Dr. Eowyn posted: " There is an epidemic of homelessness and joblessness
among our military veterans. Shameful! The Philadelphia Inquirer reports
(via military.com), Jan. 6, 2014, that as of January 2012, more than 60,000
veterans were homeless, according to the Depar" Respond to this post by
replying above this line
New post on *Fellowship of the Minds*
<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/author/eowyn2/> 60,000 U.S. military
veterans are
homeless<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/2014/01/15/60000-u-s-military-veterans-are-homeless/>
by
Dr. Eowyn <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/author/eowyn2/>
[image: homeless
veterans]<http://fellowshipofminds.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/homeless-veterans.jpg>
There is an epidemic of homelessness and joblessness among our military
veterans. Shameful!
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports (via
military.com<http://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/01/06/air-force-colonel-goes-from-pentagon-to-homelessness.html?ESRC=dod.nl>),
Jan. 6, 2014, that* as of January 2012, more than 60,000 veterans were
homeless, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.* Reducing that
number supposedly is a priority for the Obama administration. Although the
number of homeless veterans dropped 24% nationwide from 2009 to 2013,
Pennsylvania is an exception where the number actually increased 46%, to
more than 1,400.
Our veterans' homelessness is partly because of joblessness. A monthly
lunch in Washington, D.C. attracts about 200 veterans. After they eat, the
men and women who are unemployed stand up one by one to recite their
service records, hoping someone else in the room will hire them. Many are
highly accomplished.
[image: Retired Air Force Col. Robert Freniere]
One of the homeless and jobless veterans is 59-year-old *Robert Freniere*,
a former colonel in the U.S. Air Force who retired in 2006 after braving
multiple combat zones. (pic left)
After a 30-year military career in which he earned three graduate degrees,
rose to the rank of colonel, and served as an aide to Pentagon brass,
Freniere is unemployed and lives out of his blue minivan crammed with all
his possessions and held together with duct tape.
He'd even tried getting a job as a janitor. But his plea for help to a
janitor he once had praised when the man was mopping the floors of his
Washington office, went unfulfilled. So have dozens of job applications
that he'd filled out six hours a day, day after day, on public library
computers.
How does he cope?
Freniere told the Philadelpia Inquirer, "You stay calm. That's what we were
trained for when I went through survival training."
Last month, Freniere teared up as he asked for advice on finding a paycheck
from Adm. James Hogg, who had officiated at Freniere's retirement ceremony
in 2006 and hailed him as "a leading light."
In an interview, Hogg described Freniere as "very smart" with "the gift of
gab" and thought it "crazy" that the vet is jobless. "With all his
experience, especially in intelligence, there's got to be a spot for him."
But jobs are hard to come by. Freniere, like many of his fellow
down-on-their-luck veterans, does not match any hat-in-hand Hollywood image
of homelessness. He receives an annual pension from the military of more
than $40,000.
His struggle to find a job after retiring from the Air Force collided with
the end of his marriage nearly two years ago. Unable to return to the home
he shared with his estranged wife, and faced with expenses including bills
for two sons in college and debts that mounted in his former a nicer
lifestyle, he took up a nomadic existence. Between spells on the couches of
friends in multiple states, he sleeps occasionally in motels and other
times in the dented blue van.
[image: homeless vets by
states]<http://fellowshipofminds.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/homeless-vets-by-states.jpg>
The Philadelphia Inquirer veried the bulk of Freniere's story, which is
confirmed by military records. His is a story of service.
Born in 1954, Freniere was an Eagle Scout and joined the Army in 1976, and
later the Air Force as an intelligence officer. As he moved through the
ranks, he served in combat zones in Somalia, Panama, Haiti, and Kuwait,
earned master's degrees in political science and criminal justice at the
University of Cincinnati and a master's in national security and strategic
studies from the Naval War College.
Freniere moved to the Pentagon in 2000 and was there when it was hit by
terrorists Sept. 11, 2001. Two years later, he became special assistant to
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, then the vice director of operations of the Joint
Staff.
In 2005, Freniere volunteered to go to Iraq. But as he was preparing to
deploy, his legs went numb one day, followed by back surgery. Instead of
flying to Iraq, he spent a year and a half convalescing. In 2006, he
retired from the Air Force.
After his retirement, it took him a year to find work. Like many retired
servicemen, he turned to jobs with defense contractors which took him twice
to Afghanistan. When he came home, he had nowhere to go after separating
from his second wife.
Freniere said he had not been able to find a contracting job since August
2012 and blames the federal sequestration for squeezing contractors of
money and of the confidence to hire people.
Freniere's dyslexia makes focusing on a computer screen difficult. Online
applications are so hard for him that tears well in his eyes as he
describes his days at public libraries.
But Freniere said that he had not lost hope: "I'm a military guy. I'm
mission-oriented. You don't give up. I've got a lot of good experience.
I've got two beautiful sons. I've got a van. I don't know how long it's
going to hold up, but I've got it. I've got a lot of things to be thankful
for."
See also "Democrats cut military pensions in favor of tax credits
for
illegals<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/2014/01/14/democrats-cut-military-pensions-tax-credits-for-illegals/>,"
Jan. 14, 2014.
*~Eowyn*
*Dr. Eowyn <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/author/eowyn2/>* | January
15, 2014 at 2:46 pm | Tags: Adm. James
Hogg<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?tag=adm-james-hogg>,
military pensions
<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?tag=military-pensions>, Robert
Freniere <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?tag=robert-freniere> |
Categories: Congress <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?cat=4308>,
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Liberals/Democrats/Left <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?cat=115894710>,
Military <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?cat=33806753>, Obama's
America<http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?cat=12285619>,
Republican Party <http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/?cat=56189> | URL:
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