Battle Scars, Purple Hearts, and Homeless

Serving without question a land of freedom, they leave to fight a war they did not cause only to return to that land with battle scars, a Purple Heart and homeless. Leaving their families behind, not asking why, to protect a land from attack and to insure its population freedom and their reward, maybe to be recognized with only a purple heart and the battle scares that last them a lifetime. They returned home to a parade in their honor. So much gratitude and love was shown to them on the day they returned, what happened? They look around them now. The day that becomes another and another until it a year or more.. this all faded and now they are left with battle scares, a purple heart and homeless. The faces of our soldiers who served our county are as numerous as are the faces of our homeless.

Do you stop and look around at people? Did you notice the person whose eyes yours met? Was he dirty, unkempt, clothing disheveled and maybe he was sleeping on a park bench or in a car? What did you think to yourself? Did you ask yourself if he had a home or even who was he before this? Maybe the person you are looking at used to be someone who protected your freedom with his life, was injured and received a purple heart for his efforts only to be left homeless by the very government he served. There are many places one can go if they are homeless but these places offer a bed and a warm meal at least 2 times a day. Many missions do their part and help with the homelessness that is plaguing our country.

The Association of Gospel Rescue Mission is only one of the many places that offer services to the homeless. According to Phil Rydman from the offices of the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions one in 3 people they provide services to happen to be an American veteran. They have been providing services for the homeless in Kansas City, Missouri for over 20 years and have compiled information about the numbers of American veterans that they have severed. They found that a lot of the homeless veterans that their mission serves are from the Vietnam War. This is not to say that all the homeless are just veterans.
Our veterans deserve so much more than being called homeless. An independent study published by the Associated Press states that one in four people that are homeless are our veterans. This is not just a problem for our old veterans that served in wars and conflicts from the past but Iraq and Afghanistan. Also according to this study 11 percent of the adult homeless are our county’s veterans. There are many articles written about homeless veterans and their plight to come home and resume live as if they were not gone.
An article written by Jim Romeo told of a man named Tony who had spent 15 years as a Navy Yeoman in his article A Roof of One’s Own. Tony had been homeless for 3 years when article was published. Tony lived in Norfolk, Virginia and received $361.00 a month disability payments from the Veteran’s Administration. Tony panhandled to make extra money. There have to be services that our government is willing to offer our service men and women when they return home from fighting a war not of their making.