Homeless Heroes

[Jeffersons Ghost]

In 2006, the most recent year for which statistics are available, around 15,000 Iraq/ Afghanistan veterans were homeless, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

The Homeless Veterans coalition estimates that nearly 500,000 veterans are homeless at some point in a given year. Almost half served during the Vietnam era.

Homeless Heroes
Paul Rieckhoff | May 04, 2006
The next generation of American Veterans is on its way home. Over 1.3 million American troops have already served in Iraq or Afghanistan, and tens of thousands more will return from combat over the years to come. After these young men and women put away their uniforms, they will still be coping with the consequences of years spent at war. When these conflicts have faded from the headlines, will we, as Americans, continue to honor our yellow-ribbon commitment to “Support the Troops”? Already there are many disturbing signs that we are not prepared to meet that obligation.

More than a year ago, I met my first homeless Iraq Vet. Only months after her return from combat, former Army Specialist Nicole Goodwin, 24, was staying in New York City shelters with her infant daughter. Just a few days later, I met former Private First Class Herold Noel. Herold had driven fuel trucks to the front lines during the invasion of Iraq, but when I met him, Herold was on three kinds of medication for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and living in his car with his son, a shy two-year-old named Anthony.

Herold and Nicole are not isolated cases. Ricky Singh, of the Brooklyn-based veterans' service organization Black Veterans for Social Justice does outreach in some of the toughest parts of New York. Mr. Singh, on the front lines of the new battle against homelessness, says he has seen the dozens of homeless Iraq War veterans, “and we know that this is only the tip of the iceberg.” http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,96237,00.html

New Generation of Homeless Vets Emerges

By Erin McClam
The Associated Press

Saturday 19 January 2008

Peter Mohan traces the path from the Iraqi battlefield to this lifeless conference room, where he sits in a kilt and a Camp Kill Yourself T-shirt and calmly describes how he became a sad cliche: a homeless veteran.

There was a happy homecoming, but then an accident - car crash, broken collarbone. And then a move east, close to his wife's new job but away from his best friends.

And then self-destruction: He would gun his motorcycle to 100 mph and try to stand on the seat. He would wait for his wife to leave in the morning, draw the blinds and open up whatever bottle of booze was closest. He would pull out his gun, a .45-caliber, semiautomatic pistol. He would lovingly clean it, or just look at it and put it away. Sometimes place it in his mouth. http://www.truthout.org/article/new-generation-homeless-vets-emerges

Surge Seen in Number of Homeless Veterans
By Erik Eckholm
The New York Times

Experts who work with veterans say it often takes several years after leaving military service for veterans' accumulating problems to push them into the streets. But some aid workers say the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans appear to be turning up sooner than the Vietnam veterans did.

"We're beginning to see, across the country, the first trickle of this generation of warriors in homeless shelters," said Phil Landis, chairman of Veterans Village of San Diego, a residence and counseling center. "But we anticipate that it's going to be a tsunami."

With more women serving in combat zones, the current wars are already resulting in a higher share of homeless women as well. They have an added risk factor: roughly 40 percent of the hundreds of homeless female veterans of recent wars have said they were sexually assaulted by American soldiers while in the military, officials said. http://www.truthout.org/article/surge-seen-number-homeless-veterans.

Do these articles strike you as sad or unfair?

Perhaps the saddest commentary of all is that 2006 was the most recent survey on homeless Iraq/ Afghanistan veterans.

[EFerrari]

1. Kick

[givemebackmycountry]

2. Shameful...

I actually had this idiot I work with tell me the other day that she "had to stop by Wal-Mart" to pick up a magnetic yellow ribbon to put on the back of her SUV because "she supports the troops".
She got mad at me when I basically laughed right in her face.

I'm in Florida now, having just moved from Kansas City.
It's a whole different kind of crazy down here.

[Flabbergasted]

3. Rec 4

[PDJane]

4. Kick and Rec........

support the troops by keeping them out of harm's way.

[onethatcares]

5. gaud dammit, without jobs we're all on the same field

but to hear the so called leaders talk about supporting the troops, all that comes to mind is "let's give Halliburton another 1.2 billion". Where is a veteran of these wars to find a job that pays a living wage? Where is a veteran of these wars to find a job that will buy a home on that living wage?

The party is just beginning.

[Daemonaquila]

8. That's only half the story

Yes, we're screwed on jobs right now, but vets are working under a greater deficit. The folks who've seen action keep coming back with all sorts of injuries, physical and mental. This war, especially, is leaving a lot of people with traumatic brain injuries. They may not have even spent a day in the hospital, but a hefty concussion can create lasting personality and memory problems, not to mention chronic headaches, hearing/vision problems, and more. Then there's the folks who are coming back with PTSD in droves...

I agree - there aren't enough living wage jobs across the board, or even jobs below living wage for all the people who need them. It'll only get worse as more folks come home from the war. That's part of Bush's real reason for maintaining the war(s) - just how bad would the economic figures look if all the guard & reserve soldiers, and the contractors, were suddenly back in the job market?

[ThatsMyBarack]

6. Buck FUSH!

:mad:

[mopinko]

7. the damage can be so subtle. so many will not even realize what is wrong

with them.
i had the very sad experience this past weekend of seeing a guy that i went to grade school with. he had joined the marines after high school, sure that he was the guy they needed to win that viet nam mess once and for all. he never even saw combat. he rolled a jeep, and ended up with 136 stitches in his head. just talking to him, it is easy to see the slightly swayed thought process. he points to the injury as his undoing.
he went on to marry, have 3 kids, but end up divorced, and estranged. he had jobs, but could not hold on to them. he was a trucker, but lost his license. he gets into a lot of fights.
it is just f'ing heartbreaking.
there will be hundreds and hundreds like him. what are we going to do? how much will this cost? what is the cost of 3 children with a combative father? one woman, raising them alone? a proud man, begging? or worse, a father's suicide.

sometimes, all i really want to know is what is the secret of keeping your head in the sand.