Partway through a George Strait concert, the music stops and a combat-wounded veteran walks on stage. Then the veteran is handed the keys to a home with no mortgage, in front of thousands of people.

A Pause in the Set

The Military Warriors Support Foundation, a nonprofit that places combat-wounded veterans and Gold Star families in mortgage-free homes, says Strait has allowed it to present homes at his sold-out performances for nearly fourteen years, across 32 states. At each one, the recipient is brought on stage to meet him while the crowd looks on.

The recipients are combat-wounded veterans and Gold Star spouses, the surviving husbands and wives of service members who died in the line of duty.

In his message on the foundation's site, the total stands at approximately 120 homes. The count reached 124 after Strait's show in Pittsburgh on Saturday, May 31, where Sgt. Derek Austin, a Purple Heart recipient who served in Afghanistan, received his.

Where the Houses Come From

The homes come through the foundation's Homes4WoundedHeroes program, in which banks donate the houses. Strait's part is the stage, the pause in his set and the years of saying yes.

When the foundation presented a home to a Marine veteran at the grand opening of the Moody Center in Austin on April 29, 2022, the house was donated by Truist. The foundation's CEO, retired Lt. Gen. Leroy Sisco, handed Sgt. David Long a ceremonial key on stage.

Long joined the Marines in 2005, deployed to Iraq twice and Afghanistan once, and was honorably discharged in 2009. He is a Purple Heart recipient.

A Veteran Himself

Strait served in the U.S. Army from 1971 to 1975, reaching the rank of corporal, and was stationed in Hawaii. Coverage of the Pittsburgh handover noted that he is a veteran himself.

Each handover is a pause in a long set, with the recipient on stage in front of thousands. The foundation counts the homes by the hundred now, and the foundation says its partnership with Strait is still strong.

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