American Legion Fights For Swords to Plowshares Equal Treatment

S.F. big shots forcing vets out of Veterans Building, suit says 
San Francisco Chronicle
By Matier and Ross
November 1, 2015

“It’s nothing new — we we are used to being treated like second-class citizens,” said Michael Blecker, Swords to Plowshares’ executive director and a Vietnam War veteran.

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle The Green Room is seen inside the newly renovated War Memorial Veterans Building in San Francisco, Calif. on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2015.

Swords to Plowshares, the celebrated charity that works with homeless and low-income veterans, is being squeezed out by the upscale landlords of San Francisco’s newly renovated War Memorial Veterans Building.

That’s the thrust of a lawsuit filed by the local American Legion over the War Memorial board’s refusal to provide Swords with free office space at the landmark building across from City Hall — while carving out square footage aplenty for high-society tenants like the San Francisco Opera that have the money to pay.

The American Legion is challenging the way the board — which includes such big names as city protocol chief Charlotte Mailliard Shultz and former Presidio Trust Chair Nancy Bechtle — is interpreting a city attorney’s 2009 decree that only “patriotic organizations” are entitled to free rent at the Veterans Building.

The fight goes all the way back to 2008 when the American Legion offered to make room in the building for Swords to Plowshares — but then came the city attorney’s finding that the charity wasn’t entitled to free rent.
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No one knows how many veterans are behind bars

Veterans Behind Bars
Swords to Plowshares
author: Megan Klein Zottarelli
date: August 15, 2012

NBC Bay Area – More Iraq War veterans are landing in jail but most counties don’t track soldier inmates.

Even the organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America told the Investigative Unit that it doesn’t have current data on veteran populations in prisons and jails because many local and state agencies don’t keep track of that information.

Suicides among soldiers and military veterans have reached epidemic proportions, with 154 suicides for active-duty troops in the first 155 days of 2012, according to the Pentagon.

The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit has uncovered another growing problem among soldiers returning from war — the number of those returning soldiers ending up behind bars. Experts say about one-third of returning military veterans battle mental illness and addiction. Many of them receive little help from the military, leaving them to fight their demons alone.

“I wanted to eat a bullet every single day,” said Marine infantryman and war veteran Anthony Hernandez of San Jose.

Every day since returning home from the Iraq War two years ago Hernandez fought the urge to kill himself. He says it was a battle more challenging than the two tours he spent dodging bullets in some of the hottest battlegrounds of Iraq.

“I had a really tough time,” Hernandez told Investigative Reporter Stephen Stock. “I didn’t feel normal. I was always hyper-vigilant, I was always on guard. I felt threatened by my own community. I couldn’t sleep.”

The Marine said he returned with a host of problems including post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, anxiety, depression, and alcohol addiction. Hernandez said his marriage fell apart and ended in divorce. All because, he said, he couldn’t cope with civilian life.

“It was extremely difficult,” he said. “I isolated a lot. I ruined pretty much every relationship that I had. I didn’t feel comfortable with anybody except my fellow Marines. I had extremely tough time.”

Hernandez said his demons led him to stab his new girlfriend’s father multiple times during an argument and that a combat flashback caused him to snap. He ended up serving 21 months in a local jail on attempted murder charges.

Hernandez is one of a growing number of veterans now finding themselves behind bars. Lawyers, judges and veterans advocates say mental health disorders common among veterans can lead them into the criminal justice system.

“I think people would be surprised to know how many veterans there are in their local jails,” said Duncan MacVicar, a Vietnam War veteran himself and a current veterans rights advocate who works with former service members in the criminal justice system.
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Stars Earn Stripes 'Trivializing War'

New Reality Show Stars Earn Stripes Slammed By Veteran Group For 'Trivializing War'
Posted on Aug 12, 2012
NBC
By Debbie Emery
Radar Reporter

Reality television has long been accused of pushing moral boundaries, and a new show from NBC that sends celebrities into mock military missions has caused outraged among veteran groups who know the grim reality of real-life combat.

"I was speechless when I first saw this. People have to realize that war is not a game," Amy N. Fairweather, Director of Policy for Swords to Plowshares, told RadarOnline.com in an exclusive interview, when asked about the controversial show.

"The real warriors who go out there and come home from war don’t win a reality prize.

They live with the consequences of being exposed to the dangerous elements they survived."
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Home Depot Foundation helps even more homeless veterans

The Home Depot Foundation Awards Swords to Plowshares $545,540 to Rehab Housing for Homeless Veterans
PRWeb

Grant Supports Unprecedented Permanent Supportive Housing Projects

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) August 02, 2012

Swords to Plowshares, a San Francisco-based veteran service agency, is one of many community-based organizations nationwide to receive a grant from The Home Depot Foundation to repair and rehab properties serving veterans and their families.

“We are thrilled to have the support of The Home Depot Foundation to help us provide safe, adequate and affordable housing to homeless veterans and their families,” said Michael Blecker, Executive Director of Swords to Plowshares and Vietnam veteran.

“Corporate donors like The Home Depot Foundation, who have given generously to support veterans and their families, enable us to fulfill our mission and bring the nation closer to our goal of eliminating veteran homelessness.”

The grant supports rehab costs for two unique and much-needed housing facilities in San Francisco. One housing site, which opened January 2012, provides affordable 2-bedroom apartments to twelve formerly homeless veteran families. The second housing site, which will be ready for occupancy in late October 2012, is an unprecedented collaboration between the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the City of San Francisco, Chinatown Community Development Corporation and Swords to Plowshares. The landmark building, currently under renovation, was donated by the City of San Francisco and will consist of 75 studio apartments for chronically homeless veterans with disabilities.
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Many veterans in San Francisco back home without a hope

Many veterans in San Francisco back home without a hope
By: Mike Aldax
August 8, 2010

Many return home with post-trauma symptoms, a debilitating injury and an inability to readjust to normalcy after leaving for war as a child and returning as an adult. Some turn to suicide — a recent Veterans Affairs report revealed that as many as 18 veterans try to take their own lives each day in the U.S. Seven percent of those attempts are successful and 11 percent of those will try again within nine months, the report said.

Kevin Crane wants to be perfectly clear: He doesn’t have one bad comment about the U.S. military.

The 33-year-old veteran said he knew very well what he signed up for when he joined the U.S. Army after 9/11. He said he is proud of the brave souls who protect their country. Salutes are in order, he said.

Even though Crane left the service with a back injury, the responsibility to care for his kids while his ex-wife was serving in Iraq — and the struggle of competing in a tight job market — the vet, who recently emerged from homelessness in The City, refuses to badmouth the armed forces.

“There’s an old saying, ‘If the military wants you to have a family, they’d issue you one,’” Crane said.

Frank Knowlton will not talk trash, either. At 61, he still waves the American flag proudly.


Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: Many veterans in San Francisco back home without a hope

Multiple Deployments Lead to Major Increase in PTSD Cases

Multiple Deployments Lead to Major Increase in PTSD Cases, New Study Says
Tuesday 05 January 2010

by: Mary Susan Littlepage, t r u t h o u t Report


Soldiers with multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan are more than three times as likely as soldiers with no previous deployments to screen positive for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression, according to a new study published by the American Journal for Public Health.

Additionally, soldiers with multiple deployments are more than twice as likely to report chronic pain and more than 90 percent more likely to score below the general population norm on physical functioning.

For the study, researchers assessed the effects of prior military service in Iraq or Afghanistan on the health of New Jersey Army National Guard members preparing for deployment to Iraq. Researchers analyzed anonymous, self-administered pre-deployment surveys from 2,543 National Guard members deployed to Iraq in 2008. They assessed the effects of prior service in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom) or Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom) on mental and physical health.

"Those experiencing multiple deployments are most at risk, with the Office of the US Army Surgeon General reporting mental health problems in 11.9 percent of those with one deployment, 18.5 percent with two deployments and 27.2 percent with three or four deployments," the report stated.

Amy Fairweather is an expert in veterans' issues and is director of the Coalition for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans, a clearinghouse of more than 45 agencies serving a myriad of needs associated with deployment in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

"What we're seeing is a people who are having more serious PTSD when they're called up for an additional deployment, and that triggers a lot of mental health issues - in fact, suicidal action in some cases," Fairweather said. "But it's also mixed with a lot of conflicting feelings of guilt" in that if people have PTSD, they are a danger toward other people, but Fairweather said they may think, "Who am I to try to get out of this? Who am I to complain?" when fellow soldiers are going through the same hell.

Fairweather also is director of the Iraq Veteran Project for Swords to Plowshares, a community-based, not-for-profit organization that provides counseling and case management, employment and training, housing and legal assistance to homeless and low-income veterans in the San Francisco Bay area and beyond.

In any case, the Pentagon's data indicate that between 2003 and 2008, 43,000 troops "deemed medically unfit for active duty by their physicians were deployed to Iraq," the report stated. Also, the report stated that the Office of the US Army Surgeon General found that "multiple deployments have adverse effects on work performance during deployment, with multiple deployed soldiers being more likely than are others to report limitations in their ability to work effectively."

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http://www.truthout.org/105098

Female vets struggling to get treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder

Female vets struggling to get treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder
NBC News
Updated: 4/13/2009

The war in Iraq has been now been raging for six years.

It's the first war where women in the U.S. military are in combat roles.

Even years after serving in Iraq, female veterans are still adjusting to civilian life.

At a women's veterans art show in San Francisco vets say the six year anniversary of the war brings back painful memories.

"The 6 year anniversary has me thinking about the friends that I lost. And the friends that I still have who have been forever scared by the war," said Iraq war veteran Lindsey Rousseau-Burnett.

Many of the women we talked to say they are getting psychiatric help from the Veteran's Administration.

But they say the agency is behind the times.

"Because women supposedly aren't in combat they have a higher burden of proof to try and prove they have PTSD," said vet Kayla Williams.

The veteran's service organization Swords to Plowshares says female Iraq war vets are the fastest growing population of homeless.


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Female vets struggling to get treatment for post-traumatic stress ...
WBIR-TV - Knoxville,TN,USA

7,000 to 8,000 homeless veterans are female

New Housing Serves Homeless Female Vets
October 20, 2008
Associated Press

DAYTON, Ohio - Carisa Dogen is an Army veteran. She's also homeless, and has slept in parks and scavenged for food in trash cans.

"It's real tough, especially on nights when it's cold and rainy," Dogen, 38, said as she sat inside The Other Place, a homeless shelter. "I got accosted a couple of times by males. Walking the streets and stuff, it's hard and it's scary."

Dogen is among the 7,000 to 8,000 homeless female U.S. military veterans as estimated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. She is among the few who are hoping to benefit from new housing specifically for female veterans, an initiative homeless advocates say falls far short of what is needed.

A 27-unit renovated apartment building for female veterans on the Dayton Veterans Affairs Medical Center campus was completed in August. It is expected to be filled by mid-November.

The facility is one of the largest of about a dozen around the nation, said Peter Dougherty, director of homeless-veterans programs for Veterans Affairs. Run by a private housing agency, it will give veterans access to medical services, day care, job training, and drug and alcohol counseling.

The homeless female veteran is a relatively new phenomenon because only recently have so many women been in the military, said Todd DePastino, a historian at Waynesburg University in Pennsylvania who wrote a book on the history of homelessness.

Nearly 11 percent of U.S. troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are women. Women make up about 5 percent of homeless veterans, up from 3 percent 10 years ago, according to the VA.

"It's a national embarrassment," said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

More women are showing up at the door of Swords to Plowshares, a San Francisco group that provides housing and other services to homeless veterans.
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A flood of stressed vets is expected

A flood of stressed vets is expected
C.W. Nevius

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Last May, Tim Chapman was sitting in his car on the edge of a cliff, weeping. If he took his foot off the brake, he would go over the edge - to silence, to peace, and to death.

"It was a truck stop in Truckee," Chapman said. "I was driving to Reno. I was literally going to kill myself. I kept thinking: I should have stayed in Iraq. I should have died over there."

The 23-year-old National Guardsman, just six months back from a tour in the combat zone, sat on the brink for two hours. Even today, he isn't sure why he didn't launch himself over the side.

Instead, he backed off the cliff and drove himself to a hospital in Roseville. Within three days, he was in the psych ward at a Veterans Affairs hospital. Today, after extensive therapy, he thinks his life is beginning to make sense again.

It's a wrenching story. But this isn't the end of it. It is just the beginning.
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Since 2001, when Afghanistan was invaded up until today, we've heard more than enough speeches and testimonies about what they need to do, what they plan to do, but have seen very little of it getting done. They've had six years to get this right and haven't managed to come close to taking care of the wounded. When the cameras are rolling and the microphones are plugged in, we hear a lot coming out of their mouths, yet when no one is watching, the wounded wait for something to change. Maybe Congress feels as if they take care of a hundred more or so, they have done their jobs, but they end up shutting out thousands and then wonder why it's happening. This used to be a national disgrace, but it has sunk so low it should be called treason against our veterans and their families. Use them, abuse them and then abandon them! All they do is take care of the veterans who have turned to the media for help to put on a good showing. Too many others are left to suffer from all this neglect. kc