MOUNT PLEASANT — In Racine County, U.S. Marine veteran Toby McGuire is working to build a home, and a life, of greater freedom and mobility after suffering a life-altering injury while serving the country.
For McGuire, military service is in his blood.
"My great, great grandfather and my great, great uncles fought for the union. And then my grandfather fought for WWII, fought for the army, my dad was a Korean war vet, and I'm a gulf war veteran," McGuire said.
Watch this video to hear more from Toby McGuire:
And it's in his soul.
"The flag is more to me than just red, white, and blue. It represents me at my soul. It represents my brothers and sisters that stood next to me," McGuire said.
He began his career in the Marines as a field radio operator, stationed in California in 1995. But his service was cut short after an accident while training.
"I was training two other marines on the SINCGARS radio inside of a Humvee, and we got flipped upside down in a tank trap," McGuire said.
"Basically that rendered me an incomplete quadriplegic," McGuire said.
McGuire medically retired in 1996 and has been living with the impacts of his injury ever since.
Today, McGuire can use his arms, but only his pointer fingers and thumbs work. From his chest down, he's essentially numb.
"I don't shower normally. I don't get dressed normally. I don't do a lot things normally anymore," McGuire said.
Now, he's working to build a life that lessens his limitations, which will be made possible, in part, by a new house being built in Mount Pleasant by Joseph Scott Homes.
"Their architect came back and said, 'You want ADA? You're going to get ADA,'" McGuire said.
The home is zero threshold, meaning McGuire will be able to navigate essentially the entire property without ever having to manage a step or leave his wheelchair.
"You'll be able to roll up the driveway, into the garage, into the home," said Jason Lawrence, co-owner of Joseph Scott Homes.
He described the property has having "really no boundaries" for McGuire.
The home will have wide doorways, accessible kitchen appliances, and a bathroom entirely navigable by wheelchair, including a tiled shower with no curb.
"We take a smaller floor joist, and then it sinks down about two inches. So we put our drain there, and then we build the tile shower up from there. So it's at ground-level when it's said and done," said Trey Salsbury, sales representative with Joseph Scott Homes.
For McGuire, these innovations mean he'll be able to "facilitate the family again."
"At the end of the day, it really has to do with me being independent," McGuire said.
As he visits where he and his family will live in just a few months, McGuire is imagining a new life, one that "makes me feel complete again," while honoring the life that brought him to where is his today.
"I'm still a marine at heart, and it'll be with me until the day I die," McGuire said.
McGuire is also reminding other veterans like himself to never give up on the fight for independence, freedom and dignity.
"You exchanged your life to go protect the lives of others that could not serve," McGuire said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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