i don't think sargeant majors in the army (do we even HAVE that rank?) earn enough to qualify for that amount of mortgage, let alone retired ones.
and your mortgage figures are way off - you're not including tax/insurance escrow, etc.. i bet the monthly on the 161k is closer to 1.5k when you let reality enter the pic. the 50K mortgage for the repairs is probably another 500 per month. that's a lot for a guy on a military pension.
my guess is that he's been rather successful since his army days and that the reported conveniently neglects this in order to garner more empathy for the guy.
that said, the concept of driving people out of their houses for recreational purposes is abhorrent to me. In CT they think that the public good is determined by who can pay the most taxes on a piece of land - and the owners dont' really count. they're trying to evict families in order to turn the property over to a major pharmeceutical company. that is just plain wrong if ya ask me.