Todd Love is finally coming home — or at least he’s most of the way there.
On Thursday, the young ex-Marine who lost three limbs in an IED blast in Afghanistan, helped clear the land where his new home will stand. Love grabbed the support bar on a backhoe and hoisted his frame up onto the driver’s seat before grabbing the control lever.
Soon, a couple skinny pines hit the ground and a crowd of about 100 people were cheering.
Later this year, a new $500,000 “smart home” should stand in the scrub pine forest near Douglasville, a gift from the Tunnel to Towers Foundation and the Gary Sinise Foundation, a charity partnership that is building 19 homes for severely wounded veterans.
The wiry 22-year combat vet smiled from the make-do stage and soaked in the surroundings, saying this will afford him some stability he has longed for.
“I grew up moving from house to house, school to school. This would be my first home,” said Love. “I can see the stars and make a lot of noise if I want to.”
Love, a 2008 graduate of Kell High School in Cobb County, joined the Marines after graduation and later found himself in Afghanistan. While on patrol in Helmand Province in October 2010, Love was walking point when an IED exploded directly in front of him. When he later awoke in Germany, he learned that he had lost his legs under the hip and eventually lost his left arm below the elbow.
Love moved back to the United States, rehabbing for nearly two years at the Walter Reed National Military Center before being discharged and returning to metro Atlanta. He currently lives in Hiram with his older brother, Brandon, who helps as a caregiver.
For the past year, Love has seemingly been drinking life out of a fire hose. He has skied (on a “mono-ski”), jumped from an airplane, scuba dived, flown a plane and completed a 10.5-mile endurance race. Oh, yes, he also wrestled an alligator.
Falcons kicker Matt Bryant attended Thursday’s ceremony — Love held the ball for him for a kick at practice last season — and shook hands with the veteran, exchanging small talk.
“I’d love to play football,” Love said, pausing, smiling and then adding for dramatic effect, “I can take someone out at the ankles.”
Bob Weatherford, a former Marine and ride captain for the Patriot Guard Riders, a group of about two dozen motorcyclists who ride as honor guards in veterans’ funerals, said he met Love almost two years ago when he returned to Acworth for a parade.
“It’s a pleasant change to be riding for a veteran who’s alive,” said Weatherford, who is also Acworth’s mayor pro tem. “He’s an amazing person and an inspiration to all of us.”
Love’s ranch-style house will be state-of the-art, a home where he can control almost all functions with an iPad: doors, lights, shades, heating and air conditioning. It should be ready by the end of the year. The Atlanta-based Home Depot Foundation has donated $200,000 to the effort but the organizations are still seeking donations for Love’s home and others.
Sinise’s foundation, based in California, and the New York-based Tunnel To Towers Foundation both assist military veterans well as firemen and first responders who are in need. For more information, check www.garysinisefoundation.org or www.tunneltotowers.org.
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