For A Veteran

For A Veteran Purple Heart Homes Leads Community Build Project

On a cool spring morning in Rockbridge County, the sound of drills and circular saws carried across the backyard of Norman Claytor’s Glasgow home as volunteers moved steadily across an aging wooden deck, prying up rotted boards and hauling fresh lumber into place.

Nearly 20 people showed up for the project this past Friday morning, more than Claytor said he expected.

Sheriff’s deputies worked alongside firefighters, veterans and students from the Rockbridge County High School Career and Technical Education program. Others crawled beneath the structure, replacing supports and reinforcing beams as the smell of freshcut wood mixed with the morning air.

For Claytor, a Desert Storm veteran who lost his leg last year and is now undergoing treatment for cancer linked to burn pit exposure during his military service, the rebuilt deck meant more than a home repair project.

“It means a lot,” Claytor said. “It means a lot to us.”

The work was organized through Purple Heart Homes, a nonprofit dedicated to helping veterans with housing and accessibility needs. It was the second time the organization had worked on Claytor’s home in recent months.

After his leg amputation last year, volunteers rebuilt his front porch, steps and railings to make it safer for him to move in and out of the house.

“This is for veterans who need some help,” Claytor recalled being told when the organization first reached out to him.

Inside the home while volunteers worked outside, Claytor and his wife, Jennifer, described the last two years as a blur of surgeries, treatments and community support that has arrived from nearly every direction imaginable.

Claytor joined the Virginia Army National Guard when he was 18 years old. Soon after graduating high school, he found himself deployed during Desert Storm.

“Right after I graduated high school, I went to basic and AIT (Advanced Individual Training),” he said. “And then within about a month, I found myself in Desert Storm.”

After returning home, he continued his military service before beginning a decadeslong career in law enforcement. He worked nearly 26 years with the Lynchburg Police Department before later working with the Virginia Military Institute Police Department and eventually Carilion’s police department in Lexington.

“I had wanted to be a cop,” he said. “So it was just a natural fit.”

For years, he said, he experienced few major health problems. Then swelling and redness began appearing near his ankle. A small knot formed on his leg. Appointments at the VA were delayed by winter storms before doctors eventually ordered scans. A specialist later diagnosed him with a rare sarcoma.

“I looked at him and I said, ‘Is that cancer?’” Claytor recalled. “He said, ‘Yes.’” Doctors began asking about his military history and whether he had been exposed to burn pits during his deployment.

“We were in a desert,” Claytor said. “They would burn everything out there, you know, pull it 50 yards away and burn everything. Whether it’s feces or trash or whatever.”

A doctor later told him the sarcoma was tied to environmental exposure.

“He said, ‘Your type of sarcoma, that’s the only way you can get it, is environmental exposure,’” Claytor said.

After additional consultations and scans, doctors delivered another devastating piece of news.

“What day do you want to have surgery to amputate your leg?” Claytor recalled one specialist asking him, without preamble.

“The next couple minutes, I didn’t know what to say.”

Doctors ultimately determined amputation below the knee offered his best chance at recovery and mobility.

Not long after returning from the operation, home repairs became immediately important. While recovering from surgery and still using a walker, Claytor fell while trying to navigate the old steps.

“When I was going down the steps, my bottom of that stump hit one of the steps,” he said. “And when it did, it threw me down about four steps.”

He landed in the grass uninjured, but the incident reinforced how unsafe the deteriorating stairs had become. Not long after, Purple Heart Homes volunteers arrived to help rebuild the front steps and railings outside the house.

The support from the community only grew from there.

An organization connected to the Lynchburg Police Department renovated the family’s bathroom to make it accessible after the amputation. Friends organized fundraisers. Coworkers donated paid time off so Claytor could continue receiving income during treatment.

“The community just shows up out of nowhere,” he said. “It just blows you away.”

Jennifer said the support has remained constant through every surgery and setback.

“It’s never stopped …” she said. “They’ve always kept in touch and they always reach out and they’re always asking for updates.”

Outside, volunteers continued rebuilding the back deck that Claytor said had slowly deteriorated over more than 20 years.

“We built that deck over 20 years ago,” he said. “Me and two buddies of mine.”

Over time, he said, boards had rotted through and become unsafe.

“Some of the boards had holes in them, I mean, all the way through,” he said. “Not very safe to sit up there.”

The deck had become one of the few outdoor spaces where he still felt comfortable spending time, especially with his dogs during warmer months.

“The back deck is where we, in the summertime, we like to go,” he said.

Despite the physical toll of surgeries, chemotherapy and lung treatments, Claytor described himself as someone who struggles to sit still, who “couldn’t stand being cooped up in the house.” Even before receiving his prosthetic leg, he continued driving himself to appointments in Salem with a walker loaded into the back of his SUV.

Now, as cancer has spread into his lungs and lymph nodes, he said doctors are exploring additional treatment options, including possible care through MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. But still, he remains focused on moving forward.

“My son just turned 21 years old,” Claytor said. “I’d love to see him turn 22. I’d love to see him turn 23, 24, 25... You just never know when it’s going to end.”

The project outside his home represented the broader mission Purple Heart Homes leaders say drives the organization’s work.

Michael “Mike” Lennon, a Purple Heart Homes board member from Rockbridge County who helped organize the project, said he became involved with the nonprofit after learning it focused on veterans from all generations rather than only post-9/11 veterans.

“It’s a connection to the community. That’s why I love it so much. My dad was wounded five times in combat [in Korea]. He had three purple hearts … and the only person that ever helped my dad was my mother,” Lennon said. “So when I heard these guys wanted to help veterans from all generations, I was like, I got to be involved in this.”

Lennon said the organization’s work extends beyond accessibility repairs or construction projects.

“It’s more than a deck,” he said. “It’s a connection to the community.”

He said Purple Heart Homes aims to make veterans feel supported and connected rather than isolated.

“If the veteran knows that their community cares about them and that they are a part of the community and the community is coming to help them, it increases their moral fortitude, their mental state,” Lennon said.

According to Lennon, the organization sees significant potential need in the Rockbridge area alone.

“This county has about 2,400 veterans in it,” he said. “If you say 5% of them need help, that’s 120 projects that are waiting to be fulfilled.”

Part of the reason for the large turnout at Claytor’s home, Lennon said, was a deliberate effort to involve different parts of the community. He contacted local law enforcement agencies, VMI and the high school CTE program to help with the work.

“That way Norman, our veteran that we talked to, knows that his community cares about him,” Lennon said.

Rex Brust, president of the Central Virginia chapter of Purple Heart Homes, said the organization has completed 53 projects since 2024.

“When you add up the material that you put into them, all that together, we put about $250,000 back into the community to help the veterans as well,” Brust said.

The projects range from wheelchair ramps and deck repairs to roofs and major home additions.

“We not only do the deck repairs or build the wheelchair ramps, we also do roof replacements,” Brust said. “Anything that has to do with health, safety.”

The Central Virginia chapter, located around Lynchburg and Amherst, is the closest chapter to this region. Brust said volunteers hope to eventually establish a Rockbridge-based chapter to better serve veterans in the area.

“If they’re interested, they can reach out to Mike or myself,” he said. “I’d be happy to talk to them about what’s involved.”

As workers continued moving across the rebuilt framework outside, Claytor said the deck will once again give him a place to sit outdoors and spend time with family and dogs while continuing treatment.

“Never take anything for granted,” Claytor said. For now, that is enough.

VOLUNTEERS lay in new boards as they rebuild the deck at Norman Claytor’s Glasgow home last Friday. Sheriff’s deputies, firefighters, veterans and students from the Rockbridge County High School Career and Technical Education program turned out for the community effort, which was organized by Purple Heart Homes, a nonprofit dedicated to helping veterans with housing and accessibility needs. This was the second build project led by Purple Heart Homes for the local veteran. (Scotty Dransfield photos)