{"id":91256,"date":"2019-12-18T00:01:37","date_gmt":"2019-12-18T00:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/veterans-support-foundation-pays-koppenhafer-mortgage\/"},"modified":"2019-12-18T00:01:37","modified_gmt":"2019-12-18T00:01:37","slug":"veterans-support-foundation-pays-koppenhafer-mortgage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/veterans-support-foundation-pays-koppenhafer-mortgage\/","title":{"rendered":"Veterans support foundation pays Koppenhafer mortgage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=f5c275ab-d826-4e1f-af0b-0829d431528a&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1014\" alt=\"Koppenhafer\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Koppenhafer<\/span><span class=\"credit\">du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Thanks to the help of a veterans and first responders support organization, the mortgage on the home of Marine Gunnery Sgt. Scott Koppenhafer is now fully paid off.<\/p>\n<p>Koppenhafer died Aug. 10 in Iraq after suffering fatal wounds while supporting Iraqi Security Forces. He is survived by his wife, Renae, and two children, Colt and Penelope.<\/p>\n<p>Four months ago, the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation promised to pay off the family\u2019s mortgage, and on Dec. 10, it officially came to pass.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaving my mortgage paid off has been a huge relief for me and my two kids,\u201d said Renae Koppenhafer in a statement. \u201cIt means we can have time to process the next steps in our journey with grief with one less financial stress that comes along with it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cScott would be so happy to see us being well taken care of in his absence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Koppenhafer, 35, was assigned to the Second Marine Raider Battalion, Marine Forces Special Operations Command based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He served as a critical skills operator and suffered fatal wounds after becoming engaged in gunfire while supporting Iraqi Security Forces, according to MARSOC spokeswoman Maj. Kristin Tortorici.<\/p>\n<p>His family was selected as one of 24 to receive a mortgage-free home from the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, as part of its Season of Hope program.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGunnery Sgt. Koppenhafer is a hero who served his country for well over a decade,\u201d said Frank Siller, the foundation\u2019s chairman and chief executive officer. \u201cIt is our honor and our duty to support his family after this tragic loss. He is a hero in the eyes of his wife and children, and in the eyes of all of us at the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The organization was founded in honor of Stephen Siller, a firefighter with the Fire Department of the City of New York, who died on Sept. 11, 2001, in the attack on the Twin Towers.<\/p>\n<p>This December, the foundation chose 24 critically injured veterans and Gold Star and Fallen First Responder families, and is providing them with mortgage-free homes for its Season of Hope Home Giveaway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>gunnery sergeant chosen for \u2018Season of Hope\u2019 campaign<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1987,28,83,29,184],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-91256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-armed-forces","tag-headlines","tag-mancos","tag-newsletter","tag-veterans-affairs"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91256"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=91256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}