Homeless Man Was Soldier in Vietnam

I was just on the phone with my friend talking about the fact we have a luxury hotel for pets but veterans still go homeless. Really twisted priorities considering this is how much it costs.

VIP Suite – Cape Cod
Beds: VIP Bed
Max Occupancy: 2 Pet(s)
Size: 8' x 4'
View: Cape Cod
Rates From: $70

But while I am a dog lover and have a rescue right now, if I had that much disposable income, I think I'd rather see that money go to putting a veteran up in a motel for a couple of days instead.

You know, like maybe someone like Mike Nicoloro in the story below.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words and that is true.  Especially when folks saw the picture of the soldier he had been and man they avoided now.

Haverhill residents mourn troubled Vietnam veteran
Boston Globe
By Andy Rosen
GLOBE STAFF
MAY 13, 2015

His sister, Dorothy Rich, said Nicoloro was a regular guy when he joined the Army — and, like many other Vietnam vets, emerged emotionally damaged. “They were young boys. They had their whole world ahead of them,” she said. “That war destroyed them.”

JESSICA RINALDI/GLOBE STAFF Chris Ryan, of Bradford, held a photograph of Mike Nicoloro at vigil in his honor in Haverhill on Monday.

HAVERHILL — Many here knew him as “Crazy Mike,” a man who often slept outside, loitered near strip malls and parks, and sometimes shouted angry nonsense or pointed imaginary guns as he publicly struggled with mental illness.

The cruelest of his neighbors pretended to lob grenades his way, making light of the demons he brought back from Vietnam.

Soon after Mike Nicoloro died this month, though, a different image emerged. A photo that made its way around Facebook showed Nicoloro as a clean-cut young soldier, wearing the pin of an Army Airborne medic, and helped bring his story of service and suffering into focus for those who had passed him by for years with little thought.

“It was like a wave of truth came over me, and I think it did for everyone,” said Christopher Ryan, referring to the photo during a vigil Monday night in a Haverhill park. “And I think that’s really when it hit home for everyone who we lost.”
read more here

If you really want to do something other than read about this, go to the New England Center For Homeless Veterans