Disgusting

The Cincinnati Enquirer ran a story about Volunteers of America (VOA) wanting to start a homeless shelter for veterans in the Camp Washington area. Camp Washington is located west of Clifton and north of Queensgate. Most notable for the Camp Washington Chili Parlor, it takes its name from the military installation located there during the U.S. Mexican war. A statue of a "Dooughboy" soldier is in the park.

What makes this disgusting is the arguments against locating the homeless shelter. Some argue that it is too close to the River City Correctional Center, a treatment center for convicts. The inmates are locked down but Camp Washington officials fear this would create jealousy amongst the inmates since the veterans would be free to roam. I guess the other Camp Washington residents don't create the same issues.

The other criticisms came from local residents who view homeless veterans as something akin to vermin. The perception is all homeless vets are alcoholics or junkies. Certainly there are veterans that suffer from alcoholism and drug dependency but so many others that are not veterans. Given the lack of economic recovery under the current administration, it wouldn't take much for many of these critics to find themselves homeless as well.

The lack of compassion for veterans is particularly offensive to me. Every single veteran once stood proudly at the end of boot camp basic as a newly minted member of the United States military. How dare society take that once proud American and turn their backs on them!

The critics fall into two categories. The first are those that never served. Their ignorance of military service, while understandable, is no excuse for wholesale condemnation of those that did serve. The other group is reprehensible, so called "veterans" that raise an indifferent nose to those less fortunate than they. Both are equally culpable of failing to look out for their fellow man (or now woman).

The United States military does an excellent job of taking the sons (and now daughters) of American hometowns and turning them into warriors. After basic training, it is off to advanced training or technical training to refine either a combat skill or develop a combat support skill. The next 4-20 years is spent sending these young men and women to the great far flung, away from family and friends. Along the way they see things other people can't imagine. They get battered, bruised, maimed physically. Their psyches are torn asunder with images and actions they never thought possible.

Then one day it is time for the person to get out. It could be for a variety of reasons ranging from medical to disciplinary to simply retirement. With the possible exception of a medical discharge, the amount of time spent in leaving the military is a mere fraction of what it took for their initial training.

I once read it takes over a $1 million dollars to train a fighter pilot, something around $500,000 to train a special forces troop. The time spent in this specialized training ranges anywhere from 18-36 months. I doubt if even one percent of that amount is spent discharging someone from the military.

Now the once proud warrior is a little scraggly, perhaps a little demented. They don't talk with those who weren't "there" because they wouldn't get it. Non-veterans look at the disheveled man with a beat up field jacket and ball cap with various military insignia and think, "Nut. Psycho. Junkie. Alcoholic". What isn't understood is that veteran was sent out the front gate without so much as a handshake (in the case of the Vietnam veterans). Even the more recent veterans are sent out the front gate without any transition assistance. I'm not talking about help looking for jobs, I'm talking about real transition training to help the warrior return to being a civilian.

Ask any veteran who just returned from Iraq or Afghanistan what's the hardest part of returning to the civilian world? It moves too slow or people are worried about insignificant crap. The veteran finds himself (or herself) out of sync with the rest of the world. Priorities are different. Snap decisions that saved their lives in theater are now seen as unacceptable. Their wartime skills have little place in the office cubicle. The US government broke them but nobody is stepping up to buy them.

The bickering in the article shows a decided lack of concern for veterans. More disconcerting though is even the so called experts in veterans affairs still view matters in strictly male terms. We are seeing for the first time a whole generation of women COMBAT veterans. Young women are returning from the battle field missing limbs. Their fine features permanently scarred by roadside bombs, how will they be viewed by a society overly obsessed by physical appearance? How long term exposure to combat will effect women is little understood. What is known is when we speak of veterans affairs, we need to include but males and females.

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