Homeless Vietnam veteran reunited with family

Couple reunites homeless veteran with family

FOX Carolina
Nicole Valdes
January 5, 2019

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (KNXV ) -- What started as a regular day at a Valley grocery store, has led to a life-long friendship.

“We saw him just holding this five dollar bill and just kind of wondering around," said Stephanie Blackbird. "He didn’t look well... He looked lost and I couldn’t walk away, I couldn’t in good conscience walk away without at least checking on this man.”

Stephanie, and her husband Al, met Alan Vandevander at a Whole Foods in North Scottsdale. They helped him get some food, started up a conversation, then parted ways, but the Blackbirds couldn't get the frail homeless man off their minds.

The next morning, they reconnected with him and helped him get to a hospital. Alan was severely malnourished.

“He said I’m glad they found me cause I was in trouble.” said Blackbird.

After getting to know him, the Blackbirds did some digging and found out Alan has quite the story. He served in Vietnam, and was awarded a purple heart, but he had also been missing for 40 years. His family in Indiana had no idea Alan was still alive.

“I started looking for him in 1990 and I kept coming across dead ends," said Alan's sister, Julie Vandevander. She says she last spoke to her brother in the 80's. “I never ever thought I would hear from my brother again.”
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72 Year old homeless veteran doused with water by firefighter?

Officials investigating accusation that KC firefighter doused homeless camp with water on frigid night

FOX 4 Kentucky

Sean McCowell

January 2, 2019

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- It's being called an act of needless cruelty.

A homeless man said Kansas City firefighters doused him with water from their hoses, and he said it happened on one of the coldest nights of the winter. Kansas City officials confirm an investigation into the matter is underway.

The underpass at 20th and Oak streets is cold, but it's home to several people who have nowhere else to go.

One of them, 72-year-old Phil Bucalo, said workers from Kansas City Fire Department came to put out his campfire early Tuesday morning. When they did, he said they intentionally flooded him and his belongings on the cold night.

Bucalo, a native of New York City, said it was only a small fire, and since he now lives on the streets of KC, it was his means of keeping warm.

"I said, 'Look, if this little fire here presents a problem, I'd be more than happy to put it out,'" Bucalo said.

But Bucalo, who said he once served in the U.S. Army, said the firefighter with the hose in his hand didn't care, and water from that hose doused the fire, as well as Bucalo and all of his belongings, in weather that went below 20 degrees.

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VA caused empty beds at homeless veterans shelter?

SLC Housing Authority sends demand letter to VA, saying building to house homeless veterans had vacant beds for years

FOX 13 News

Taylor Hartman

January 1, 2019

SALT LAKE CITY — The Housing Authority of Salt Lake City issued a demand letter to the local Veteran Affairs office Monday, stating that the department needed to change policies that left beds at a property built for homeless veterans vacant for years.

The housing authority said in their letter that the VA should replace their staff with the non-profit First Step House, an organization based in Salt Lake City that specializes in addiction recovery.

In the letter, the housing authority said the high vacancy at Valor House caused extreme cuts in funding for the facility:

“The mix of regulatory barriers to tenancy put in place by the local VA caused this property to average over 30% vacancy for the past several years—a total of approximately 11,000 empty bed nights at a time when many veterans are struggling on the street or in substandard living conditions. This high vacancy rate led to extreme cuts in HASLC’s federal grant funding for the facility, causing a deficit of over $100,000 per year and almost $1 million to date.  Until now, this loss has been covered by HASLC using funds taken from other housing programs in order to prevent the veterans who did manage to get placed at Valor House from becoming homeless again.”

The housing authority said local VA staff controlled all tenant screenings and selection decisions, and routinely screened out applicants.

“For the applicants that did get housed, the local VA staff were rewarded with bonuses in pay for each veteran quickly relocated out from the property to other types of housing, a policy that incentivized rejection of veteran applicants stigmatized from past drug or alcohol addiction, and other conditions that could make rapid placement in other housing more difficult,” the letter said.

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PTSD Patrol: It came on a pink scooter

Pink scooter fuel by love

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
December 30, 2018

Every once in a while, I am inspired beyond what words I can add to a topic. In one of those moods, where words just did not come, I searched some of my older videos. It came on a pink scooter. 

I was thinking about a lot of miracles that still happen and remembered the story of a homeless veteran. It is one of those stories that you think cannot be true. But it is. I know because I was at his funeral.

Thursday, March 25, 2010


Vietnam Vet Andrew Elmer Wright found a home as a homeless vet
A simple casket with an American flag for Vietnam Veteran Andrew Elmer Wright.

A simple bouquet of flowers was placed with a simple photo a church member snapped.

By all accounts, Andrew was a simple man with simple needs but what was evident today is that Andrew was anything but a "simple" man.

A few days ago I received an email from Chaplain Lyle Schmeiser, DAV Chapter 16, asking for people to attend a funeral for a homeless Vietnam veteran. After posting about funerals for the forgotten for many years across the country, I felt compelled to attend.

As I drove to the Carey Hand Colonial Funeral Home, I imagined an empty room knowing how few people would show up for a funeral like this. All the other homeless veteran stories flooded my thoughts and this, I thought, would be just one more of them.

When I arrived, I discovered the funeral home was paying for the funeral. Pastor Joel Reif, of First United Church of Christ asked them if they could help out to bury this veteran and they did. They put together a beautiful service with Honor Guard and a 21 gun salute by the VFW post.

I asked a man there what he knew about Andrew and his eyes filled. He smiled and then told me how Andrew wouldn't drink the water from the tap. He'd send this man for bottled water, always insisting on paying for it. When the water was on sale, he'd buy Andrew an extra case of water but Andrew was upset because the man didn't use the extra money for gas.

Then Pastor Joel filled in more of Andrew's life. Andrew got back from Vietnam, got married and had children. His wife passed away and Andrew remarried. For some reason the marriage didn't work out. Soon the state came to take his children away. Andrew did all he could to get his children back, but after years of trying, he gave up and lost hope.

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Homeless veterans shipping into tiny homes

Shipping containers being turned into 'tiny homes' for homeless vets

Las Vegas Now 8 ABC News
Cristen Drummond
December 11, 2018

"My vision is that we have no veteran that is homeless and that we never use the words United States veteran and homelessness in the same sentence." Arnold Stalk

LAS VEGAS - A local group has found a way to help America's veterans who are struggling with homelessness. There was a groundbreaking Tuesday on a new project that will provide more housing at the Veterans Village.

Veterans Village is dedicated to making sure that those who served our country are not left behind if they fall on hard times.

There is an apartment complex that serves as homes for veterans and now some tiny homes are being added to the village.

The homes are each made from an old shipping container, around 320-square feet, including a bedroom, kitchenette, living room, bathroom and shower.

With the help of donations and federal grants, Veterans Village is able to offer them to homeless vets for just a few hundred dollars per month.
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Homeless vet Johnny Bobbitt appears in court

GoFundMe case: Homeless vet Johnny Bobbitt appears in court

ABC 6 News
December 7, 2018

MT. HOLLY, N.J. (WPVI) -- Johnny Bobbitt, the homeless veteran accused of trying to scam GoFundMe donors, appeared before a judge on Friday.

Wearing an orange jumpsuit, the 35-year-old appeared via closed-circuit video.

The prosecution asked he be held for trial without the option for bail.

Bobbitt has yet to formally hear the charges against him, although the Burlington County prosecutor publicly announced Bobbitt will be facing charges of fraud by deception and conspiracy.
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THEY NEED TO ADDRESS THE NEEDS OF FEMALE VETERANS?

'Invisible Veteran' Multiple organizations claim female veterans are under-served in Jacksonville

That is the headline on First Coast News, and this is what the news was.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- A group of veterans and local organizations say female veterans have gone under-served and unfunded for too long. First Coast News met with four local veterans from different branches of the military and different organizations who all came to the same consensus, insisting there is a problem in Jacksonville for women who served, despite Duval County having the highest number of female veterans in the state.

But is sure as hell is not news to us!

This was in the report.

Nicole Gray is a U.S. Army and Navy veteran and founder of Got Your Six Female Veteran Support Service. She says she knows how it feels first hand. "Roughly four-and-a-half years ago, I was homeless and sleeping in a car here in Jacksonville. I went to various organizations for assistance, but because I didn’t have children and didn’t deploy to war I was ineligible for assistance," said Gray.

In 2007, they opened a PTSD clinic just for female veterans in Cincinnati.

By 2008 there was this report about the need to address female veterans as veterans.

Though VA officials say they are conducting a survey on women’s experiences at their facilities, as well as offering programs specifically for women, proponents of the proposed bill say it would target areas VA has not addressed. It follows a similar House bill proposed by Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., and Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Fla.

Murray’s bill will ask for:

• Assessment and treatment of women who have suffered sexual trauma in the military.
• More use of evidence-based treatment for women — particularly in areas such as post-traumatic stress disorder, where responses may be different or involve different issues than it does for men.
• A long-term study on gender-specific health issues of female veterans.
“One of the things we started to see early on is that there’s a lot we don’t know,” said Joy Ilem, assistant national legislative director for Disabled American Veterans.

SO WHY THE HELL ARE THEY STILL SAYING THEY NEED TO ADDRESS THE NEEDS OF FEMALE VETERANS? 

81 year old veteran living out of his car met guardian cop!

OFFICER GOES ABOVE AND BEYOND JOB DUTIES TO HELP OUT 81-YEAR-OLD HOMELESS VETERAN

Beloit Daily News
Austin Montgomery
November 29, 2018

"I felt so compelled that he should not be living out of his car as a veteran any longer," Rohrer said.

Austin Montgomery/Beloit Daily News Veteran patrol officer Eric Rohrer helped a homeless Korean War veteran get out of the cold last week. Rohrer said he's always looked to help Beloit area residents over his 11 years with the department.

BELOIT - Over the course of his 11 years with the Beloit Police Department, patrol officer Eric Rohrer has always looked to help others.

Last week his commitment to service was on full display after Rohrer, who works the department's second shift, was dispatched to the Beloit Clinic on Huebbe Parkway to help a homeless veteran find shelter as temperatures dropped on Monday night.

After speaking with the 81-year-old named Peter and trying to find temporary housing to no avail, Rohrer took it upon himself to buy the man two night's accommodation at the Rodeway Inn in Beloit.

"It's not something I want recognition for, but it's something that I honestly believe any of my brothers and sisters that I serve with would have done the same thing in that circumstance," Rohrer said.

In talking with staff at the Beloit Clinic and learning the man's background, he found out that Peter had served in the Korean War and had been living out of his car for the last two years.

"He was well-spoken, and at the age of 81 he should not have been living out of his car," Rohrer said. "I don't make all the money in the world, but I am blessed enough to pass my fortunes along to others."
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Homeless Veterans ride Orlando

Homeless Veterans Ride

This morning out at the "Bunker" Cpl. Larry E. Smedley museum, bikers set out at 10:00 for a poker run. They did it for homeless veterans!

USMC veteran lived in New Zealand as homeless veteran and died there

Homeless man found dead in Auckland was 'humble' US Army veteran

Stuff.com New Zealand
Harrison Christian
Nov 24 2018

"Miller was a humble man, a US veteran with an honorable discharge from the US Marine Corps," she said.

Miller Patane, 58, was a US army veteran who once appeared on the front page of the NZ Herald receiving a slice of wedding cake from generous newlyweds.

Workers at an Auckland local board arrived at their office last Wednesday morning to find a rough sleeper bundled up in a blanket on the front steps of their office.

The bundle didn't move, and it was soon apparent the man inside was dead.

Morning commuters streamed past the dismal scene on Dominion Rd as police arrived and the body was taken away in an ambulance. Staff and elected members of the Albert-Eden local board were offered counselling.

The man was 58 year old Miller Patane, a US Army veteran who grew up in Ōtara and had been homeless for decades.

His large Mormon family, many of whom live in the US, came to New Zealand this week to farewell him. His younger sister, Moana Patane Gasu, received word of his death from the NZ police at her home in Utah.
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Yes you saw that right. The article was not corrected even though his sister said he was in the Marine Corps. 

This is what happens when reporters run with "stuff that was made up"

GoFundMe campaign to help homeless vet was 'predicated on a lie,' prosecutor says

ABC News
By AARON KATERSKY 
BILL HUTCHINSON
Nov 15, 2018

The "heartwarming tale" of a New Jersey couple helping drug-addicted homeless veteran Johnny Bobbitt was "predicated on a lie," designed to dupe thousands of people into contributing to a GoFundMe campaign, a prosecutor said Thursday.

Bobbitt, and the couple, Kate McClure and Mark D'Amico, allegedly conspired to concoct a story to tug at the hearts and wallets of kindhearted individuals, Burlington County Prosecutor Scott Coffina said at a news conference Thursday. They initially sought to raise $10,000. But the wildly successful GoFundMe campaign brought in over $400,000.

But every shred of the trio's story, including the part that Bobbitt used his last $20 to help McClure out of a roadside jam when she ran out of gas, was all bogus, Coffina said.

"The entire campaign was predicated on a lie," Coffina said. "Less than an hour after the GoFundMe campaign went live McClure, in a text exchange with a friend, stated that the story about Bobbitt assisting her was fake."

In one of the texts read by Coffina, McClure allegedly wrote to a friend, "Ok, so wait, the gas part is completely made up but the guy isn't. I had to make something up to make people feel bad. So, shush about the made up stuff."
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And yet when this report from the VA came out in April, no one cared.

Analysis of a nationally representative survey of U.S. veterans in 2015 shows that veterans with a history of homelessness attempted suicide in the previous two years at a rate 5.0 times higher compared with veterans without a history of homelessness (6.9% versus 1.2%), and their rates of two-week suicidal ideation were 2.5 times higher (19.8% versus 7.4%).

Oh, sure, they go onto Facebook, find something they can use and bingo! Instant fame...and usually fortune follows.

In one of the earliest reports from NJ.com on this scam, there was this toward the end.

In the weeks since, she’s returned to the spot along I-95 where Johnny stays with cash, snacks and Wawa gift cards. Each time she’s stopped by with her boyfriend, Mark D’Amico, they’ve learned a bit more about Johnny’s story, and become humbled by his gratitude. Eventually, the Florence Township couple knew they had to do something more.“I would say, ‘I keep thinking about that guy,’” D’Amico said. And McClure was thinking about Johnny, too. 

So they launched a GoFundMe campaign, putting an ambitious $10,000 goal and hoping to rein in a few hundred dollars to book Johnny a motel for a few nights where he could clean up, and start to get back on his feet. In just over a week, the campaign has garnered more than $5,000 in donations, and continues to grow.

Associated Press picked the story up two days later on November 22, 2017.

After all, I do not believe what I see on Facebook unless I can track it back to...you guessed it, an actual news story.

Assuming that reporters actually did their jobs, asked questions and made sure what they were told was actually the truth, should have all of us questioning other things they "shared" that turned out to be far from the truth.

If you read Wounded Times, I am sure you know exactly where I am going with this. Straight to the crap about "raising awareness" on "22" veterans killing themselves and how the talkers seem to be getting a lot more attention for a rumor than the veterans they are supposed to know about.

After all, how can anyone "raise awareness" unless they have vast knowledge on the subject. You know. Taken a lot of time to understand what they are supposed to be sharing with the masses. You'd think a topic as important enough to cause them to spend so much time putting attention on, would actually do something to address the "problem" they claim matters so much. But then again, you'd have to assume they had any intention of changing the outcome.

So, social media pushed their stunts and pushups but it seems as if no one on social media bothered to ask them what their stunts would do to save a life.

No one asked them what qualified them to take on such a serious matter, or even why they deserved the money. No one asked if that number was the truth. Hey, maybe everyone just assumed that since they read about it in news reports, it had to be true.

The problem is, the people getting all the attention, and funds, for talking about the headline, did not even think it was important enough to read anything beyond the headline.

Gee, do you think they might have found the report itself important? Do you think they may have wanted to see what had been done over the previous 4 decades to discover what worked and know what failed before they took to social media and contacted the press?

Now there is an awakening going on but it is too late for far too many to apologize, unless you want to go to a cemetery, if they had enough money for a funeral. 

Next time something is worthy of your support, make sure it really is or we are going to continue to see the "awareness" folks get rich off the suffering they had no intentions of changing. 

Veteran Army Pilot Helps Homeless Vets Get Back on Their Feet

Former Army Pilot Helps Homeless Vets Get Back on Their Feet: ‘What She’s Done for Me Saved My Life’

PEOPLE
Susan Keating
November 9, 2018

One former Marine, Christopher S.W. Quincer, had lost everything — his job, housing and family — before Snyder found him five years ago in a shelter. “She got me into housing, and paid my first six months rent,” says Quincer, 43. She helped him get a job, reunited him with his family and Quincer now runs a successful company.

Former Army helicopter pilot Deborah Snyder has gone from the cockpit to the boardroom to take on an important mission: finding homes for veterans who don’t have a place to live.

“I don’t think we should have homeless vets,” Snyder, a retired lieutenant colonel, tells PEOPLE. “It’s a fixable problem.”

Since 2011, Snyder, 53, and her organization, the Operation Renewed Hope Foundation, have fixed the problem for more than 800 homeless veterans in the Washington, D.C., area.

“We find housing for them, and help in other ways too,” Snyder says, noting that the organization’s services include help with transportation, jobs and medical services.
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Roxbury Social Services got Vietnam Veteran out of car..now needs help

Helping a Homeless Vet Drains Roxbury Social Services Account

Tap Into Roxbury
By FRED J. AUN
October 30, 2018

Roxbury Social Services can be reached at (973) 448-2026. Wald can be emailed at waldj@roxburynj.us. Donations can also be made through Friends of Roxbury Social Services.

ROXBURY, NJ – When Roxbury Social Services Director Janet Wald learned about the Vietnam veteran living in his car, Wald did what she usually does: Everything she could to help.

Her efforts aided the fellow, at least temporarily, but they also pretty much wiped out the money Social Services sets aside for temporary housing of the homeless.

The matter was raised by Roxbury Councilman Bob DeFillippo at a recent meeting of the Roxbury Mayor and Council. He asked Roxbury residents to donate some money to help replenish Wald’s temporary housing account.

“Social Services could really use some help, so I’m giving a shout-out to the community,” Defillippo said. “Janet could use some donations … to replenish that housing budget.”

Wald said she expended about $1,200 helping the man.

“This gentleman, a veteran, was also a New York City policeman and a 9/11 responder,” Wald said. “He ended up homeless. He was living out of his car.”

On top of that, the 69-year-old was suffering from a “pretty big hole” in his foot caused by an ulcer and was “going back and forth to a doctor,” according to Wald.
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Tiny Homes for homeless veterans face "code" issues

Veteran's tiny home collides with Kitsap County code

KING 5 News
Author: Tad Sooter, Kitsap Sun
October 26, 2018

Lynam said there are ways for Rye and his tiny home to remain on the property. The county allows "special care units," essentially small homes for people who need care due to a health condition or other circumstances. Rye's home would likely qualify, he said. Under a recently-passed transitory accommodations ordinance, a property owner can also provide space for an RV or other shelter to house a homeless household for up to 180 days.

Volunteers transformed a bare trailer chassis into a tidy framed house for a Navy veteran. But a complaint led county staff to inspect the property where the home was located and found it collided with county code.

SEABECK — Sam Rye's tiny house is a palace compared to his last abode.

The former Navy machinist camped in a tent in state parks around the Kitsap Peninsula before military buddies banded together a year ago to help him build a little house on wheels. Big retailers donated supplies for the project.

Volunteers transformed a bare trailer chassis into a tidy framed house, with a bedroom, composting toilet, kitchen and cozy living room. The electric fireplace flickered beneath a flat-screen TV on Tuesday as Rye discussed his diminutive dwelling with pride.
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Homeless Veteran William Eugene Weeks Buried with Honor

Oklahoma homeless veteran laid to rest, honored with dignified military services

KOKO News
October 24, 2018

OKLAHOMA CITY
An Oklahoma homeless veteran was laid to rest Wednesday in Oklahoma City. He was given full military honors. Go here for video

VA Security Guard sent away homeless veteran despite rules

Left in cold by VA medical center, homeless veteran finds kindness in strangers

Boston Globe
Brian MacQuarrie
Globe Staff
October 22, 2018

VA officials said they have no record of an encounter that night between Franks and VA security officers. Under the Bedford VA’s policy, any veteran who turns up homeless can be sheltered in the urgent-care area if no other beds are available, agency officials said.

CRAIG F. WALKER/GLOBE STAFF Navy veteran Norman Franks spent four months in a cramped tent in a campsite on the grounds of Hanscom Air Force Base. (Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff)

BEDFORD — At 2 a.m. on a chilly May morning, Norman Franks sat slumped in a chair in a TV lounge at the Department of Veterans Affairs medical center, fighting for snatches of sleep under the glare of ceiling lights, he said.

A Navy veteran of the late 1970s, Franks had led a troubled life. His addiction to crack cocaine led to a long series of armed robberies, which led to 15 years in prison. Now, he found himself homeless.

Franks wanted a clean start, but first he needed a place to live. With no good options, he made his way to the Bedford veterans complex, an outpost of a sprawling federal agency that takes its motto from Abraham Lincoln’s promise “to care for him who shall have borne the battle.”

Instead, he spent the night in the woods, shivering under a tarp. He stayed there for four of the next five nights, then spent the next four months in a cramped tent in a campsite on the grounds of Hanscom Air Force Base.

As the weeks passed, Franks fell deeper into despair. But slowly, unexpectedly, he was reclaiming some of his life, thanks to a devoted group of strangers — members of an American Legion post, volunteers from a Catholic parish, even from a congressman’s staff — who felt obliged to aid a veteran in need.
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From Firehouse to Homeless Veterans House in Santa Rosa

Veterans find new affordable housing in old Santa Rosa firehouse

Press Democrat
Will Schmitt
October 19, 2018

About 40 veterans have housing vouchers but cannot find a place to live due to Sonoma County’s shortage of affordable housing, officials said. “We need about a thousand of these,” Mayor Chris Coursey said at Friday’s open house. “Maybe not a thousand, but we need a lot of these.”

Kent Porter/Press Democrat

Traci Swank-Chrisco can’t wait to move in. Standing between the old Benton Street firehouse and a new apartment complex, she reminisced about being homeless twice in her life, including a stretch where she was raising her son. The Santa Rosa native and former Army private has a place with roommates now, but the second-floor apartment at the new Benton Veterans Village will be just for her when she moves in next week.

“It’s the first place that I’ve had since I got out of the Army that I don’t have to share with a lover, a child, or a roommate,” she said. “It’s monumental.”

The new homes for Swank- Chrisco and six other formerly homeless veterans are part of the $3.6 million Benton Veterans Village development, which came to be through a joint effort led by the nonprofit developer Community Housing Sonoma County. The new apartments were built adjacent to the repurposed Santa Rosa firehouse, which in recent years has served as a food pantry.

An open house was held Friday to celebrate the progress and the promise of the property.
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CNN Hero PTSD Veteran Chris Stout Helping All Generations

CNN HERO CHRIS STOUT

WTVA
CNN
Posted: Oct. 19, 2018

Chris Stout's nonprofit provides tiny houses and support to homeless veterans and assists any local vet with jobs, transportation and other issues.
"It provides everything these guys need to live with dignity, safely, and then fix what got them there in the first place." 

Leo Morris served in the Air Force. Karen Carter patrolled with the Coast Guard. Henry Owens enlisted in the Navy.

These veterans all served their country. They've also shared another experience: homelessness.

"You feel a sense of desperation, loneliness," said Owens, who was homeless for eight years. "I had no hope."

Today, they have another common bond: They are neighbors. Each one lives in a tiny home in the Veterans' Village in Kansas City, Missouri -- run by the Veterans Community Project.

The nonprofit is the vision of a group of young veterans led by former US Army Corporal Chris Stout.

After being wounded in Afghanistan in 2005 and returning home, Stout struggled with his injury and PTSD. He enjoyed being around veterans and got a job connecting vets to services they needed. But he was frustrated by the gaps and inefficiencies he saw. At times, Stout used his own money to put homeless veterans up in hotel rooms.

In 2015, he and a few buddies quit their jobs and started their organization.

"We are the place that says 'yes' first and figures everything else out later," Stout said. "We serve anybody who's ever raised their hand to defend our Constitution."

Stout found that many homeless veterans didn't like traditional shelters because they were unsafe or lacked privacy. When he learned about tiny homes, he quickly realized that a cluster of them made a lot of sense.
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No longer homeless veteran painted powerful mural

Former homeless veteran's mural highlights the journey of a soldier

WEAU 13 News

By Jessica Bringe
Oct 18, 2018

Zimmerman explained, “Here what we see is really celebrating the individual, the uniqueness of the individual, and then helping that individual overcome whatever challenges they may have faced in life.

CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. (WEAU) -- A once homeless veteran is revealing some of the struggles faced by soldiers returning to civilian life through his work as an artist.

A mural unveiling was held Thursday at Klein Hall in Chippewa Falls.

Klein hall provides housing and programming for homeless veterans and Veterans and Housing Recovery Program member James Heber said he wanted to give back to the facility by using talents he's been perfecting since he was 8-years-old.

“This to me is something to give back to help people understand that there's more than one type of person who is a veteran,” said Heber.

Heber said painting the 36-foot long and 6-foot high work of art took more than 800-hours but said each brush stoke was therapeutic.

“Spending time at night just peacefulness of painting it to help me understand where I've been and where others have been,” said Heber. “I've heard stories of people who have been here of what they've went through so it's just been an very amazing journey.”

The mural aims to really paint a story from a soldier’s enlistment to basic training to battles with homelessness and addiction to finally recovery and even home ownership.
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