Paralyzed Air Force Officer Receives Home For The Holidays

WESLEY CHAPEL, FL — A paralyzed Air Force officer and his family received the Christmas gift of a lifetime -- a home in which to spend the holidays this Christmas and for many more to come.

As part of Lennar's annual Focused Acts of Caring Program, Lennar and MacDill Air Force Base presented a custom-built, mortgage-free home in Wesley Chapel to Maj. Ed Gilchrist and his family.

Gilchrist, a 2005 graduate of the Air Force Academy, was assigned to Air Force Special Operations Command at MacDill when he paralyzed in a training accident.

Gilchrist completed five combat deployments, accumulating more than 2,500 flight hours, 500 of which were considered combat hours, before he was injured.

Their new home is in Estancia at Wiregrass, a master-planned community of single-family homes from WCI Tampa, a division of Lennar Tampa. The location of Estancia at Wiregrass was chosen due to its proximity to James A. Haley Veterans Hospital.