Photo by Will Cornelius
Marine Corporal Zachary Dinsmore and his family arrived at Guardian Angels Catholic Church in a motorcade comprised of fire, police and other veteran groups.

By Will Cornelius
The Surveyor

Zachary Dinsmore could not have been more grateful he told the audience at Guardian Angels Catholic Church in Mead last weekend.

A former Berthoud High School graduate and U.S. Marine veteran, Dinsmore will receive a custom-built home in Mead courtesy of Homes For Our Troops, a national NPO that builds homes for severely injured post-9/11 veterans. In 2011, Dinsmore lost part of his left leg after stepping on an improvised explosive device (IED) in Afghanistan.

On March 9, nearly 100 people attended a community kickoff event in Mead to celebrate the beginning of the construction of a new home for Dinsmore and his family. He said he looked forward to being able to spend more time with his young son, Barrett and called it a “gift of a lifetime.”

The single-story open-plan home is also mortgage-free, giving Dinsmore the financial freedom to finish his welding career and eventually open a shop he said. “Thank you so much,” he told the gathering of family, friends and residents at the church.
One of the other speakers at the event knew exactly how he felt and was especially thankful to Dinsmore too.

Milan Franklin was serving with Dinsmore in Sangin, Afghanistan when he stepped on an IED on Oct. 15, 2011. The blast resulted in the loss of both of his legs and two fingers on his right hand. “We served together in the same squad, did our deployments together. If it was not for him (Dinsmore) as well as the rest of the guys in our squad, I would not actually be here talking,” Franklin explained.

Within 20 minutes of the blast, Franklin was transferred from the battlefield to the hospital. “He was the first person over to me when I was injured to stop the bleeding,” Franklin said about Dinsmore. Homes For Our Troops gave Franklin a custom house in Washington in 2019. He spoke about how much it changed his life and how the organization treated him like family.

Two weeks later in 2011, an IED also injured Dinsmore. “It shattered everything in my left leg from the knee down. Part of my heel was up by my kneecap,” he recalled. Through surgery and rehabilitation, Dinsmore tried to keep his left leg before deciding to amputate the limb in 2014. While he can wear a prosthetic it can cause skin issues and infections, making a wheelchair more practical at home.

His new home in Mead features over 40 special adaptations like widened doorways, a roll-in shower, accessible cabinets and lowered kitchen countertops. Dinsmore said he chose to build his home in Colorado to be close to family.

For over two decades, Homes For Our Troops has built 374 homes for severely injured veterans across the nation. The Massachusetts-based non-profit currently has 82 future home projects underway and ensures 90 cents of every dollar spent goes directly to program services for veterans. In 2022, the organization raised over $35 million to help veterans.