From the Ranks to the Street - Many U.S. veterans become homeless

[dArKeR]

By Jocelyn Y. Stewart Times Staff Writer

After the homecomings are over and the yellow ribbons packed away, many who once served in America's armed forces may end up sleeping on sidewalks.

This is the often-unacknowledged postscript to military service. According to the federal government, veterans make up 9% of the U.S. population but 23% of the homeless population. Among homeless men, veterans make up 33%.

Their ranks included veterans like Peter Starks and Calvin Bennett, who spent nearly 30 years on the streets of Los Angeles, homeless and addicted.

Or Vannessa Turner of Boston, who returned injured from Iraq (news - web sites) last summer, unable to find healthcare or a place to live.

Or Ken Saks, who lost his feet because of complications caused by Agent Orange, then lost his low-rent Santa Barbara apartment in an ordeal that began when a neighbor complained about his wheelchair ramp.

"I'm 56 years old," Saks said. "I don't want to die in the streets…. This is what our are coming home to? They're going to live a life like I have? God bless them."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2026&ncid=2026&e=1&u=/latimests/20040529/ts_latimes/fromtherankstothestreet

[coloradodem2005]

1. Un-fucking-believable.

I know that this has been an issue especially with Vietnam vets but it angers me to hear this every time. It angers me that the country expects them to make the ultimate sacrifice and what do they get in return? nothing.:grr: :mad:

[saigon68]

5. ACTUALLY IT IS BELIEVABLE

Those who have complained to the administration here about my violent picture posting recently are the idiots who prefer the closed casket funeral, and want this War sanitized.

No pictures of a child with its head blown off, no burnt corpses strung up from light poles, no lynching photos with thousands of whites ogling a Headless "black" corpse.

They do not want to see a drunk, filthy, smelly, urine soaked 58 year old Veteran suffering from PTSD.
They love the troops in their shiny uniforms and are upset when someone politically incorrect like ME comes along.

Oh, well-----Happy Veteran's Day troopers, I hope that 40 of "St Ides" or Olde English", or that quart of "Easy Nights" goes down smoothly later this morning (like around 10 a.m. when the liquor store opens).

Adios Saigon.

[DEMVET-USMC]

8. Bravo Saigon68 ! Are you saying that someone from DU reported you

to BUSHCO for posting pictures of what is going on in Iraq ? I applaud your courage in doing so and screw those assholes who cannot stomach the realities of event viewing pictures of war. This is what war is all about. You kill people any way you can and they do the same to you if they can. ...Oscar

[Judi Lynn]

9. Sorry to hear about the complaints, and about the censure.........

I can't begin to understand what those people believe we are dealing with here.

These events weren't random freakish accidents unlikely to reoccur in our lifetimes. They are a result of filthy politicians with obviously self-enriching, deceptive motives. That's what conscientious people are obligated to know about, and to try to communicate about, and to hope for change.

Jesus. What's the point of even coming to a political discussion if you intend to simply avoid the subjects under discussion? Saigon68, this is the pits.

I appreciated your unwavering passion and committment to see change wrought in our world. The photos were a necessary part of it, as it's what's going on. I can't believe this.

Don't worry, the good will win eventually. I've heard it's inevitable. All that's missing is the evidence!

[coloradodem2005]

10. Well what I mean is....

...it is believable because it happens and people play politics with other peoples' lives. But that is what is unbelievable. I don't know if I can explain it properly.

[dArKeR]

2. Don't forget to rate this article a 5. Any person who rates this below is

immoral and will NEVER make it to Heaven!

[DEMVET-USMC]

3. I am crying as I write this.

God bless and keep all our men and women out there giving thier all for our Nation and the Veterans who did so in past times. I used to live like that but was fortunate enough to meet a woman who trully loves me and am able to cope with the pain I absorbed during my service. ...God Help Them, ...Oscar

[HawkerHurricane]

4. Kipling wrote of this 100 years ago...

about the British Army, in a poem called 'Last of the Light Brigade'.

THERE were thirty million English who talked of England’s might,
There were twenty broken troopers who lacked a bed for the night.
They had neither food nor money, they had neither service nor trade;
They were only shiftless soldiers, the last of the Light Brigade.

They felt that life was fleeting; they knew not that art was long,
That though they were dying of famine, they lived in deathless song.
They asked for a little money to keep the wolf from the door;
And the thirty million English sent twenty pounds and four!

They laid their heads together that were scarred and lined and gray;
Keen were the Russian sabres, but want was keener than they;
And an old troop sergeant muttered, “Let us go to the man who writes
The things on Balaclava the kiddies at school recites.”

They went without bands or colours, a regiment ten-file strong,
To look for the Master-singer who had crowned them all in his song;
And, waiting his servant’s order, by the garden gate they stayed,
A desolate little cluster, the last of the Light Brigade.

They strove to stand to attention, to straighten the toilbowed back;
They drilled on an empty stomach, the loose-knit files fell slack;
With stooping of weary shoulders, in garments tattered and frayed,
They shambled into his presence, the last of the Light Brigade.

The old troop sergeant was spokesman, and “Beggin’ your pardon,” he said,
“You wrote o’ the Light Brigade, sir. Here’s all that isn’t dead.
An’ it’s all come true what you wrote, sir, regardin’ the mouth of hell;
For we’re all of us nigh to the workhouse, an’ we thought we’d call an’ tell.

“No, thank you, we don’t want food, sir; but couldn’t you take an’ write
A sort of ‘to be continued’ and ‘see next page’ o’ the fight?
We think that someone has blundered, an’ couldn’t you tell ’em how?
You wrote we were heroes once, sir. Please, write we are starving now.”

The poor little army departed, limping and lean and forlorn.
And the heart of the Master-singer grew hot with “the scorn of scorn.”
And he wrote for them wonderful verses that swept the land like flame,
Till the fatted souls of the English were scourged with the thing called Shame.

O thirty million English that babble of England’s might,
Behold! There are twenty heroes who have no food to-night!
Our children’s children are lisping to “honour the charge they made—”
And we leave to the streets and the workhouse the charge of the Light Brigade!

[DEMVET-USMC]

6. That was a Great Poem. I recall a similar fate Re:We few,we happy few,we

band of brothers....King Henry V. In that upon the survivors return to England, those that demanded what land or other rewards for their service were promised were put to death. I am not sure of this and if anyone out there knows please tell me. Also remember what Gen. MacArthur did to the BONUS MARCHERS of WWI when they came to Washington demanding what had been promised them. It`s by and large the Democrats such as Paul Wellstone,John Kerry,Ted Kennedy,Max McClellan and a very many other Democratic Senators and Congressmen who have stood up for us Veterans. Do not forget that and vote Democrat always. ...Oscar

[Fridays Child]

7. 5 and Kick

:kick:

[LumitraC]

11. I feel for those vets

I had an uncle who fought in vietnam. This is what happened to him, he lost his job, his wife, his kids when he got back, and the VA ditched him, to this day he has PTSD and can rarely sleep without nightmares from the war.

havent heard from him in a few years.

its shameful what the VA has done to those who fight and die for our beliefs. Its even more shameful that their benefits are being cut and cut by this administration.

stories like that bring me to tears.. Its just dispicable,the same people that send these men to war cut their support when they need it most, and leave them for dead.:-(

[Fridays Child]

12. Welcome to DU, LumitraC!

:hi:

[LumitraC]

13. thanks!

glad to be here! :toast:

[diamond14]

16. LumitraC....why not call your uncle this weekend? better yet,

go see him and take him out to dinner.....

I have an uncle who fought in the Korean war, still has schrapnel in his leg....about 6 years ago, I got back in touch with him on Memorial Day, and it is the biggest joy in his old age to hear from me, and just to have someone younger to talk to....sometimes he blabbers away, and he has had two strokes, but it is YOUR responsibility to HONOR YOUR UNCLE, the VETERAN.....call him up, send him a card with a note and a photo, go visit him, take him out to dinner...it's not hard, it's just that touch of human kindness that means so much to those who served.....


and welcome to DU....we're glad you joined us....

:toast:

[newyawker99]

21. Hi LumitraC!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[hippywife]

14. Look for a Stand Down in your community

Veterans' organizations hold Stand Down events all over the country. These events assist the homeless veterans in their communities.

Everyone can help with time, money, food, clothing. Contact the DAV or other veterans' orgs in your area to see when and if a Stand Down is taking place.

http://www1.va.gov/homeless/page.cfm?pg=6

Even if you don't see your city there, call the local office of the DAV. The vets in our area are organizing one but it isn't on the website.

[JoFerret]

15. Rank the story so it gets attention.

Outrageous.

[salin]

17. And bushco - OMB - slashes Veteran funding in 2006

cut overall spending while increasing the number of vets needing services. Courtesy of Bushco and the land of ceaseless taxcuts for the wealthy.

[2Design]

18. I ranked the story....this is what should be the big news on memorial

day and when they are all gung ho war....this is the programs Bush is cutting....while wanting more and more people to throw at this war.... This is the part Rush and the rest should have an opportunity to live......Throw Rush in the street with his addiction and see how he survives....

I will say a prayer for all those who are homeless and uncared for today. The people who our government is unwilling to take care of.

[maddezmom]

19. kick

[dArKeR]

20. Some people have rated this story '1' because 3.59 is the current rating

What kind of sick republican pervert would rate this a '1' or '2'?

[Mari333]

22. The vets are disposable and meaningless in the USA

as are the families of military personnel..especially now.
Those wealthy bastards sipping champagne and eating 2000 a plate dinners at Bush fund raisers dont give a rats ass what happens to the vets, or our kids, or anyone else who fights in a war.
Selfish, greedy bastards.
When Michael comes back, I dont know what kind of mental state he will be in, but I can promise you I already have a counselor on the ready for him to see if he wants to.
My brother in law blew his brains out thanks to Vietnam.
The other day, at the local store, a lady approached me and told me her husband , a Vietnam Vet, was having nightmares from this war, because it was triggering all the old memories.
The vets, and the new vets who will be coming back, will be meaningless and are meaningless to the Bushbots, whose sole purpose is to use them, and then throw them away like old Kleenex.
They are props for the Bush administration, not human beings.
The Bush admin, and anyone who supports them, are Unpatriotic, Unamerican, and our children over there should be home now.
http://www.bringthemhomenow.com

http://www.vaiw.org

[NNN0LHI]

23. Nothing new here

Makes me proud to be a Murkan. And Chimpy keeps patting them on the back and they keep signing up to protect Halliburton's oil pipe lines. Er, ah, I mean protect our country. Hooha. What a racket.

Don