Back Home, and Homeless

[High_Gravity]

This was a good read and I thought I would share it.

Back Home, and Homeless

Mid-June, 2011: I find myself alone in a dark wooded park tucked between million-dollar houses south of Stanford University, looking for a spot in the bushes to stash my bags. Until that morning I’d been living in a cheap weekly-rate motel in Palo Alto. Before checkout, knowing I couldn’t afford the $48 fee for another night, I laid out my stuff on the bed. Over the cigarette burns on threadbare sheets, I scrounged for quarters, dimes and nickels. There was enough for an extra value meal at Taco Bell. I divided everything else I had between three bags; an olive-drab backpack my brother used in the Army Rangers, a black duffel I bought at Goodwill and a satchel for my laptop.

This was my life. I was two weeks shy of my 28th birthday, unemployed, broke, thousands of miles from my family, watching the weather forecast to see how uncomfortable sleeping outside would be that night. Whatever the prediction, I could handle it. Four and a half years in the Army, including 16 months as an infantryman in eastern Afghanistan, provided plenty of skills with no legal application in the civilian world. It was, however, wonderful preparation for being homeless.

I was searching for a hole in the bushes to hide my bags. They were heavy and awkward, cumbersome to lug around Palo Alto. They clashed with the mishmash of designer bags embroidered with labels from Silicon Valley tech companies that the Stanford kids carried. Walking with them, I stood out, the opening scene of the first Rambo movie cycling through my mind: Sylvester Stallone on the side of the road with a big, green duffel bag slung over his shoulder and blending in with every part of his faded green field jacket except the red, white and blue flag patch, attracts the attention of the sheriff who wants John Rambo and all the bad mojo he carries from Vietnam out of his town. That movie ended badly for Rambo, the sheriff and the town. My life wasn’t a movie and I wasn’t John Rambo, but the same possibilities for a bad ending loomed. I’d learned that fact the only way fools like me learn anything: experience.

As infantry on the ground in Afghanistan, we were introduced to the ugliness of violent, unpredictable death. Over the 16 months of our tour, we caused it and we endured it; we grew well acquainted with it. Sometimes I think that we took it back, an invisible scythe-carrying stowaway on board the airplane we took back to the States. How else to explain my friend Michael Cloutier, whose spot-on shooting probably saved my life when our observation post was attacked by Taliban who outnumbered us three to one, dying of a drug overdose a year after we came back?

Or the staff sergeant from my former battalion — Second Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, Third Brigade, Tenth Mountain Division — who committed suicide by cop on Fort Drum later that year when military police were called to investigate a domestic disturbance? I didn’t know him that well and had already left Fort Drum for a cushy assignment as an assistant in a four-star general’s headquarters, but I wrote the eulogy my old company commander delivered at his funeral.

Not too long after that, when my friends in my old unit were rotating back, I started to crack a bit. That year the Taliban killed two of my friends, Staff Sgt. Esau I. DeLaPena-Hernandez, 25, and Sgt. Carlie M. Lee III, 23. The next year a helicopter crash killed my brother, Chief Warrant Officer Gary Marc Farwell. As my last real duty in the Army, I escorted his body home from Germany, wearing a dress uniform and saluting his casket in Atlanta and Salt Lake City as it was loaded and unloaded from the commercial airliner.

None of this was on my mind that night in Palo Alto. I just wanted to stash my bags and get some sleep, if I could. I had a plan. I wrapped the bags in a space blanket to keep the books and clothes inside dry, then wrapped it in a camouflage, Army-issue poncho liner to keep them concealed. After I stashed them in the bushes and saved the location on the G.P.S. that also held grid coordinates for Firebases and Combat Outposts I had manned in Afghanistan, I set off with my satchel, bound for Stanford and their 24-hour library.

It was finals time and short of a T.S.A. inspection at the library entrance, no one would know that under my laptop, iPad, chargers, batteries, pens, paperback books and notepads were my hobo essentials: a Ziploc with a small hygiene kit, deodorant, a pair of underwear and a change of socks. Wearing a polo shirt and a pair of khakis, I could blend in, hide out and hopefully get a little sleep in the once-familiar environment — an American college campus — that, like my country, now felt so foreign and hostile.

Paul Rieckhoff, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the founder and chairman of Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America testified that over 11,000 veterans between the ages of 18 and 30 were officially listed — that is, somehow identified, confirmed and entered in the Department of Veteran’s Affairs database — as homeless. That’s more than a standard Army division. It’s also really tricky to measure exactly, since there are plenty, like me, you’d never suspect were homeless veterans if you saw them around town.

The law, “United States Code Title 42, Chapter 119, Subchapter 1,” essentially defines a homeless person as somebody with no stable bed or shelter. If you live in a box under the bridge, this counts. If you live in a state- or church-funded homeless shelter, this counts. If you are an inpatient for some sort of medical or psychiatric condition, this counts. Also, if you’re somewhere in between: couch surfing, living in a series of cheap motels, staying with your parents for an extended period of time, that counts. By the definition of the law, I’ve been homeless for about 16 months. To put that in perspective, I’ve been out of the Army for about 18 months.

I’m still not sure how I got there. Before Afghanistan, I was no saint but I generally kept out of trouble. No trouble with the law beyond a handful of tickets for speeding and parking. I was a healthy and an absurdly well-educated striver. My résumé lists Eagle Scout, Davis Scholar, Echols Scholar and National Merit Finalist alongside the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, Army Commendation Medals and Parachutist wings. With the exception of the last year, which I have spent unemployed, attending one semester of college while recuperating from a spinal injury and trying to write, my work experience is unbroken since I landed my first job at 15; soldier, SAT & G.R.E. tutor, defense contracting intern, plumbing guy at Lowe’s, waiter and lifeguard. I try to gloss over the multiple arrests and hospitalizations after the war and highlight my hope to return to the college I dropped out of once my head gets screwed on a little straighter.

Back Home, and Homeless - NYTimes.com

 

[Si modo]

Thanks.

 

[High_Gravity]

Thanks.

The article struck me because I can relate to how this Soldier had trouble adjusting after he returned from deployment, I also separated from the service after a deployment to Kuwait and Iraq and getting re-adjusted to life in the States is very difficult, and its easy to make mistakes and end up on the wrong side of the law.

 

[Wumplestiltskin]

"if you're poor it's your own fault". The hero of Americas homeless and homewith, with wheels.

 

[Sallow]

Lots of vets can't come to grips with life back home. It's amazing people are so cold about the homeless.

 

[High_Gravity]

"if you're poor it's your own fault". The hero of Americas homeless and homewith, with wheels.

Come again?

 

[High_Gravity]

Lots of vets can't come to grips with life back home. It's amazing people are so cold about the homeless.

Its hard re-adjusting when you come back State side, when you separate from the service right after a deployment its even more difficult because you lose the support from the Military and your unit, without a support system it is very easy to fall through the cracks.

 

[Virginia Mom]

Lots of vets can't come to grips with life back home. It's amazing people are so cold about the homeless.

Its hard re-adjusting when you come back State side, when you separate from the service right after a deployment its even more difficult because you lose the support from the Military and your unit, without a support system it is very easy to fall through the cracks.

This is what happpened to my son, rough going for awhile, but he has a very supportive
family, and life-long brothers from the Marines, and that is what helped him get through it all. I hope you are doing well!

 

[editec]

Happened to me back in the late 70s.

Getting back inside is harder than most who haven't been in that position can possibly imagine.

And in this economy?

Hell, folks its gotta be even harder.

 

[High_Gravity]

Lots of vets can't come to grips with life back home. It's amazing people are so cold about the homeless.

Its hard re-adjusting when you come back State side, when you separate from the service right after a deployment its even more difficult because you lose the support from the Military and your unit, without a support system it is very easy to fall through the cracks.

This is what happpened to my son, rough going for awhile, but he has a very supportive
family, and life-long brothers from the Marines, and that is what helped him get through it all. I hope you are doing well!

I am fine thanks for asking, I am glad to hear your son is doing well.

 

[High_Gravity]

Happened to me back in the late 70s.

Getting back inside is harder than most who haven't been in that position can possibly imagine.

And in this economy?

Hell, folks its gotta be even harder.

Oh no doubt that that, when I got out in 2007 people were warning me about how tough it would be, took me 6 months to land a job back than, I can only imagine what it would be like now just getting out of the service.

 

[strollingbones]

irony: empty houses all over this country.......

our returning service people returning to be homeless....

sadly the military does not help once you are out of the service....

remember the conservative mantra: you volunteered

 

[High_Gravity]

irony: empty houses all over this country.......

our returning service people returning to be homeless....

sadly the military does not help once you are out of the service....

remember the conservative mantra: you volunteered

Once you are out of the service you can get help from the VA but its not much, and they cannot help if you end up on the streets.

 

[strollingbones]

and yet there are so many new charities claiming to help...wounded warrior.....the ones that build houses.....etc.....there is just so much need after 10 years of war

 

[High_Gravity]

and yet there are so many new charities claiming to help...wounded warrior.....the ones that build houses.....etc.....there is just so much need after 10 years of war

Those charities can't help everyone and if a vet has an alcohol or drug problem those places won't house him or her for long.

 

[waltky]

Granny wantin' to know how come dem 1%'ers dat ain't payin' their fair share o' taxes ain't pickin' up the slack...

US Charities Endure Hard Times
November 01, 2011 - Concern grows as holiday season approaches

For the first time in her life, Jameka Usher is homeless. Since April, when the family was evicted, she and her four children have been living in rooms provided free by the Salvation Army. The Ushers are among America's large and growing class of working poor, who don’t earn enough to support their family. "It wasn't like it was just me. I have four little ones following and looking up to me," Usher says. "So, it was scary. I felt like I didn't have anywhere to turn to."

The last few years of economic upheaval have been scary for a lot of Americans, as well as for the non-profit agencies that serve them. The Nashville command of the Salvation Army has seen a four-fold increase in requests for help. That's unprecedented in Lt. Colonel Charles White's 45-year career with the charity. “Had someone the other day just come into our office here and say, 'I'm embarrassed to be here. Last year I was contributing to the Salvation Army, but now I'm coming to the Salvation Army to ask for help myself.'"

And just as more families like the Ushers are asking for housing and other help, benevolent agencies are seeing a downturn in charitable donations and government assistance. White says Nashville recently lost a $400,000 federal grant, and he fears more cuts are ahead. "We understand the need to balance the budget, but we also see the direct impact that has here on the street, at the local level, on families and on individuals who have no place to turn other than the Salvation Army and agencies like us."

Second Harvest Food Bank, also in Nashville, provides free meals to more than 400,000 Tennesseans each year. Like the Salvation Army, Second Harvest has seen a dramatic increase in requests for help, and an equally dramatic downturn in donations. "Federal and state funding dollars are shrinking," says the food bank’s Tasha Kennard. "Donors are experiencing fatigue because they've helped pitch in during this great time of need over the past three years, and they're at a point when they may not be able to give at higher levels any longer."

MORE

 

[52ndStreet]

The U.S. Army should implement some kind of transitional program to see that no U.S. Army veteran
returning to the United States ends up Homeless. If the military can spend Billions killing people, the least
they can do is to see that x soldiers have a roof over their heads when they return back to civilian life.
A few billions from the pentagon budget should be able to do the job?$$

 

[High_Gravity]

The U.S. Army should implement some kind of transitional program to see that no U.S. Army veteran
returning to the United States ends up Homeless. If the military can spend Billions killing people, the least
they can do is to see that x soldiers have a roof over their heads when they return back to civilian life.
A few billions from the pentagon budget should be able to do the job?$$

Hmm, not bad 52nd Street, you actually posted something that wasn't totally stupid for once in your life.

 

[California Girl]

The U.S. Army should implement some kind of transitional program to see that no U.S. Army veteran
returning to the United States ends up Homeless. If the military can spend Billions killing people, the least
they can do is to see that x soldiers have a roof over their heads when they return back to civilian life.
A few billions from the pentagon budget should be able to do the job?$$

Hmm, not bad 52nd Street, you actually posted something that wasn't totally stupid for once in your life.

I was just thinking the same thing. There are a lot of charities specifically set up to support vets to get back into civilian life... On Veterans Day, I hope that a few of us can dig deep and help these charities to help our warriors.

 

[52ndStreet]

The U.S. Army should implement some kind of transitional program to see that no U.S. Army veteran
returning to the United States ends up Homeless. If the military can spend Billions killing people, the least
they can do is to see that x soldiers have a roof over their heads when they return back to civilian life.
A few billions from the pentagon budget should be able to do the job?$$

Hmm, not bad 52nd Street, you actually posted something that wasn't totally stupid for once in your life.

The Army or Pentagon can budget for a program to keep veterans housed in apartments or homes.This "homeless veteran situation" has happened before right after the Veitnam war.
I think it wrong that ex soldiers are being left to fend for themselves , after risking their lives for their country.