Article

2007-11-08 -Short Attention Span Theater-

Homeless Vets - 1,500 or 194,254 - Who Do You Believe?

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Posted by Anonymoose 2007-11-08 09:04|| || Front Page|| [11127 views ] Top

#1 I really find it hard to believe the larger NAEH numbers. I also do not believe the VA numbers of 20 years ago (250K? give me a break). Sounds like the people who generated the old VA numbers migrated to NAEH.
I am a vet. I am a Vietnam vet. I am a disabled vet. I see lots of vets. I don't see anything like the NAEH numbers.
Shades of Stolen Valor.

Posted by Whiskey Mike 2007-11-08 09:22|| 2007-11-08 09:22|| Front Page Top

#2 I heard this on the radio and had the same reaction. It looks as legitimate as the polls the MSM uses to convince everybody the donks will win every election.

Given that they don't have terrible casualties, military defeats or torture scandals to trumpet, they are sending this up as the new meme to show how terrible the war is.

Posted by Nimble Spemble 2007-11-08 09:31|| 2007-11-08 09:31|| Front Page Top

#3 I have read a number of articles over the years, done by some actual investigative reporters (I'm sure they got shunned for it) and others who state that remaining homeless takes some serious effort. The vast amount of help available from govt and private charities, especially religious ones make it very easy to find at the very least shelter you can stay in, generally without any real effort.

The articles point out the vast majority of homeless are mentally ill that do not accept help or desire to change due to their illness.

Posted by Silentbrick">Silentbrick 2007-11-08 11:11|| 2007-11-08 11:11|| Front Page Top

#4 "The only training I have is infantry training and there's not really a need for that in the civilian world," Kelley said in a phone interview. He has enrolled in college and hopes to move out of the shelter soon.

THE HORROR! This is as stupid as that family with three SUV's that the MSM used to highlight the plight of those without health insurance.

Remember, lots of these kids joined the army because they didn't have a job in the first place. Now the kid can go to college on a GI bill and we are supposed to cry in our beers over his plight.

Posted by Glaling Turkeyneck1651 2007-11-08 11:45|| 2007-11-08 11:45|| Front Page Top

#5 No matter what number you believe, it will drop to zero if and when Hillary! is elected...

Posted by tu3031 2007-11-08 11:48|| 2007-11-08 11:48|| Front Page Top

#6 These numbers are probably based on many homeless self-identify as vets. I talked to two homeless "vets" when volunteering serving dinner at the local shelter...both claimed to be ex-USAF (I live near a major Air Force base). Turned out neither could identify what their AFSC had been or what units they were in. One said he had been a "bombadier" in Vietnam, the other said he had been a "mechanic", but couldn't tell me what kind (jet mech, airframe repair, hydraulic specialist, crew chief, etc.) I have no way to tell if what either of these gentlemen said was true or false. Neither showed me an ID card or DD-214, but they both were very sincere and seemed to truly believe what they said.

Posted by Scotty 2007-11-08 13:49|| 2007-11-08 13:49|| Front Page Top

#7 I got really close to punching a guy who claimed to be a Vietnam Vet, who I quickly calculated would have been 16 years old in 1972. It is very hard not to maim such people.

And most real vets are too damn polite to them. Look what Kerry had to do before they finally lost patience.

But if I EVER meet one that really pisses me off, like claiming to be a "Green Beret SEAL Medal of Honor 'winner'", I known of a small biker gang, all of whom have their service decorations tattooed on their arms and chest. I'm sure they will be more than glad to discuss the matter with the fraud.

Posted by Anonymoose 2007-11-08 14:06|| 2007-11-08 14:06|| Front Page Top

#8 I'd like to echo what Scotty said, a number of homeless panhandler types have discoverd claiming to be a veteran increases the amount of sympathy.

Also the definition of homeless used by most orgnizations is not what we think. Something like 95% of all homeless are homeless for less than a week while they get into contact with someone or get back on their feet thus the line " on any given night were veterans." These are folks that hit a patch of bad luck, not folks that are pathetic the way we think of when we think of homeless.

Posted by rjschwarz 2007-11-08 14:08|| 2007-11-08 14:08|| Front Page Top

#9 The following is about Viet Nam, but since the same meme is being crafted under your very eyes (not to think there aren't vets in very hard conditions, psychologically or materially, of course) :

Dropping The Bomb on Vietnam Myths
...
Widespread Vietnam Veteran homelessness is another myth.

"Back, around the late 70's Teddy Kennedy had a $10 million government grant to have a building in Boston for all the homeless Vietnam veterans. Several of guys gave testimonies about how they ended up on the street after Vietnam, but I got the military records of those individuals and virtually none of them were Vietnam veterans," he said.

Burkett said other investigations have shown that very few "homeless veterans" were in the military.

Another myth he dispelled was the incarceration rate of Vietnam veterans. The prisons are not full of criminal veterans, Burkett said.

"I went to the bureau of prisons and got the statistics, the demographics. At the time there were 1 million men in prison. 55% of those in prison are black, only 10.5% Vietnam Veterans are black. 80% of the incarcerated do not have a high school degree. As I mentioned 90% of Vietnam Veterans do have a high school degree. You can't get in the military with a felony conviction and 80% of the incarcerated have a felony conviction as a youth offender. About 75% came from broken homes, but about 80% of Vietnam Veterans came from a 2-parent home," he said.
...

See also
Statistics and Myths about the Vietnam War

Posted by anonymous5089 2007-11-08 14:14|| 2007-11-08 14:14|| Front Page Top

#10 If they had claimed Navy, I suppose you could have asked them if they remembered what a BT Punch looked like. Or the relative bearing grease.

I never heard any good USAF gags.

Posted by eLarson 2007-11-08 14:14|| http://larsonian.blogspot.com]">[http://larsonian.blogspot.com] 2007-11-08 14:14|| Front Page Top

#11 The other thing is if you're talking Vietnam you have a draft army that is going to have a different disposition than the regular population (seeing that college deferments and such) you're gonna get higher stats than with a highly motivated voluntary military.

Posted by rjschwarz 2007-11-08 14:41|| 2007-11-08 14:41|| Front Page Top

#12 I just watched an advertisement on CNBC for our local rescue mission. I missed the figures, but the text read one in X vets are homeless and had them standing around a trashcan fire, warming themselves as they sang the Star Spangled Banner. It was VERY offensive.

It's funny, because I had one of their money solicitation envelopes on my bill pile as I was going to send a donation for Thanksgiving. I ripped it up. Jerks. I wonder if they paid for that commercial or if the dems gave them the air time for free.

The rescue mission used to provide Christian services but they were forced to stop because they received govn't money. Nice to see that the tax money for the homeless is going for election propaganda instead. Even if the airtime was free, someone had to pay to produce it. Shameful. Sadly - the homeless will suffer from becoming political footballs for the dems. I'm sure they don't care, as long as they win.

Posted by Glaling Turkeyneck1651 2007-11-08 14:47|| 2007-11-08 14:47|| Front Page Top

#13 E Larson - USAF gags include looking for 100 feet of flight line or asking Ops about B1-RDs (birds),GU-11s (Gulls),or a BA-1100N with ST-Rings (ballon with strings).

Posted by Bangkok Billy 2007-11-08 15:52|| 2007-11-08 15:52|| Front Page Top

#14 According to my father, two of the favorite gags of the Missile Crews to play on the new guys was:

1. The PA Gurgle Test - Basically flush the toilet and count how many times it gurgles

2. Stuffing an old fashioned alarm clock behind an screwed on empty panel in the panel section for the silo/perimeter alarms. Always set for a nice time like 2-4 am. To even get at the thing, you had to figure out which blank panel it was behind and unscrew it.

Posted by Silentbrick">Silentbrick 2007-11-08 17:52|| 2007-11-08 17:52|| Front Page Top

#15 The local homeless advocates like to talk about how there are 2500 homeless people in a city of 95000. The mayor had the cops count all of the homeless in town and they came up with around 20 give or take. I guess it just depends on what your definition of "Homeless" is.

Posted by Chedderhead 2007-11-08 19:16|| 2007-11-08 19:16|| Front Page Top

#16 FRONTPAGE MAGZ > LAMENTING THE SOVIET COLLAPSE. PProf argues that the post-USSR/COld War prob for the world is UNJUST RAPACIOUS CAPITALISM, ERGO ANSWER = PROPER RESPONSE TO COUNTER THE FORMER IS SOCIALISM. Move along boyz - clearly obviously NO FASCISTS-FOR-COMMUNISTS,
LIBERTARIANS/ANARCHISTS-FOR GOVTISM, etc. HERE!?

Posted by JosephMendiola 2007-11-08 20:52|| 2007-11-08 20:52|| Front Page Top

#17 These numbers, even without the sympathy card for Vets, are WAY over-inflated. I go to work in downtown Atlanta (the Black "Mecca") and see what I used to think was a HUGE homeless problem. I'm in a newer Fed. gov't building (one of those "social experiments", where they plopped a whole bunch of Fed. employees in the most rundown part of town, hoping to "spruce it up."), at virtually "ground zero" for homelessness in Atlanta. And, on any given day, I recognize maybe 30-40 homeless folks walking around. Only 3-4 of them do I recognize as being there day-in/day-out, and all of those definitely have mental illness issues.

I'd be willing to bet there aren't 194,254 homeless folks across this entire nation, especially if we mean truly homeless.

Posted by BA 2007-11-08 21:10|| 2007-11-08 21:10|| Front Page Top

#18 After living with Mrs. Bobby and me for five years, Bobby's brother got turned out - with six week's notice - and became a homeless person for a month. Then he got a job as a dorm monitor with a Christian college and seems quite happy now, thank you very much.

He has since thanked me for helping him on his path, by the way.

Posted by Bobby 2007-11-08 22:47|| 2007-11-08 22:47|| Front Page Top

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