Tim McGraw and Chase Donate Home to Navy Vet Through Homes on the Homefront
When the struggle was hitting hardest, Aviation Ordinanceman 2nd Class Christopher Turpin, a wounded warrior, received some good news. They were going to receive a mortgage-free home from
Chase and get to meet
Tim McGraw, country superstar and strong supporter of the military and a partner with our
Homes on the Homefront program.
Read the rest of his inspiring story:It wasn’t unusual for Christopher Turpin to be climbing a wet ladder up to a rolling deck carrying a 150-pound toolbox on his shoulder. It was part of his everyday job as an aviation ordinanceman on the aircraft carrier George Washington. On one of those days he fell off the ladder, injuring his back. But soon he was back at work, loading bombs and missiles onto the jets that took off from the George Washington’s massive flight deck, flying sorties in support of U.S. troops in harm’s way in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Over time, though, Turpin’s back got progressively worse. In 2004, he left military service with an honorable discharge and went to work for a defense contractor, doing essentially the same job. The strain of the physical labor on his injured back eventually put him in a wheelchair. Today the Veterans Administration rates him as 80 percent disabled, and he expects to soon be rated as 100 percent disabled.
After his initial injury, Turpin met his wife, Virginia, and they have three young children. They lived in a rented house in the heavily naval community of Virginia Beach, Va. The house couldn’t accommodate Turpin’s wheelchair. He couldn’t even roll through the doors within the house, which meant he needed his wife’s help just to get through the bathroom door.
With the lease on the rented house soon to be up, it was Turpin’s wife Virginia who discovered the Homes on the Homefront program. Thanks to Operation Homefront and the generosity of Chase, the Turpin family will be moving into a home in Charlotte, N.C. that will have all the modifications to give Christopher free rein over his own home.
For Turpin, who grew up in small-town Kentucky, the small community where their new house is located is perfect for his family to grow together in. “The thing that I’m most excited about is having stability, not having to worry about where we’re going next when the lease is up,” Turpin says. “I want to set my family’s roots firmly in an area and I want them to stay there. I want my kids to go to school and have the same friends growing up through high school.”