Returning veterans now battling at home

Returning veterans now battling at home
By Paul Thissen
Contra Costa Times
Posted: 07/14/2009 04:01:28 PM PDT

They've left the battlefield, but their fights are not over yet.

Veterans returning from service in Iraq or Afghanistan face the highest unemployment rate in decades. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Physical injuries. Homelessness. Dee Pu'u didn't know what to do.

"In the military you could trust somebody with your life," said Pu'u, 32, one of about 300 veterans attending the East Bay Veterans Fair in Concord on Monday. On the outside, he said, everyone is out for themselves.

He rejoined civilian life a year-and-a-half ago after two tours in Iraq. Two weeks later he was homeless, living in a park in Fairfield, he said.

He now realizes, he said, that there were resources available to him that could have helped him sooner. But after a dozen years in the Army, including the traumas of fighting in the initial push into Iraq, he just wanted to be left alone, he said.

Pu'u didn't realize he was suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder until another veteran tricked him, saying they would go to San Francisco. Instead, they went to a group meeting for people with the disorder. At that point, Pu'u had been homeless for a year.
read more here
Returning veterans now battling at home