At 9 a.m. Friday, Marine Sgt. Kenny Lyon stood on a slab where a door would go at his Stafford County home.

A group of volunteers wearing Homes for Our Troops T-shirts, hard hats and shoes caked with mud lifted the first frame over Lyon's head amid cheers.

This morning, 72 hours after construction started on the 2,600-square-foot Stafford Estates rambler in the Hartwood area off U.S. 17, landscapers will put in the finishing touches in advance of a 1 p.m. inspection.

That's the fastest construction job in the seven-year history of Massachusetts-based nonprofit Homes for Our Troops, which provides handicapped-accessible houses for veterans who have suffered serious injuries and disabilities since Sept. 11, 2001. Lyon will get the keys to the furnished home Saturday.

Lyon was on his second deployment in May 2006 when a mortar attack near Fallujah, Iraq, left him with severe injuries including a left leg amputation above the knee, nerve damage to his left arm and hand, and a shattered jaw. It took 50 units of blood to save him.

Lyon, who grew up in Connecticut and Maryland, spent more than two years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. He continues to receive outpatient care, and his new Stafford home will be reasonably close to the facility.

Veterans Administration grants of up to $63,780 for homes are available for qualifying veterans like Lyon, and Homes for Our Troops typically covers much of the rest of the cost to secure the lot and build the home. Local construction and building-supply companies donate labor and materials. Veterans get homes mortgage-free.

"This is America. This is the best picture you can give someone," Lyon told a crowd of hundreds of skilled workers and volunteers waiting to start his home Friday.

"There's more guys out there that need this," Lyon said. "Let's keep it going for all the other wounded vets that come home."

Local company Atlantic Builders was the general contractor on this weekend's "build brigade," which involved an estimated 800 people laboring around the clock in shifts to meet today's deadline. The foundation was laid, the well was dug and the plumbing was installed in advance of Friday, but most everything else was done this weekend.

"Our industry really steps forward for the military," said Gene Brown, vice president of production and quality assurance for Atlantic Builders.

"It's not that they have deep pockets," he said. "But every time we go to them and ask, they step up."

This is the second home Atlantic Builders has built with Homes for Our Troops in the region. The first was done last year in Stafford's Ashburn Hills neighborhood for Marine Sgt. Steve Kiernan, with whom Lyon is currently living.

Atlantic Builders and Homes for Our Troops will coordinate another "build brigade" starting April 15 in Stafford for a home for Army Sgt. Jude Recendez, who also was injured in Iraq in 2006.

Bill Freehling: 540/374-5405
Email: bfreehling@freelancestar.com