Homeless vets: a hidden crisis

[UpInArms]

Source: Orlando Sentinel

ORLANDO, Fla. - Often, when Ryan Svolto manages to sleep, he finds himself back in Iraq preparing for triage, awash in blood and bodies. But he can't find his medical kit, and, helpless, he thrashes awake, damp with sweat.

As an infantry medic, he patched up soldiers wounded in combat in Iraq. Now, Svolto, 24, is trying to fix his own wounded life after a recent stint at a Daytona Beach, Fla., homeless shelter.

Svolto is one of a growing number of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who joined the ranks of the homeless after returning home. Experts say a system already buckling under one of the nation's largest homeless populations might collapse under the weight of a new wave of veterans, many saddled with mental-health issues and crippling brain injuries.

''If I could identify and convince every homeless vet in the area to come to a shelter or a transitional-housing program,'' said Cathy Jackson, executive director of the Homeless Services Network of Central Florida, ''we wouldn't have enough beds for them.''

Read more: http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=NATIONAL&ID=565067789179945020

[SpiralHawk]

1. "They should go AWOL. Republicon chickenhawks have great houses. Smirk." - Commander AWOL

"You should see where VP Dickie "Five Military Deferments" Cheney, and Rush "Anal Pimple Exemption" Limbaugh live. Smirk, smirk, smirk."

- Commander AWOL, from his mansion in Maine

[Sadie4629]

2. My father was a WWII vet

He spent four years fighting in North Africa and Europe. He was at Normandy some time after D-Day. I think just days after, so he must have seen the carnage. He was also in the Battle of the Bulge. He was wounded only one day into Germany and came back to spend months in a VA hospital. He was fortunate in that he did recover completely from his injury.

Since the start of this horrible war, I've wondered about what he went through, and how he coped when he came back home. I recently had the opportunity to talk with my oldest cousin and asked him these question, specifically, if my dad was "different" after the war than before. He told me that Dad would get withdrawn and "downright owly," but that they all understood. He said that after awhile Dad "came around" and was all right.

I wonder what the difference is between vets like my dad who "came around" and today's vets, who end up homeless and worse. I think maybe it's that families in those days were larger, and closer (geographically and emotionally) and that that kind of support system is necessary to the vets' recoveries. JMHO.

[1monster]

6. GI Bill. When the World War II vets came home there were programs

in place to help them find and pay for housing, jobs, and education. I believe that they still called what we name post traumatic stress syndrome "shell schocked," but there wasn't as much condemnation of it after WWII as there was afater WWI.

Where is the accompanying infrastructure for those vets who came home from Vietnam? Whatever they got, they put together for themselves. Where is the accompanying infrastructure for vets who came home from the First Gulf War? Many of them died from mysterious diseases which the DOD still calls coincidence. And I don't believe there is any program in effect for those vets yet.

And the infrastructure for those vets returning (again and again) from tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, even those with horrible physical injuries from those tours of duty? Oh, that's right. Their problems are not war related. They are from underlying personality disorders that war simply highlighted.

The infrastructues in place for our military and returning vets is a lot like the infrastructure that in place for our roads and bridges in this country. You know, the infrastructure that brought us the Minneapolis I35 Bridge colapse.

[Sadie4629]

7. Wasn't the GI Bill still around post-Vietnam?

My history on that sort of thing is kind of fuzzy, but I believe there were no major changes to the GI Bill til the 80's or 90's.

[1monster]

10. Researching that, but ran across this article while doing so:

http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,136257,00.html

The issue I have with the GI Bill program is that World War II, Korea and Vietnam veterans did not have to have money deducted from their pay to be eligible for educational benefits. Today’s military members must agree to have their pay reduced by $100 a month for 12 months to qualify for the Montgomery GI Bill.

(emphasis added by me)

[Sadie4629]

11. I knew that it had changed a lot for today's vets

but I thought the Vietnam-era vets still had pretty much the same bennies. A friend of mine is a Navy wife. Her husband was a career officer, and served during Vietnam. I remember her complaining when they changed her hubby's healthcare and retirement benefits. I think that was in the 90's.

[Sapere aude]

19. The GI bill did not help with mental problems or unemployment.

If you could do it there was college money and if you could do it there were home loans but if you had mental problems and could not live a productive life after you got back you could be shit out of luck. Us vets opened up our own vet centers. I volunteered to work in one in San Diego. Professionals also volunteered but it was vet helping vet not the government helping vets.

I got $800 as a vet bonus from the state of Ohio and I now have a Cal Vet home loan from CA but when I was suffering from clinical depression I could not get help from the VA because I could not pay what they wanted.

[happyslug]

17. US troops in WWII saw no more than 152 days of Combat

And that was the Third Division, which saw 152 days of Combat. Combat during WWII was intense, but short compared to Vietnam (Where each soldier had to spend 265 days in combat, but officer only 180 days, the other 180s days the Officer had to spend in headquarter to learn staff work). Now I am NOT saying the Time in Combat during WWII was a piece of cake compared to Vietnam or Iraq, but just pointing out that the days US forces were in combat was short compared to later wars.

In this war the number of days in Combat is close to the Vietnam level. It is excessive. Our Army is cracking under the stress. You can NOT go 365 days under extreme Stress and NOT suffer psychological problems. People from WWII who were combat less days then the troops In Iraq, suffered similar problems and were treated for it. Furthermore studies have shown if you come from a more "intact" family you recover quicker from a Psychological problem, but such people tend to come from higher income groups (the same groups MISSING form today's army). During WWII because of the Draft you had a pool of soldiers that had the family support to recover from the stresses of Combat better than the present pool of Soldiers (Given the high Rejection rate do to medical problems during WWII, you had a greater number of Upper Middle Class Youths in the Army then at present, and thus better able to adjust to the stress of Combat).

My point is that the Army of WWII had less days in Combat and was better able to handle the stresses of combat than today's Army, and we are seeing the results of BOTH differences. Our Troops are in combat longer (to long) AND being from poor families less able to handle the stresses of Combat (Less family Support do to the greater need for everyone to work).

[Bigmack]

21. Source, please....

I've read similar things. A few years ago, I read that Marines in Vietnam faced more actual days in combat than Marines in the Pacific during WWII, then lost the source.

Have you got a source for those stats?

[Doctor_J]

3. Yes, but yellow ribbon car magnet sales are at an all-time high

so we support the troops the American way.

[broadcaster]

13. cynical, but also totally true....

This country will not take care of its own.

But as you say made in China magnet sales are strong.

I saw a piece on TV this past week--- a local group of parents
were outraged that their kids had to ride unairconditioned busses
home from school in the recent 100 degree heat. You know
what I mean...

[rodeodance]

4. This has been going on for sometime. Lots of press for the injured but this

problem just gets worse with little press.

[unhappycamper]

5. IIRC, last November the Department of Housing and Urban Development

published a paper that said, on the average, there are around 955,000 homeless folks every day. There were not enough beds for about 1/3 of them.

About 30 ~ 35% of of the homeless are Veterans.

[EFerrari]

8. Most of the homeless people in my hood are vets. And right now

our VA hospital is struggling to stay open because they don't have ENOUGH clients. There's a serious disconnect here.

[unhappycamper]

15. That's just one of many, my Friend.

The VA is broken, as is the military.

[EFerrari]

16. This is what happens when you put corporate frontmen

in charge of the military. Rumsfeld et al were handing out money to their pals with one hand and taking it away from our infrastructure with the other. "You go to war with the cronies you have."

[FloridaJudy]

9. Hardly hidden

Most of the homeless locally are vets, and they seem to be getting younger - at least according to my aging eyes. They congregate here because of the mild winters, and the proximity of the VA med center.

It's yet another National Disgrace, IMHO. Most of these guys have medical and psychiatric issues that badly need addressing. I know lots of mental health professionals at the VA, and they're working as hard as they can. We just need more of them.

[Decruiter]

12. The return of our Veterans from this illegal war is going to make Vietnam look like a

cakewalk in a park on a spring day.

This nation, we the people, we better start to really prepare for taking care of the men and the women we sent to hell and who are now coming home. My heart breaks in one million and one pieces for what we the people have allowed to happen to our sons and our daughters.

We have a responsibility and in our silence we will be held complicit. We will be judged in the future, how do you want to be judged? What road did you take?

These are tough questions for all of us. What will we say to our grandchildren and what will our grandchildren tell their children?

[sutz12]

14. Universal health care would fix a lot of this...

We seem to be missing a point of emphasis on UHC. It covers ALL Vets, ALL seniors, ALL children. Much of what we need is already being paid for.

[bamacrat]

18. More like an ignored crisis. n/t

[Earth_First]

20. This absolutely INFURIATES me!

I'm completely speechless.