HOMING IN ON DISABLED VETS VALLEY SERVICEMAN'S HOUSE GETS A REMODEL.

Byline: JULIA M. SCOTT Staff Writer

Navy Seabee James Miner was working on top of a shipping container in Kuwait during the Iraq war when a vicious sandstorm hit.

Winds blowing 100 miles an hour blasted Miner off the container, dropping him 30 feet. When his comrades found him he was so covered in sand that nobody recognized him.

Miner, 53, emerged from a coma to find himself partly paralyzed, deaf in one ear, and nearly blind.

He believes luck got him home alive.

But his good fortune didn't stop there.

Miner was selected to receive a $100,000 remodeling job that will adapt the Lake View Terrace home he shares with his wife and infant daughter to accommodate the wheelchair he relies on most of the time.

The program, Serving Those Who Serve, is a partnership between Rebuilding Together, a nonprofit, and Calabasas-based Countrywide Financial Corp., that assists veterans injured in fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. Rebuilding Together has renovated homes of the low-income and elderly for 20 years.

On Thursday, 53 volunteers, friends and members of the media gathered in Miner's driveway. Veterans Day was two days away.

``My life will be considerably different and much better than it had been,'' said Miner, who wore a navy blue Seabees cap and jet-black sunglasses.

During the past three weeks volunteers gutted and rebuilt the master bathroom, expanding it to accommodate Miner's wheelchair. They installed two automatic chair lifts so Miner can access the entire tri-level house and slathered the exterior with a coat of gray paint. Next week they plan to rip out the soft carpeting that bogs down Miner's chair and install hardwood floors.

This is the first veteran's home Rebuilding Together (www.rebuildingtogether.org) and Countrywide have rehabilitated in California and the seventh nationwide.

They chose Miner partly because of the length of his service. He served as a Navy Seabee in the Vietnam War aboard the aircraft carrier USS Hancock and the USS Niagra Falls. He was in the U.S. Navy Reserve for 26 years and served in Afghanistan before being called up for Iraq.

``The debt our nation owes our troops knows no limits,'' said Mary Jane Seebach, a spokeswoman for Countrywide.

At the Woodland Hills chapter of Disabled American Veterans, Les Nolte, 77, said these types of programs fill in a gap left by the government.

``They seem to forget about the veterans once they leave'' the service, Nolte said. ``That would help them.''

Jackie Pensanti, a close friend of the Miners', knows just how much the changes will make life easier for the family.

``Jim is not capable of going up and down the stairs,'' Pensanti said as she cradled baby Abigail. ``It's very hard for him to walk. All this wonderful work they're doing is going to help him.''

Miner's wife, Phon, a nurse, cares for him full-time while raising their daughter. Before the modifications to their home, Phon had to bathe him and fully support him up stairs. Miner can take a few wobbly steps but needs Phon's support to sit on his bed and get around without his chair.

Now, Miner has more time with his little girl.

``You've changed our lives,'' Phon said, choking up, ``but more importantly, Abby's life.''

julia.scott(at)dailynews.com

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Disabled vet James Miner is all smiles outside his home.

(2 -- color) Former Navy Seabee James Miner gets a hug from neighbor Maya Bond as his wife, Phon, looks on after a news conference Thursday at the Miners' home.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer