Army Veteran Feels the Difference Operation Homefront Makes
Army veteran William Moleon decided to join the military on 9/11. He was a delivery driver sitting in snarled traffic when he saw the second of the World Trade Center towers hit.
“That made me say ‘let’s go do it,’” he said.
During his nine years in the Army, William deployed four times to Iraq. His first was in February 2002. He was a truck driver with a special forces unit, and he earned the rank of staff sergeant. He was medically retired in 2010 when he was injured in a convoy that swerved when the vehicle ahead of it hit an IED.
He still has knee and shoulder issues from the accident.
“I came home from the last deployment on crutches. I couldn’t walk,” William also lives with PTSD and the effects of a traumatic brain injury.
William and his wife, Sheela, live in Killeen, Texas, with their 5-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter. He is taking online courses to earn his degree in psychology. In late 2019 and early 2020, the family budget was hit with a series of repairs to the stove, dishwasher, and washing machine. Each of those expenses delayed plans to replace the broken air conditioner in their home. Then, when the COVID-19 pandemic surged March, William lost his job as a tutor for a program that helps students get into college. The restaurant where Sheela worked as a waitress closed, and she was out of work, too.
William dreaded watching his children sweat through another Texas summer without air conditioning.
“There was no way we could be at the house all the time without air conditioning,” he said.
In April, William followed a friend’s advice and applied to Operation Homefront’s Critical Financial Assistance program.
Thanks to our generous donors, the Moleon family was able to install a new central air conditioner unit. The family is extremely grateful for their comfort and better health.
“My kids don’t have allergies like they did before, and we’re sleeping better,” William said. “I remember seeing my daughter sweating in the heat, and to see her running around and playing is so nice.”
After experiencing firsthand the impact that Operation Homefront made for his family, William plans to pay it forward.
“Donations to Operation Homefront are life changing,” he said. “Collectively, we all can make a difference, even if we just donate $1. If everybody did that, we would be able to help each other and change a life.”
