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After Kevin returned from Iraq, he spent most
nights lying awake in his Army barracks in
Hawaii, clutching a 9mm handgun under his
pillow, bracing for an attack that never came.
His fits of sleep brought nightmares of the
wounded and dying troops whom Kevin, a combat
medic, had treated over 16 months of suicide
attacks and roadside bombings. He kept thinking
about an attack that killed 13 of his comrades.
He hated himself for having survived.
Soon he was drinking so heavily that the Army
discharged him. He moved back in with his
parents in Narragansett, R.I., and drank even
more, until they asked him to leave. Less than
two years after he returned, Kevin became one of
a growing number of veterans of the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars who are now homeless.
"I lived in my car, at the Wal-Mart parking
lot," said Kevin, who asked that his last name
not be published because he is considering
reenlisting. He has been staying at a homeless
shelter in Northampton since early July...
Kevin's tailspin encapsulates a
little-researched consequence of the wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan. As more troops return from
deployments, social workers and advocates expect
the number of the homeless to increase, flooding
the nation's veterans' shelters, which are
already overwhelmed by homeless veterans from
other wars.
"It's a major problem that's not going away
anytime soon," said Cheryl Beversdorf, director
of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans
in Washington, who estimates that hundreds,
perhaps thousands of troops who fought in Iraq
and Afghanistan are living in shelters. Kevin's
story illustrates the lagging response of
overburdened government agencies to the needs of
troops returning from wars.
Comment:
The
South Florida Veterans
Multi-Purpose Center is open to all
Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and has programs
to assist those who have been traumatized by
their war experience. |
