Homeless PTSD Vietnam Vet Helped To Heal Because A Stranger Cared

Richard Miley came back from Vietnam, ended up homeless and waiting to die until a stranger saw him, made the effort to stop instead of just driving by him. Because someone cared, Miley is not only alive and healing, the mystery of his time in Vietnam is finally being told and he's a decorated Vietnam Veteran Purple Heart, Bronze Star and Meritorious Unit Commendation. Back then he was Capt. Richard Miley. Today, he's a veteran who was saved because a stranger cared.

Vietnam vet struggles to reclaim his identity - and his life
Grand Junction Sentinel - Grand Junction,CO,USA
Monday, November 10, 2008

Story by MIKE SACCONE

When doctors told Richard Miley in the spring of 1981 the bone cancer in his left leg was going to kill him, he made up his mind.

He was ready to die but not in a hospital.

With death looming, Miley, a Vietnam War veteran stricken with post-traumatic stress disorder and amnesia, hitchhiked and walked as he had for years from his cave outside Estes Park to Mount Wilson, a stunning 14,000-foot peak in the San Juan mountain range southwest of Telluride.

“Basically, I had gone there to die,” Miley said. “I had the cancer of the bone, in my left leg, and I went up there, found me a fine pine tree and just laid there.”

Though Miley had never set out to die before, he had undertaken similar treks since the mid-1970s, living in caves and surviving off the land and what little money he could make working odd jobs every summer in the state’s resort or orchard communities.

He had lived in the wilderness since 1974 when he left behind a house in Loveland and a job, helping turn around failing Village Inn restaurants around the region.

Since returning from Vietnam in 1970, the stress of his two years at war had slowly whittled away his memory and desire to live around other people. Within the span of less than half a decade, Miley had transformed from a proud veteran into an ambling husk that could hardly recall much of the man he was.

However, Miley’s final trek — or what should have been his last — ended early when mine owner Bob Milner drove by the destitute veteran, who had propped himself up on an old wooden fence along a jeep road.

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