CULPEPER, Va. – A Marine veteran will soon call Virginia home, thanks to a national organization and the support from the Culpeper community.
Sgt. Thomas Brennan served nine years of active duty before having to medically retire after he suffered a traumatic brain injury during combat.
On Tuesday, he and his family broke ground on their custom-built, mortgage-free home.
The land may look like just a plot in Culpeper, but for the Brennan family, it's where they'll plant their roots in a new home.
"Thank you deep down on behalf of my whole family. this is incredible and we greatly appreciate it," said Sgt. Brennan.
While there may have been a loss for words there was no lack of applause for a man who sacrificed so much for our country.
"Freedom isn't free. it's one of the things that we enjoy because other folks give so we can have it," says Anthony Clatterbuck, founder and president of Graystone Homes.
For Clatterbuck and dozens of others in the community, they wanted to give back to veterans, doing so through Operation Finally Home -- a nonprofit which works with construction companies to provide mortgage-free homes to wounded veterans across the country.
"We've got roughly 250 homes that have been completed or in planning in over 30 states," said Rusty Carroll, executive director of Operation Finally Home
Its most recent recipient -- Brennan and his family.
"It's an incredibly humbling experience," said Sgt. Brennan. "We never thought in a million years that we'd get selected and to be here today, it's just an incredible gift and we're just grateful."