— — Vincent Gizzarelli joined the Marines out of Starpoint High School in 1998. His two tours of Iraq over 11 years included the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Vince, who suffered a traumatic brain injury and shrapnel wounds, feels that his thinking is in slow motion. He understands, but it takes him a few minutes and he suffers from migraine headaches.

He has received three Purple Hearts from his time in the Marines.

And his family — wife, Jamie and five children — keeps him very busy.

“I’m doing good,” said Vince, who grew up on Thrall Road in Cambria. “Things are going pretty good. My hands are full at home.”

Soon his full hands will live in a new home near Camp Lejeune, N.C. thanks to an organization known as Finally Home.

Finally Home, which was started by the Bay Area Builders Association of Texas in 2005, is building a house for the Gizzarelli family. The ground breaking for the custom-designed log home took place on Aug. 17 and Gizzarelli is scheduled to get the keys on March 25.

The Marine veteran visits the new home in Jacksonville, N.C. almost every day. It’s about 15 minutes from where the Gizzarelli family rents a house now.

A construction company is volunteering time and crews and everything is done by donation. The house is mortgage free and taxes will be paid for two years. The building was made possible by the members of the Building Systems Councils, the staff of Operation Finally Home, and the contributions of businesses and individuals.

Finally Home is a non-partisan/non-profit organization. The Gizzarelli home is the first built by Finally Home outside the state of Texas.

Dan Vargus of the Bay Area Builders Association is director and founder of Finally Home. Verges was looking for a family through Wounded Warriors. Camp Lejeune nominated Gizzarelli as a candidate for the project.

Vince, who was born in Niagara Falls in 1979, is the youngest of five children. James, Tina, Brenda and Donna are his older siblings. He played nose tackle for the Starpoint High School football team.

His father, James Gizzarelli was a career Marine who served from 1959-83, including several tours in Vietnam, where he suffered a cracked spine and fragments in the spine. He underwent 14 hours of surgery in 1990. He has a rebuilt tailbone and is totally disabled.

His son made the decision to enlist in the Marines on his own, according to his father.

“He makes his own life own decisions,” said dad, who is a member of the Newfane Veterans of Foreign Wars. “He picked the Marines and was on his way.”

Vince was wounded in the Sunni Triangle, a densely-populated region of Iraq to the northwest of Baghdad. He already qualified for two Purple Hearts when his unit was ambushed in a Humvee and he shot back.

Vince, who was the sergeant in charge of the Humvee, was on the rapid response squad and was armed with a shoulder-fired, anti-tank weapon. He rescued three people in the Humvee.

Vince was taken to an aid station, patched up and sent back, according to his father. He didn’t realize how bad his head wound was.

He earned his third Purple Heart.

“I’m very proud, of course. I’m his dad ... In my eyes he’s a hero,” James said. “He wanted to appeal his discharge, but they said, ‘“Three strikes, you’re out.”

The shrapnel in the back of his brain couldn’t be removed.

Finally Home wrote, “After years of service in the U.S. Marine Corps, including two tours of duty in Iraq, Staff Sgt. Gizzarelli's military career was cut short after an IED wounded him on the field. Though he regrets that he wasn't able put in his full 20 years of service, his years of dedication to his country and his family will not go unrewarded.”

The mission of the Finally Home is to provide custom made homes to wounded and disabled veterans and the widows of the fallen in an effort to get their lives back. It helps severely wounded heroes and their families' transition from the battlefront to the home front. Visit www.babasupport.org for more information.