'I'd do it over again': Disabled veteran to get custom home in South Kitsap
The nonprofit Home For Our Trips will be a mortgage-free home in Port Orchard for a Lake Stevens man who suffered disabling wounds in Afghanistan.
'I'd do it over again': Disabled veteran to get custom home in South Kitsap The nonprofit Home For Our Trips will be a mortgage-free home in Port Orchard for a Lake Stevens man who suffered disabling wounds in Afghanistan. Check out this story on kitsapsun.com: https://www.kitsapsun.com/story/news/local/2020/01/12/disabled-veteran-get-custom-home-south-kitsap/4425050002/
Chris Henry, Kitsap Sun Published 1:46 p.m. PT Jan. 12, 2020 | Updated 12:16 p.m. PT Jan. 14, 2020
Air Force Staff Sgt. Keith Sekora, his wife Andy and stepdaughter Olivia Hassler, 12, at the site of their new home in South Kitsap on Friday, Jan. 10, 2020. Sekora, who served in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, was disabled. The nonprofit Homes For Our Troops is building him a custom home in South Kitsap. (Photo: Meegan M. Reid)
Air Force Staff Sgt. Keith Sekora was on a mission in the mountains of Afghanistan to dispose of a cache of weapons Nov. 5, 2010, when the Army unit he was with came under attack.
"I was putting something in the back of a vehicle and felt something hit my back," Sekora said.
The bullet did not pierce his ballistic vest. But it knocked him to the ground. A medic helped him up and assessed he wasn't bleeding, although he was in pain. Sekora carried on with the mission.
"The next day, I don't remember. I know I cleared a minefield because somebody told me," he recalls.
He remembers feeling dizzy and his left hand went numb. At first, he chalked it up to being hungry and dehydrated.
"It wasn't until I sat down and touched my face and my face was numb that I knew, I was, 'Something's up,'" he said.
By the time Sekora was moved from the forward operating base, he was unable to walk. The bullet had ruptured one of the arteries along his upper spine that supplies blood to the brain, causing a series of strokes. He also had suffered a traumatic brain injury, doctors found.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Keith Sekora and his wife Andy look over the house plans with Carey Miller, of Miller Construction, on Friday. Sekora's new home will accommodate a wheelchair and have other customizations to make life with his disability easier. (Photo: Meegan M. Reid)
"They weren't sure I was going to make it at all," Sekora said.
Through months of therapy, he progressed from a wheelchair to a walker to a cane. He's now a contender for the U.S. Paralympic Archery Team.
On Saturday, Sekora, 49, walked into the Fraternal Order of Eagles' hall in Port Orchard to rousing cheers amid a flurry of American flags, as he accepted the gift of a custom home from Homes For Our Troops.
The nonprofit organization builds and donates specially adapted custom homes nationwide for severely injured post-9/11 veterans to help them rebuild their lives. Homes For Our Troops builds 20 to 30 homes each year and currently has more than 80 active projects, according to retired Brigadier Gen. Tom Landwermeyer, the organization's CEO.
Since its inception 15 years ago, Homes for Our Troops has built 290 homes in 42 states, including Washington.
"We don't see ourselves as a charity," Landwermeyer said. "We see it as a moral obligation of our country to take care of our troops and their families. In the blink of an eye, their lives and their families' lives changed forever."
Sekora's wife, Andy, who he married in 2014, quit her job with the state Department of Transportation to become his full-time caregiver. The couple currently lives in Lake Stevens with daughter Olivia Hassler, 12. Sekora's son Kyle, a King County Sheriff's Office deputy, moved from Maryland with his wife, Danielle, to be closer to his dad and lend help with his care.
"He's doing good now, but we never know what's going to happen," Kyle Sekora said.
His 'forever' home
Homes for Our Troops broke ground this week on Sekora's home in South Kitsap near the Pierce County line. The Sekoras chose to build in South Kitsap after learning Keith had been selected as a recipient of the program.
"We were looking around, and it's beautiful over there," he said. "It's peaceful."
And it's close to Port Orchard and Gig Harbor, as well as the ferry to Seattle, where he continues to receive care for his injuries.
"The new home's going to give me some freedom where I don't have to worry about going up and down stairs," Sekora said.
That's huge, said his wife, because his body often gives out unexpectedly, and she lives in fear of a fall that could cause more injury.
The 2,800-square-foot home built by Miller Construction of Yelm will have wide hallways for days when he needs to use a wheelchair and adaptive equipment like an automatic temperature sensor on the shower so he doesn't scald himself. It's also designed so that it can be further adapted when and if his condition deteriorates.
U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Keith Sekora with his wife, Andy, and daughter Olivia Hassler, 12, are surrounded by well-wishers at the Port Orchard Eagles hall on Saturday. Sekora of Lake Stevens, wounded in 2010 in Afghanistan, will receive a custom-built home in South Kitsap from Homes For Our Troops. (Photo: Chris Henry, Kitsap Sun)
"He will never have to move again," Andy said. "This will be his forever home. I can't tell you the burden that relieves."
The property will have room for an archery range to help him pursue his passion since becoming injured.
A calling to serve
Sekora enlisted in the Army in 1988, right out of college, and served for 10 years including in the first Gulf War. He was a dog handler working in narcotics and explosives detection.
Following his service, Sekora became a police officer in his home state Maryland, transferring in 2000 to the King County Sheriff's Office.
Then in 2001 came the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
"I just felt like I had to do more," Sekora said. "I knew that with us going over there, it was keeping the fight over there and not here."
He started as a combat firearms instructor and soon transferred to explosives ordnance disposal. Sekora's conducted hundreds of EOD missions, he estimates. His overarching goal throughout his career has been keeping people safe.
"The military know they're going to get deployed. Family members know their loved ones are going to be in harm's way," Sekora said. "Like most military people, it's not what they want to do. It's what they have to do. Nobody wants to go to war and kill people, but we join the military for a reason, and if we're called to serve we go do it."
The daily battle
Sekora suffers from vertigo, memory loss, vision impairment and severe headaches daily. His service dog, Pintler, helps him get up when he falls and fetches things he drops.
He continues to take multiple therapies and "a lot" of medications. A prosthetic stabilizes his left leg.
Simple tasks like shaving himself are beyond his reach. Just getting a snack from the cupboard can be a challenge.
Sekora said he went through a "woe-is-me" stage before accepting and moving on with the hand he was dealt. He discovered archery accidentally at a sports camp for disabled veterans. Thinking he was headed for the firearm shooting range, "I got on the wrong bus," he told the crowd, eliciting laughter when he blamed it on the brain injury.
He turned out to be a skilled archer, at first using his teeth to release the arrow. What he didn't know was he had a hairline fracture in his jaw from past injury.
One day he was shooting and "the arrow went downrange, and part of my jaw did, too." He had three bone grafts over four years and now shoots with his impaired left hand, using a custom-designed orthotic device.
Sekora will compete this spring in qualifying events for the U.S. Paralympic Archery Team. He is hoping for a slot on the team that will compete in the 2020 Paralympics Aug. 26 through Sept. 6 in Tokyo.
U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Keith Sekora of Lake Stevens is a contender for the U.S. Paralympic Archery Team in 2020. Sekora, severely wounded in Afghanistan in 2010, was chosen by Homes For Our Troops to receive a custom-built, mortgage-free home in South Kitsap that will accommodate his disabilities, including room for an archery range. (Photo: USA Archery)
Sekora also teachers archery to disabled and able-bodied youth and adults.
Asked if he considers the inspiration he may give to others, Sekora said, "I try not to think about that. I just do me."
Asked if he has any regrets about his military service, he said, "I have none. I'd do it over again."
To learn more about Homes For Our Troops or to donate, visit hfotusa.org.
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