Homelessness affecting many veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan(AP) Homelessness affecting many veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan The Associated Press
Stars and Stripes online edition, Wednesday, January 23, 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 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.
Rest of article at:
http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=51882uhc comment: The 200,000 homeless veterans represent 25% of the average daily homeless, but they represent only 11% of the general population of adults in the U.S.