Going home | Community bands together to build disabled vet a new house

War veteran Jerral Hancock at his former house, a Lancaster mobile home, with 8-year-old daughter Anastasia, left, and fiancee Adriana Gonzalez.

Hancock has tattoos over scars left from injuries he sustained eight years ago, when the M1 Abrams tank he was driving outside Baghdad hit a roadside bomb that pierced the 70-ton vehicle’s steel armor.

Jerral Hancock rests at his cramped Lancaster mobile home in April 2014.

Jerral Hancock gets a hug from 11-year-old son Julius.

Lancaster High students involved in the Operation All The Way Home project in April 2014 work to clean up the property where Jerral Hancock’s new home will be built in Palmdale.

Jerral Hancock joins Lancaster High history teacher Jamie Goodreau as a special guest for the senior graduation ceremony where OATH students received diplomas in May 2014.

Actor Gary Sinise plays with his Lt. Dan Band in Lancaster in May 2014 during a benefit concert for Jarrel Hancock, seated in his wheelchair.

Jerral Hancock holds 8-year-old daughter Anastasia during the concert.

Lancaster High School history teacher Jamie Goodreau writes words of encouragement on a beam in the Palmdale home for Jerral Hancock while it was under construction in February.

Lancaster High students involved in the OATH project and family members of Jerral Hancock write slogans and words of encouragement throughout the Palmdale home for Hancock while it was under construction in February.

Jerral Hancock, with his younger sister behind him, writes a thank-you note to Lancaster High students on the wood inside what will be his new home in Palmdale.

Jerral Hancock is all smiles with his mother, Stacie Benjamin, behind the wheel as he leaves his Lancaster mobile home for the ride to his new home in Palmdale on May 29, his 29th birthday.

Lancaster High School teachers and students involved in the OATH project form a line to greet Jerral Hancock as he arrives at a May 29 ceremony to hand him the keys to his new home in Palmdale.

Jerral Hancock with fiancee Adriana Gonzalez tour his Palmdale home for the first time since it was completed.

Jerral Hancock smiles as his younger sister, Savannah Tscherny, holds a “Welcome Home” balloon at the front door to his new home in Palmdale.

Jim “Kick Stand” Jacobs gives words of encouragement to Jerral Hancock at the conclusion of a ceremony to hand Hancock the keys to his new home in Palmdale.