Injured vet awarded Liberty Lake home

One of the first homes awarded to injured service members in a program set up by a large bank and a national nonprofit went to a veteran of the Washington National Guard and his wife in Liberty Lake.

Keelan and Arlene Southerland are the first family in the United States to occupy a donated house in a program set up with the gift of 100 houses from JPMorgan Chase to Operation Homefront, a San Antonio, Texas-based charity that helps members of the armed forces and veterans after they return from overseas.

The couple moved into the Liberty Lake house on East Maxwell Avenue in late April after some renovations were made to the property.

Keelan Southerland was a member of the 81st Combat Brigade that served in Iraq in 2008 and 2009. While serving with the 161st Regiment out of Joint Base Balad, where the unit did extensive duty protecting convoys, Southerland sustained back and eye injuries that eventually required him to be medically evacuated from Iraq.

He was sent to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where he had multiple surgeries and was recovering when he learned about the new Homes for the Homefront program, which offers homes mortgage-free to members of the armed forces and veterans who meet certain criteria. He applied for the Liberty Lake house and was selected by a review panel.

The initial press release from Operation Homefront and some early media accounts described Southerland as the survivor of a rocket attack that blew up his armored truck on Christmas Eve 2008. That’s not what happened, however, and members of Southerland’s former unit questioned the information.

Southerland said he never told anyone that story. A check by The Spokesman-Review shows it’s apparently the result of miscommunication between Southerland and a member of the nonprofit’s press office during a telephone interview.

His platoon was fired on by a rocket that night, but the shell passed between his truck and the truck behind, landing and exploding about 15 yards away.

Operation Homefront has changed some of its procedures for preparing press releases and is rewriting the release about Southerland’s house with more accurate information, said John Smith, the organization’s director of public relations.

In any case, the incorrect description of the Christmas Eve rocket attack wasn’t the basis for him receiving the house, Smith said. The former guardsman qualified based on his extensive medical record and service-connected disability.

To be eligible, an applicant must be serving in the military or be honorably discharged, must not have a felony record and can’t own a home but must be financially able to maintain the property and commit to living there for at least two years.

When the organization tries to match a property to an applicant, priority goes to residents of Operation Homefront’s transitional housing for wounded warriors, surviving single spouses of military members killed in action, and post-Sept. 11 disabled veterans, but any veteran of any era can apply, regardless of whether they are wounded or disabled.