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thedrifter
02-01-09, 07:39 AM
Wounded veteran returns to new house in Middleville
Posted by kwynn January 31, 2009 20:05PM

MIDDLEVILLE -- The sign above the fireplace said it all: "Welcome Home Josh Hoffman."

And for good measure, hundreds of West Michigan residents and more than a dozen Marines added their part Saturday to an emotional homecoming for Joshua Hoffman, who served in the Marines in Iraq.

"I'm just glad to see all the people that supported Josh. It shows a lot, that people care," said Marine Sgt. Alex Albrecht, 23, who served in Iraq with Hoffman.

Albrecht stood in the garage of a new home built for Hoffman with countless hours of volunteer labor and materials donated from businesses throughout West Michigan.

Under a protective tent erected to accommodate the crowd, hundreds gathered for a ceremony honoring Hoffman, his sacrifice and the community that made the project possible.

Hoffman, 26, was paralyzed from the chest down when he was hit by a sniper's bullet in Iraq in January 2007.

The bullet pierced his neck and exited his shoulder blade, shattering his upper spine as it went through. He spent more than a year in a Virginia Veterans Administration hospital before coming home in March 2008.

The one-story house includes everything from an elevator to a wheelchair-accessible shower, all to accommodate Hoffman's extensive medical needs. It has polished wood floors to ease wheelchair movement and lights that turn on and off automatically when he enters or leaves a room. A motorized ceiling track lift system will aid in getting him in and out of bed and into the shower.

In the basement, a distribution system pipes oxygen into several rooms, vital for treating his frequent lung infections. A backup generator assures the home will have electricity even if the power grid fails.

The house was built with financial help from Homes For Our Troops, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit organization dedicated to building houses for wounded and disabled veterans. It has built more than three dozen homes around the country.

Local donors raised $84,000 to pay for the oxygen system, finish the basement and provide for future needs.

Brian Reed, project manager for Home For Our Troops, said he had seldom seen anything like the outpouring of support for Hoffman.

As if to punctuate his point, the snow-covered street outside was lined with American flags placed there for the occasion.

"It's incredible. If you could only get the rest of the country going with this same feeling, it would be a better place. This community is blessed in so many ways. It is blessed with Josh, and Josh is blessed with them."

As Hoffman sat in his wheelchair behind her, his fiance, Heather Lovell, 22, agreed.

"This is the most unbelievable experience we have ever had. This house is beautiful," she said.

E-mail Ted Roelofs: troelofs@grpress.com

Ellie