Disabled veteran's family needs help to finish home

For Somers resident Kevin White and his family, life changed on April 12, 2007, when his convoy was ambushed in Iraq.

White was in his second tour in Iraq and was at an Iraqi police station when the ambush occurred. 

“We had taken some intelligence officers to talk to the police chief,” he recalled. “We were ambushed, and they shot an RPG at my humvee, and it hit the turret. A piece of the warhead from the rocket went through my shoulder and into my lung. It blew my helmet off, ruptured my left eardrum and damaged the nerves of my right eardrum.

“I had a hematoma in my head when I was hit, and that’s actually calcified and turned into a bone now, so I have a random bone in my brain, that’s pressing on my optic nerve,” White said, detailing his injuries. “My left eye is fine, but my right eye is all messed up. I have nerve damage in my shoulder, and I can’t pick up things very well anymore. I have a hard time holding my son.”

White also struggles with post traumatic stress disorder.

An infantryman in Delta Company, 2nd Battalion, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division based out of Fort Bragg, N.C., White was released from duty with a medical retirement, and was declared as having a “low ranking disability” by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, despite his extensive injuries.

After his discharge, White and his wife, Juliane, moved to Bozeman and tried to start their new life, but found that with Kevin unable to work and mounting medical bills it was becoming increasingly difficult to even make ends meet.

Help came from Juliane’s parents, Ann and O.T. Green, who deeded the couple four acres of their land and decided to build them a house.

“I started writing letters and calling everyone to help get donations for this,” said Juliane’s mother, Ann. “I wrote businesses all over the valley, I wrote senators and congressman, and we started getting some donations.”

The Greens weren’t just relying on the generosity of strangers, either. The couple took out a second mortgage on their own home, emptied Ann’s retirement savings account and began construction in 2010.

“We wanted to give them a place of their own, so they could at least try to get on their feet,” Ann said. “Juliane was pregnant at the time, and we wanted to try to give them back something. The government wasn’t helping Kevin at that time, and you get to where you’re so low for so long that we just needed to do something for them to let them know that people care.”

Because White’s disability was ranked so low, he didn’t receive enough in disability payments to live on, and his wife has health issues that limit her ability to work. While the Greens were trying to scrape together enough in donations to cover the difference in construction costs, he spent the time fighting to get his benefits.

“It took a while to start my benefits,” he said. “They rated me very low in the beginning, but I appealed it. It took me almost two years, and I had to see a lot of doctors. They all agreed that I was a lot more messed up than they had originally said and they came back and rated me 100 percent disabled. If they’re doing this to me, how many other vets are they doing this to? Not every vet is going to sit there for hours, reading federal code and regulations just to get what they’re supposed to be given.”

When White received notice that he would be receiving full disability benefits, Ann contacted several service organizations that specialize in helping disabled veterans, but was refused help.

“One organization, the Disabled American Veterans, has a program that will actually help build houses for veterans, but they told me that because I’m not missing an arm or a leg — their exact words — and even though I’m 100 percent disabled, I’m not ‘wounded enough’ to get into their program,” White said.

“He’s kind of like a walking wounded,” said Kevin’s father-in-law, O.T. Green. “To look at him, he looks fine, but there’s a lot that’s not showing.”

Thankfully, community members have come through and shown their support through donations or reduced rates on materials and labor and the house is almost complete.

“We know that people have to make a living for themselves, and they can’t just give us things, but when companies sell at cost, or at a reduced rate, it means a lot, and goes a long way,” O.T. said. “Some companies like Stoltze Lumber and Plum Creek donated lumber and plywood, and we can’t thank them enough, but we just need a little help to finish.  We’re mortgaged to the hilt, and we could really use some help.”

The house still needs interior painting, garage doors and the floors and trim need to be finished, along with other miscellaneous projects.

“I’ve had people walk in off the street at the bank and give $5,” Ann said.  “People who have no idea who Kevin is. People just walk in and hand it to me and tell me to tell Kevin ‘thank you.’ There’s just some really wonderful people in the valley.”

White said he wants people to know how much he appreciates their help.

“It makes me feel really good,” he said. “You go over there and put your life on the line to defend people, and they reciprocate with monetary donations, and it makes you feel good. When Ann comes home from work and she says somebody donated, it really makes you feel appreciated, knowing that a person that you’ve never met gave you money to help build a house.”

Donations can be made to: Kevin Housing Fund, in care of Flathead Bank of Lakeside, P.O. Box 769, Lakeside MT, 59922. For more information or updates on the project, visit http://www.kevinhousingfund.com/ or email help@kevinhousingfund.com.

Reporter Melissa Walther may be reached at 758-4506 or by email at mwalther@dailyinterlake.com.