Builder Awards Wounded Woodstock Veteran Mortgage-Free Home

A homebuilder this week will host a groundbreaking ceremony on a new mortgage-free home it awarded to a local veteran.

Pulte Homes will host a ceremony for the new home for U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. David Payton (Ret.), a wounded veteran who resides in Woodstock.

Payton, along with his wife Heather and seven children, were surprised at PulteGroup’s corporate headquarters in Atlanta Dec. 18 where it was announced that they would be awarded a home in its Harmony on the Lakes neighborhood in Holly Springs.

The home is being built as part of PulteGroup’s Built to Honor program, which in partnership with Operation FINALLY HOME, donates mortgage-free homes to wounded veterans and their families across the country with the help of generous local contractors, vendors and housing partners.

The ceremony will take place at 1 p.m. Friday, Jan. 30 on Lot 1618 at 706 Lorimore Pass in Holly Springs.

Payton, 31, grew up in Powder Springs and enlisted in the Marine Corps after graduating from McEachern High School in 2001.

While deployed in Iraq in 2005, he sustained life threatening injuries after his compound was hit with a Rocket Propelled Grenade. The RPG hit a chemical tank that he was sleeping next to and it exploded. He suffered severe burns to his lungs and eyes, leaving him blind.

He retired from the Marine Corps in 2011 with multiple awards, including a Purple Heart, two Combat Action Ribbons, an Iraq Campaign medal, and Humanitarian Service medal, among others.

Photo: U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sgt. David Payton (Ret.) with wife Heather and their seven children at the Dec. 18 announcement that they were awarded a mortgage free home. Credit: PulteGroup