Freedom Station resident Jorge Salazar takes a moment while working around his house on Wednesday at the Freedom Station housing for vets in San Diego, California.

Jorge Salazar isnt exactly sure where he would have gone.

It was January 2014. He was finally being discharged from the Marine Corps after a 2012 bomb blast in Afghanistan took both of his legs.

He had been living at the Navy hospital in Balboa Park. But those beds are for people still in uniform.

Salazar put up a calm exterior, but, I was freaking out, the former infantryman says.

Thats exactly why Freedom Station, a grassroots transitional housing complex in San Diegos Golden Hill, was created in 2011.

The now nearly 4-year-old program has housed 30 injured post-Sept. 11 veterans as they make the transition from sergeant to civilian. And organizers are eyeing a second property to expand their services.

Back in 2004, Sandy Lehmkuhler saw the need while volunteering at the Navy hospital. Thats where the Pentagon sends some of the most gravely injured troops from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, including many amputees.

These folks, mostly Marines, were waiting months for their medical discharges to be finalized. Sitting in hospital rooms wasnt helping their morale, or their ability to imagine a life ahead.

Freedom Station president Sandy Lehmkuhler (right) talks with Janet Miknaitis (left)(a mother of a resident) and Ed Hanson (a board member) on Wednesday at the Freedom Station housing for vets in San Diego, California. Eduardo Contreras

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