Family of fallen airman given new home

ABERDEEN Last October, Krista Harvell thought she was attending a military appreciation event on the Pinecrest High School football field.

Instead, the Golden Knights jumped into the field and handed her blueprints to a new house being built just for her and her two young sons.

"It was a shock to say the least," she said.

The home is courtesy of the Moore County chapter of Operation Finally Home, a group that provides custom-made mortgage-free homes to wounded and disabled veterans and the widows of the fallen, and the Moore County Home Builders Association.

Harvell's husband, Staff Sgt. Andrew Harvell, was killed Aug. 6, 2011, when a CH-74 Chinook helicopter he was aboard was shot down by the Taliban in Afghanistan. He was a combat controller for the 24th Special Tactics Squadron, an Air Force Special Operations Command unit based at Pope Field.

The $350,000 home - about three miles from where the Harvells lived in Southern Pines - also is a product of the Moore County community. Almost all the money to build the home has been raised through fundraisers, donated supplies and labor, not to mention dozens of volunteers and the cooperation of a group of normally competitive builders.

Only $30,000 remains to be raised to complete the 2,600-square-foot home.

Harvell said the home, which is expected to be finished by next month, exceeds her expectations.

"If I designed it myself, it wouldn't be this great," she said.

Krista and Andrew Harvell met in 2006 when she was visiting her brother, Tom Klonk, who served in the same unit. They started dating the next year, a week after she moved to Moore County following her graduation from Ohio State University.

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Family of fallen airman given new home