Some Iraq war vets go homeless after return to US

[33girl]

Originally Posted by AGDee

However, there does seem to be a bit of a Catch 22 here. How do you get a place to live without a job? How do you get a job without an address and phone number for someone to call you?

Anyone can get a hotmail account, and you can access it from any public library or any other place that has free wireless.

[AlphaFrog]

I agree that there's a huge piece of this story missing. Who was watching this single mom's kid when she was in Iraq?? If she was close enough with that person to trust them with her kid, could she not stay with that person until she got a job??


ETA: You can get a pre-paid cell for pretty cheap anymore. That would be my first step if I didn't have a phone # and was looking for a job. Hell, even a pager (do they still sell those??) where a potential employer could leave a message so you could call them back on a payphone. Something.

[DeltAlum]

Originally Posted by Munchkin03

1. What's the "average" grunt in Iraq? I'd imagine that they're not much older and have about the same level of education--but have a much more naive view of what war's about..

I think that the difference in this case is not the age, but level of education. The all volunteer Army at least gives lip service to wanting high school diplomas or GEDs. The draft went for any warm body -- as I said above, the average grunt had a high school diploma OR LESS. There was a huge number of high school dropouts in the Vietnam era Army.

I don't know about being more naive. My dad is a WWII veteran, but I had never experienced a (time of) war until Vietnam. Now, I would guess that a fair number of our armed forces members in Iraq have fathers who are Vietnam vets.

Anyway, it's a shame but homeless veterans are not a new phenomenon.

[macallan25]

Originally Posted by DeltAlum

I'm not so sure about that -- at least in terms of the Vietnam veterans. The all volunteer "professional" Army is supposed to have smarter soldiers than our armed forces of the past.

The "average" grunt in Vietnam was 19 years old, likely to have a high school education or less, a minority and probably drafted soon after high school. That doesn't give you a whole lot of preparation for life. As the article says, the vast majority of homeless who are former soldiers are from the Vietnam era.

Finally, the troops returning from Vietnam were hardly greeted as heros as our troops today are.

That men and women who served in our Armed Forces end up homeless is terrible -- but it is hardly a new thing.

Not to mention that a significant portion of Vietnam troops were addicted to heroine when they got back to the states because it was made readily available in Vietnam. I was watching a special about drugs in America and I believe it said something like 1 out of 5 troops were addicts when they got back to the states. I am sure that would play a significant role in the lifestyle of troops when they got back.

[DeltAlum]

Originally Posted by macallan25

Not to mention that a significant portion of Vietnam troops were addicted to heroine when they got back to the states.

No question that drugs were a significant problem in the military in the Vietnam era.

Twenty percent of returning troops seems like a pretty high number when the drug is heroine, but more "recreational" drugs were certainly rampant.

The military continues to fight drug use.

[PiKA2001]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

I agree that there's a huge piece of this story missing. Who was watching this single mom's kid when she was in Iraq?? If she was close enough with that person to trust them with her kid, could she not stay with that person until she got a job??


ETA: You can get a pre-paid cell for pretty cheap anymore. That would be my first step if I didn't have a phone # and was looking for a job. Hell, even a pager (do they still sell those??) where a potential employer could leave a message so you could call them back on a payphone. Something.

Bases have family support services that can take care of your children while you are deployed, so her kid may have been staying at a boarding house while she was in Iraq. Also, we are living in a time where the economy is not so great, many people out of work, and more people are applying for the same jobs. Employers have the opportunity to be more selective with who they hire. Hell, I've had my credit history checked by employers before they hired me, so I can only imagine the difficulty trying to get a job in todays economy while not having a place to live. Homelessness carries quite a strong stigma with it that turns a lot of people off, especially employers.