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Homes For Our Troops to build Fallbrook home for injured soldier

Homes For Our Troops, a national nonprofit organization, will hold a special event 10 a.m., Sunday, Jan. 27, at Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1924 Fallbrook to celebrate the start of building a specially adapted home for Army Spc. Joseph Paulk Jr. who was severely injured during a tour in Afghanistan in 2007.

According to a press release from the organization, during his first deployment, July 5, 2007, Paulk “was serving with the 546th Military Police Company as the lead driver of a Quick Reaction Force in southern Afghanistan. While on a rescue mission, his convoy was struck by an improvised explosive device (IED), causing the vehicle to flip.”

“I was told it was a triple-stack, anti-tank mine,” Paulk said in a video interview at http://www.hfotusa.org/paulk. “Luckily, in doing so, it ejected me and my gunner out of the truck so that we were able to survive. Unfortunately it trapped my team leader, and he was killed on-site.”

Though he was ejected from the vehicle, he was engulfed in flames. His unit quickly put the fire out with fire extinguishers as Paulk sustained severe burns. He was moved to the nearest U.S. facilities in Afghanistan, where doctors put him into a medically induced coma.

“They transported me to Landstuhl in Germany, where they actually called my mom and told her that her and the family are flying out to Germany because they didn’t think I was gonna make it,” he said. “They were hoping that they could get there to say goodbye.”

But Paulk’s condition stabilized, and he woke up three weeks later at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Over the next 18 months, he went through 50 surgeries including skin grafts and the removal of all of his fingers. He also underwent extensive plastic surgery on his face.

Medically retired, he said he struggles to maintain a safe body temperature. With burns covering 80 percent of his body making him sensitive to extreme high and low temperatures and sunlight.

Today, he still finds ways to stay involved with the sport he loves, he said.

“I grew up playing baseball,” Paulk said. “Now I can’t. But, I find ways where I can still be a part of the game. I run the bases for some of the older guys as a pinch runner or just kind of coach kids and stay in the game.”

He said he had a dream of opening tap house.

“The most exciting thing in my life that I’m looking forward to with a new home built by Homes For Our Troops is the ability to take the mortgage that I am going to be saving that I am paying now and invest it into a business possibly with my buddy,” Paulk said.

The home being built for Paulk will feature more than 40 major special adaptations that will help him be able to open doors, drawers and manage his difficulties with changes in temperature.

The community kickoff is open to the public; VFW Post 1924 Fallbrook is at 1175 Old Stage Road in Fallbrook.

Homes For Our Troops has built more than 270 homes since 2004 and relies on contributions from donors, supporters and corporate partners for the building of each veteran’s home.

To get involved or find out more information, visit http://www.hfotusa.org.

Jeff Pack can be reached by email at [email protected].

 

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