Posted on 01/24/2013 4:47:34 PM PST by moonshinner_09
Killeen's homeless have nowhere to go, and that means dozens, possibly hundreds of our veterans are stuck out in the cold.
More than 62 thousand American veterans are living on the streets.
Nickie, a 58-yr old Vietnam Marine veteran, is one of them, but the Fort Hood area doesn't have any homeless shelters, turning cold nights into life or death battles that leave Nickie wondering.
"Am I going to make it until tomorrow? Am I going to make it, straight up," said Nickie with tears in his eyes.
A few warming centers open, but only when temperatures dip below freezing, and as soon as Killeen Mayor Dan Corbin was elected, he made his opinion about that known.
(Excerpt) Read more at kcentv.com ...
When it gets too cold or hot they can go to a VA hospital emergency room and declare they are suicidal. This gets them into the psych ward where they tell the shrink they are alcoholic or drug addicted. This gets them a few weeks in an inpatient rehab program.
Call ex-Mayor Ray Nagin (New Orleans). He had plenty of buses for the homeless to live in. Oh, I forgot, so did he.
Call FEMA; They have hundreds of buses and mobile homes for the victims of Sandy.
Oh, I forgot. So did they.
Call Mayor Bloomberg. He’s got the money for everyone. Right?
Call Hollywood liberals. They’ll help. Right?
Nevermind!
I can see “Homeless” becoming a whole lot more common in our near future.
Think about it ... most folks can’t afford to go Galt.
I’m about 3 payments away from my Mortgage burning party, but then after that always paycheck away from not being able to pay my Tax... I can’t figure out a way to be debt free.
TT
I think a large number of “homeless veterans” never served a day. I think a lot of panhandlers use “veteran” as a hook for sympathy.
Especially the young “veterans” that I’ve talked to can’t keep up a believable story for 5 seconds when directly asked about their service.
I think, with ALL due respect to my fellow FReepers, that those of you on this thread miss the point.
This has nothing to do with homelessness; poor veterans. It has nothing to do with caring, wanting to care for these damaged, wayward souls.
It has EVERYthing to do with showing that veterans are damaged goods. They number in the tens of thousands, donchaknow....the article says so. If you’re a veteran, you’re mind-f**ked and a threat to society.
Do I need to connect the final dot(s)?
“the only people that are truly “homeless” are ones who choose to be, due to addiction (the shelters won’t allow drugs or alcohol consumption) or mental illness.”
Drugs and alcohol I get but mental illness is not a choice. They should have families taking care of them but all too often families can’t or won’t deal with them. We should have never have done away with places for the mentally ill. I know they were bad but they could have been made better. We put more pressure on the local dog pound to have a clean place than we did for the mentally ill.
I think it’s a shame that there isn’t some where for them to be housed, though.
I am sorry but they did serve their country but what the heck have they been doing the last 40 years? Seriously something THEY did is how this because a problem. No we do not need to use government money to house every dang person in the U.S. This is getting ridiculous and why we are broke.
“It has EVERYthing to do with showing that veterans are damaged goods. They number in the tens of thousands, donchaknow....the article says so. If you’re a veteran, you’re mind-f**ked and a threat to society.”
Oh I know some of them may be mentally ill. We should have more veterans homes for them. This just sucks.
You were in 'Nam? So were we. Where?
I was in...Sang Bang... Dang Gong... I was all over the place, a lot of places.
What unit?
I was with the Green Berets, Special Unit Battalions... Commando Airborne Tactics... Specialist Tactics Unit Battalion. Yeah, it was real hush hush. I was Agent Orange, Special Agent Orange, that was me.
****** “I just checked the dates. The last troop level listed for US troops was fifty troops in 1973 and none after that.” ******
Last Draftee was 1973 ... I was in Basic at the time ... I heard the news on the Radio along with 79 of my fellow trainees (they had the nerve to interrupt Alice Cooper “No More Mr Nice Guy”)
I joined because I wanted to, I had no idea that folks joined the Navy to avoid Army Draft (I was 17), all training that day was postponed so folks could dry their tears and get right again. I was basically Forest Gump and didn’t understand but was still upset that they interrupted Alice Cooper (from a Radio playing in a window from the Company next to us) come to think of it I have had various stages of Forest Gump in my life... the older I get the more times (segments of my life) I can identify as Forest Gump stages.
Too bad Forest Gump never said “Live and Learn”
TT
PS We (as in the Ship I was on) did have a Fire Mission in 1974 in Viet Nam and we were fired upon... got pictures and everything
If so, he's about the youngest one out there.
We ended the war 40 years ago this summer, and realistically speaking the chances of him turning 18, going through basic and then being deployed while the US was already withdrawing large numbers of troops seem very improbable.
I didn't realize that fire support missions were still going on as late as 1974. What ship did you serve on? I was on the Hoel (DDG-13) in missile fire control.
Do the math...
Yes, he could be a Vietnam Veteran.
Saigon fell in 1975, but we stopped deploying new units to Vietnam in early 1973.
“This makes no sense. There is a whole lot of nothing off post at Fort Hood. No place to look for a job. But just North on the highway is Waco, and South is Austin, with much better prospects in either.”
Then why do we have so many Damn Yankees (northerners that come down here and stay)filling up our county.
The Temple, Belton, Killeen, Fort Hood, Coperas Cove Economic Area is one of the most healthy in the country with new construction everywhere.
I would also like to know where all of the homeless vets are in Killeen; they are not along the freeways with cardboard signs as they are in Austin...
I did the math. That's what raised the question in my mind.
Yes, he could be a Vietnam Veteran.
See my post #20. Yes, it's possible that he could be.
Still true. Nolanville loves speeding soldiers.
Fact is, this government treats our veterans like cheet...
"Is there a problem, officer?"
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