Posted on 03/01/2005 10:20:01 AM PST by MisterRepublican
FAIRMONT, W.Va. (AP) - Harleigh Marsh was tough enough to scrape ice from the frozen deck of a Navy aircraft carrier in the North Atlantic. Smart enough to strip and rebuild a cockpit. And responsible enough to maintain survival gear for pilots. So when he found himself homeless six years ago, he figured he could handle it.
Like many of the estimated 500,000 veterans who will become homeless at some point this year, Marsh had the "Army of one" mentality that the armed forces demand.
"When a squadron or something needs you, you don't ask questions. You never say no. You salute and you do the job," he says. "And when you get out, you don't want people telling you what to do."
Veterans account for nearly one-third of all homeless men in America, even though the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says they comprise only 13 percent of adult males in the general population. In West Virginia, where Marsh now struggles to rebuild his life, one in nine people is a veteran - the highest per capita rate in the nation in the 2000 census.
Marsh, 48 and single, has a job at a nursing home but earns too little for a place of his own. For months, he's lived at Scott Place, a shelter overlooking a town of about 20,000 - the town where he spent several years of his childhood and the closest thing to home.
Marsh doesn't mind the lack of privacy in the men's quarters, a third-floor maze connected by doorless doorways, or sharing a 14-by-14 space. "In the Navy, we'd have nine to 12 people in a room this big," he says.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.myway.com ...
500,000 homeless vets? What a load of crap.
Oh Bull. Where does this number come from? Who's number is this? I don't believe it, either that or I'm "homeless" right now because I'm not in my own living room at the moment.
>>Like many of the estimated 500,000 veterans who will become homeless at some point this year<<
Seems high, very high. Would like to know what the source of this statistic is.
Vicki Smith is a silly tw@t. How can any editor let this sort of dribble pass as responsible journalism?
They must be elasticizing the definition to include brief transition periods when they leave the service and live with a relative until they find their own place. Otherwise we whould have 30 million homeless vets since WWII.
"And when you get out, you don't want people telling you what to do."
No offense, but there's a big part of this guy's problem right there. If someone becomes so destitute that they are homeless (not by choice), personal decisionmaking played the biggest role in getting them there. Unless you run a private company, you will always have someone telling you what to do.
This guy doesn't like people telling him what to do? Here's another service saying that should help: "Suck it up and drive on".
What kind of agenda is this? Why don't we look at the number of homeless who attended public school, came from broken homes, or those who never should have been turned out of a Mental institution.
Anyone ask to see his DD 214?
Oh yeah, still waitng for sKerry to sign that SF 180.
Whatever the number, this has to be fixed. If you serve your country, we take care of you. That has been earned.
Bad things frequently happen when we attempt to "fix" things which aren't problems in the first place.
Well, I guess he really showed that officer.
"One day I just said, 'I'm going down to Louisiana,'" he recalls, smoking a cigarette..
"He hasn't seen a dentist since 1996. Many of his teeth have shattered and blackened, and a cracked back molar causes constant pain."
So, he can afford cigarettes but not tooth paste? No sympathy for this whiner.
This is disgusting. And, an old tactic to tarnish the military in general, and veterans in particular.
About 10 years ago, I ran across a similar story and was able to contact the writer. Through the course of seveal conversations I asked him how he knew they were vets. He said that they told him they were and that they had no reason to lie to him. I pointed out that they might prefer to be considered heroic veterans of a war rather than say they were failures, druggies, criminals, having mental health problems, or however they arrived at homelessness. That was the last conversation we had.
What a pathetic loser. Don't the citizens of Massachusetts realize he is such an empty suit and a poor reflection on ALL of them?
They should simply feel ashamed.
BS. I lived outside a town with a VA Domicilliary. We also had homeless vets in the area.
Each year, maybe twice a year they held a 'stand down' for a week or two, and ALL vets, 'homed', resident, or homeless, were welcome to come in, and recieve meals, basic medical & dental care, clothing, shoes, soap, shampoo, TOOTHPASTE & TOOTHBRUSHES, delousing, whatever other basics they needed. It was widely advertised, flyered, and word-of-mouthed by advocates & activists.
So, he can afford cigarettes but not tooth paste? No sympathy for this whiner.
You got it, Sherlock!
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