Purple Heart Recipient Sees Permanent Home Reshaping His Family’s Future
As Sandro Moreta ran home from his New Jersey middle school on Sept. 11, 2001 ― the World Trade Center disaster within view ― he vowed he would one day serve and protect our country. A decade later, he followed through on that promise.
Sandro and two of his younger brothers ― twins Osbrany and Osmany Montes De Oca ― joined the Marines together in 2011.
Combat showed no mercy on the dedicated family.
In early 2012, Osbrany was killed in action in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. Though Osmany and Sandro became Gold Star Family members, they continued to serve proudly.
Sandro trained as a crewman with Delta Co., 2nd Tank Battalion, at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina. He deployed to Afghanistan in 2013 as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.
In September 2013, an improvised explosive device, or IED, ripped through the tank Sandro was driving. The explosion left him and the crew critically injured. Sandro and three other crew members received the Purple Heart Medal for their heroic actions that day.
Sandro’s plan to serve 20 years ended in medical retirement in 2016. Today, he lives with constant pain from migraines and back injuries as well as PTSD and traumatic brain injury.
Finding a path forward in the civilian world has proved difficult for Sandro, but he credits his longtime partner, Destiny Darby, and their two children with helping him find purpose.
“She definitely saved my life,” he said.
Destiny and Sandro became friends through their families as children. Their dating relationship began across the miles while he was rehabilitating in Florida and she was living in North Carolina. Destiny said she knew little about military life or being a caregiver, but she loved Sandro. With phone and video calls, patience, and understanding, they made it work.
Now together 11 years, the couple and their children ― 7-year-old Alizah and 1-year-old Kingsley ― live in his hometown of North Arlington, New Jersey. The family rents the second-floor apartment in a two-family home.
Sandro enjoys being a full-time dad, and Destiny is on maternity leave from her job as an aesthetician. He plans to attend college, and she aspires to operate her own aesthetics business.
They’ve also dreamed of having a home with more space for their family and a place for the children to play outside. Though they have managed their finances and saved money, housing prices in New Jersey are not affordable.
Sandro was excited and surprised to see a home in nearby Glen Mills, Pennsylvania, available through Operation Homefront’s Permanent Homes for Veterans Program. Families in the PHV program work with a caseworker and a financial counselor while living rent-free in a home for about two years. During that time, they pay down debt, build savings, and learn about owning a home. When families successfully complete the program, they receive the deed to the home, mortgage-free.
Learning their family was selected to receive the home ― made possible through the generosity of PulteGroup’s Built to Honor initiative ― left the Moretas in disbelief.
“It feels so humbling and such a blessing to me and my family and our future,” Sandro said. “We are truly still speechless.”
“What Operation Homefront is doing for veterans is a blessing.” – Sandra Moreta, Marine Corps veteran and Purple Heart recipient
The newly built three-bedroom townhome is less than two hours from the Moretas’ current home, and the couple sees it as an ideal space for their family. They will have more room and safer spaces for their growing children to play indoors and outside.
Their new community, which is outside of Philadelphia, is near Sandro’s grandfather, uncles, and some friends. It is also two hours closer to Destiny’s mom and little sisters in North Carolina, which will mean visits more frequently and with overnight stays in their home.
“This opportunity means so much to us,” Destiny said. “It will give us things so many people take for granted, like having good schools nearby or being able to step outside and go for a walk.”
Sandro imagines making memories at home with his children.
“I’m a homebody, and I look forward to having a home where my kids have space and where I can lay on the ground with them and have my son crawl around on me,” he said. “It would be the biggest blessing to us.”
Having a home would ease their day-to-day stress and allow the family to focus on the children’s future, he said.
“It truly means the world to us,” he said. “What Operation Homefront is doing for veterans is a blessing.”
Destiny added, “The donors who make the homes possible are gifting more than a home. This will be the childhood memories our children have, and it will change the course of their lives with the friends they grow up with and the schools they attend. It’s truly a dream come true, and we feel so blessed.”
