TC Palm highlighted Wylder’s newest resident. Click here to see the original article.
Standing on an American flag-lined street by what will be his new home in Port St. Lucie, U.S. Army veteran Thomas Counihan IV expressed thanks Thursday for the opportunity to put down roots and become part of an area.
Counihan, 34, is receiving a mortgage-free residence through efforts of Helping A Hero, an organization founded in 2006 that works to support “military personnel severely injured in the Global war on terror,” according to a mission statement.
Counihan, whose lower leg was amputated weeks after an explosion in Afghanistan in May 2011, Helping a Hero founder Meredith Iler and others spoke at a morning ceremony beside Counihan’s home on Northwest Mangrove Drive in a community west of Glades Cutoff Road.
Counihan, a Fort Myers native, said after leaving the military in June 2012 he learned helping disabled veterans made him happy.
“That became my passion, and over the next decade, I dedicated my life to be an adaptive sports instructor, teaching other disabled veterans how to surf, snowboard, skydive, even fly airplanes,” he said.
He made sacrifices, living in a school bus he turned into an RV for three years and living in 25 different places in the past decade.
“Getting this house is one of the first things that I’ve done in a really long time that is for me,” Counihan said. “But at the end of the day, it’s not just for me, this resource … gives me the ability to plant roots in a community that I can become a part of.”
He looks forward to dedicating his energies to a localized area, and having veteran surfing and skydiving events.
“My door will always be open to anybody who needs a hand, veteran or not,” he said. “I’ll talk your ear off … while I’m cooking you probably the best dinner that you’ve ever had in your life.”
Before Counihan and the Patriot Guard Riders arrived, a huge American flag was suspended from a St. Lucie County Fire District truck as songs including Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama,” and Lenny Kravitz’s rendition of “American Woman,” blared from speakers. Crisply dressed members of the American Legion Post 318’s Honor Guard stood to one side.
‘Very good at what we did’
Counihan said he joined the Army in October 2009 as a combat engineer, and went to Logar in eastern Afghanistan in October 2010.
“We would clear the roads prior to other people going on the roads to complete their individual missions … make sure that there’s no IEDs (improvised explosive devices) or roadside bombs or any other unexploded ordnance that needs to be disposed of safely, and to make sure that everybody can complete their individual missions as well,” he said.
Before his injury, he said, his unit had a greater than a 90 percent success rate.
“We were very good at what we did,” he said.
He said he was in an RG31, which is an armored mine-protected personnel carrier, when 180 pounds of homemade explosive wrapped around a large artillery shell exploded.
“The shrapnel from that pierced the floorboard of the vehicle I was in, which gave the explosion enough power to widen that crack and send up shrapnel up through the floorboard, which ended up breaking my leg in multiple places,” he said.
His ankle could not be salvaged.
“I was given the option to save my leg, but as I was presented with that option, as opposed to amputating, I was told that it would be a much longer and more painful recovery time,” Counihan said.
He was told he’d need an “ankle fusion” and wouldn’t be able to bend his ankle and would need to wear a leg brace for the rest of his life.
“I ultimately decided to amputate,” he said. “I made the decision very quickly, because of how much pain I was in.”
The amputation came two days before his 21st birthday.
He says the pain has subsided and he’s recovered back into surfing, skydiving, sailing, flying airplanes, snowboarding and BASE-jumping.
‘Don’t cookie cutter anything’
Iler said Helping A Hero has been involved in providing more than 200 homes in 27 states. Potential recipients can be nominated by others or the veteran also can apply, she said.
“We’re looking to build adaptive housing,” she said. “Our heroes primarily are amputees, wheelchair-bound, paraplegics, quadriplegics, blind, burned, severe traumatic brain injury.”
Iler said the homes are designed specifically for each veteran’s needs.
“We don’t cookie cutter anything. We literally work with each veteran,” she said. “We build these homes from the ground up, because depending on the injuries, there’s just different needs.”
She said Counihan’s home is planned with a wheelchair in mind, and includes a number of adaptations.
Helping A Hero typically involves a $50,000 mortgage to be paid by the veteran, but Iler said Lennar, a longtime home construction company, picked up the cost. Counihan’s home, she said, will be mortgage-free.
The homes are funded differently, she said, noting that Bass Pro Shops is funding 25 percent of 100 homes, including Counihan’s. Representatives of Lennar and Bass Pro Shops, which has a store in Port St. Lucie, were at the event Thursday.
“We do everything that we can to help these veterans not only thrive, but make sure that they are able to function,” Iler said. “You want to empower them in whatever their dream is, and give them the tools as much as we can to help them pursue their future.”
It’s not the first home Helping A Hero worked to provide in the area, Iler said, noting a residence built for Chris Fleming, a Marine veteran who lost his legs after an injury stemming from an improvised explosive device while serving in Afghanistan. A groundbreaking ceremony for that home in the Tradition community was held in December 2021.
Iler said they also helped provide a home in 2014 for Brian Mast, a U.S. Army veteran, before he was elected to Congress. Mast worked as a bomb disposal expert in Afghanistan, and the last improvised explosive device he found resulted in the loss of both legs.
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