San Antonio combat veteran’s childhood home rebuilt from the ground up

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — A Vietnam War veteran’s Southside childhood home was rebuilt from the ground up.

76-year-old Jesse Herrera was given the keys to the newly rebuilt home on Tuesday by Operation TRIAGE, a  New Braunfels-based non-profit focused on providing housing to active duty service members, veterans, and first responders through emergency advocacy and financial relief, mortgage-free homes, and home remodeling and renovations.

Herrera served in Vietnam from Feb. 1965 to Feb. 1969 and was injured in combat twice.

He moved back to his childhood home on the Southside in 2007 to care for his mother. She passed away in 2015.

The non-profit said they began working with Herrera following his mother’s death and helped him work through the legal hoops to own the property her home was built on.

When Operation TRIAGE assessed the home, they realized it basically needed to be condemned.

The group built a new home from the ground up through the coordination of John Wayne Service Company, tailor-made for Herrera and his daughter Brianna.