting.
“They duped us,” Jessica said. “We found out we got the house that day. I thought they were kidding. I kept asking everybody, Are you kidding?”
“Now we're in a three bedroom, two bath. We got a nice living room and a little den with a fireplace, kitchen, and dining room,” Blevins said. “1,600 square feet. Nice, nice front yard, nice backyard.”
And an attached 2-car garage.
“The first time I saw the garage, he laughed at me because I was like, ‘Oh, that garage is beautiful’ because we haven't had a garage, you know, to actually put our vehicles in.,” Jessica said.
Over the next two years, the couple will work with a financial counselor from the Military Warriors Support Foundation.
After which if the Blevins demonstrate consistent budget management, the foundation will transfer the house title into their name.
“Now we have something that's completely ours. and then it being mortgage free, like it. Just the opportunities that we can have with the kids now is going to be awesome,” Blevins said.
