CW: Death, murder, veterans
Thinking about some of my past veteran clients....what a time...four years of my life working with homeless justice-involved veterans.
When I met Client A for the first time at my office. He told me a story and sobbed the entire time. He described in great detail how the army did a surprise night attack and was dropping tanks in addition to parachuters from planes......People and tanks were landing everywhere and anywhere. Splattering bodies and so much death.
Or another client who was in Vietnam and ordered 'Shoot to Kill' and wrote me letters in great detail and told me stories in person. Client B explained that when he used drugs, it made him stop seeing the children he "was forced to murder".....he abandoned his children because he was "a trained killer," and he was "scared of hurting" his kids because he couldn't stop seeing the faces of the ones he was forced to murder. Fuck. The. Military.
When I met Client C, it was almost four years after he started writing me from the jail then from Western State. He wasn't eligible for any VA resources because he served in the Army National Guard and didn't have enough active duty. He was on a competency hold and finally was released last year. He found love at the shelter and got married. Thinking about his face when I was able to get him a disability housing voucher. He cried and told me he had been homeless for nine years.......