HVRP HELPS VETERANS TO SUCCEED–CLIFF’S STORY

In 1977, Cliff enlisted in the U. S. Army and trained professionally as a culinary arts specialist. He served on the culinary team assigned to prepare and serve quality meals to the thousands of soldiers who enter basic training each year at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, the largest and most active Initial Entry Training Center in the U.S. Army. After his honorable discharge, Cliff trained in construction—even earning a certificate in asbestos removal. Prior to 2000, he operated his own painting and residential contracting business in Indianapolis.

But the recession of 2000 dried up his residential contracts. His business never recovered. Moreover, pressures from outstanding debt and unresolved personal problems eventually caused him to lose everything. Without a job or support system, in 2009 he found himself alone, on the street and homeless—a personal disaster he had never before experienced. He wanted off the streets and felt that he had but one choice—a homeless shelter. So he sought refuge at Wheeler Mission. This was only temporary. He knew that. But he couldn’t see a more permanent solution. He felt that his life was spiraling out of control. He was crashing, and he didn’t know what he could do to fix what had gone wrong.

During the first few days at Wheeler, Cliff heard about the Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program (HVRP), a source for comprehensive veterans’ services operated through the Homeless Initiative Program (HIP)—a HealthNet community outreach. He applied for assistance at the HIP offices (1835 North Meridian), and HVRP staff professionals assessed his employment history and education. HVRP aided him to identify personally meaningful career goals and to create a rational action plan to achieve them.

The first step in that plan was the HVRP “Skills That Work” employment workshop.  Cliff was uncertain about taking the workshop initially. “I needed a job,” he thought, “not a workshop about getting one.” But after the first day, Cliff could see how the workshop would help him. Within a week, he had created a professional resume and had developed effective job-search strategies and interviewing skills. Upon graduation, he was ready for the HVRP Guided Job Search program, where he used his new resume and job search skills to make employer contact and to set up job interviews. In less than two weeks, his resume had earned him an interview with an employer. That interview landed him a job. Today he is a supervisor, directing the security staff of a well-known city hotel.

“I have come a long way”, Cliff says. “What I have succeeded in doing through the Homeless Initiative Program is unbelievable. I never thought I could have accomplished what I have accomplished—and done it so quickly. I now own a new vehicle and am about to receive another promotion. That’s quite a distance from where I started. What HVRP and HIP have helped me to do is like a dream. It has changed my life. I appreciate you all. I really mean that. Thank you.”

The role HIP and HVRP played in helping Cliff achieve his career and housing goals makes our city a better place in which to live and work. Cliff’s achievements, consequently, symbolize what makes all of HealthNet’s community outreach programs so meaningful and important. It is simply the mission to which each member of HealthNet’s staff is committed—to build a better community one life at a time.

–David Richardson, HVRP Employment Coordinator

 

DISCLAIMER:  Preparation of this item was funded by the United States Department of Labor under Grant No. E-9-5-6-0037-H2.  This document does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U. S. Department of Labor, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U. S. Government.

THE LAST DOUGHBOY AND A NATIONAL COMMEMORATIVE MEMORIAL

This month we celebrate November 11 as Veterans’ Day, a commemorative holiday to honor all veterans who have served their country in the military services—particularly those who gave their lives in time of war.  But the holiday began as Armistice Day (Remembrance Day in the British Commonwealth), which celebrated the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918—the official armistice that effectively ended World War 1. 

Early that November 11^th morning, the official but understated radio communiqué sent to Allied troops by Marshall Foch, the French Commander of all Allied forces, read simply:

1. Hostilities will be stopped on the entire front beginning at 11 o’clock, November 11th (French hour).
2. The Allied troops will not go beyond the line reached at that hour on that date until further orders.

MARSHAL FOCH
5:45 A.M.         

Though the formal surrender of Germany and her allies–the Treaty of Versailles (June 28, 1919)–took seven more months to negotiate fully, the November 11^th date has always been more compelling to most Americans and Europeans.  For it concretely identifies the date and hour on which military hostilities ended in the greatest and most destructive war in all world history—at least up until that time.  Nearly ten million soldiers died as casualties in that war; the total number of dead and wounded on both sides—both civilian and military—approached 40 million.  Those enduring permanent physical disability from wounds suffered in battle became a common sight on the city streets of Europe and America.  People on both sides of the conflict summarized the horror and destruction they had experienced simply by referring to it as “The Great War”.   

President Woodrow Wilson initially proclaimed Armistice Day for November 12, 1919.  A few years later, Congress confirmed the holiday but requested the President to issue another declaration proclaiming ceremonies for the 11^th.  Then in the late thirties, Congress made November 11^th the authorized holiday.  In 1954, Congress passed resolutions that redefined Armistice Day as a federal holiday to honor all veterans and then renamed it Veterans Day.  That name has endured.  But briefly in 1971, the date was changed to the fourth Monday in October, in order to comply with “Uniform Monday Holiday Act” passed by Congress.  That change proved wildly unpopular and lasted only a few years.  By 1978, the holiday had returned to the November 11^th date.

Though the holiday has not been totally disconnected as a commemoration of World War 1, America’s more recent wars and military conflicts understandably engage more concretely the national imagination and push remembrance of “The Great War” to the edges of national memory–as the veterans who actually fought in that war fade into history.

Of course, this is just the way life works.  New generations do not clearly remember or fully appreciate the historical events and challenges that their great grandparents experienced as daily life.  National monuments are imperfect solutions to this failure of memory and appreciation.  America has national monuments commemorating Word War 2, the Korean War, the Vietnam War.  And in addition to the National Gettysburg Memorial Park, plans to build a commemorative park for the Civil War are currently underway.  But to date, America has no plans to erect  a national commemorative monument to “The Great War” and the nation’s role in it.  This is particularly tragic because first-hand memory of American Doughboys and their European deployment in World War 1 stands at the edge of history. 

Canada’s last veteran of the “Great War” died last year.  No veterans remain in Australia, France, or Serbia.  The same is true of Germany, Hungary, Turkey, and Austria.  Britain yet has two living veterans from the war, but In America, only one still lives.  He is Frank Buckles, a farmer from Virginia and the last surviving World War I American veteran.  Born on February 1, 1901, he turns 110 this February.  He entered the U. S. Army as an under aged teenager to fight in Europe.  In a letter to Congress, he tells how he enlisted at 16: 

“I was just 16 and didn’t look a day older. I confess to you that I lied to more than one recruiter. I gave them my solemn word that I was 18, but I’d left my birth certificate back home in the family Bible. They’d take one look at me and laugh and tell me to go home before my mother noticed I was gone. Somehow I got the idea that telling an even bigger whopper was the way to go. So I told the next recruiter that I was 21 and darned if he didn’t sign me up on the spot! I enlisted in the Army on 14 August 1917.”

 — Frank W. Buckles:  http://www.c-spanvideo.org/videoLibrary/clip.php?appid=597640309

For his service, the U. S. Government awarded Buckles the World War I Victory Medal, the Army of Occupation of Germany Medal, and four Overseas Service Bars.  French President Jacques Chirac awarded him the Legion d’honneur medal.  Moreover, the Veterans of Foreign Wars bestowed on him the Gold Medal of Merit in 2008.  He is literally America’s last living link to “The Great War”.

In March 2008, Frank Buckles visited the District of Columbia War Memorial, on the National Mall in Washington D.C.  Built to honor the 499 residents of Washington D.C. who died in World War 1, this monument, Buckles observed, had fallen into neglect and disrepair.  So he issued a call to restore the monument and rededicate it as the National World War 1 Memorial.  The World War 1 Memorial Foundation now works to raise funds and advocate for Buckles idea. 

The year 2014 will mark the centennial of World War I.  Nearly 5 million Americans served during the war.  These American veterans endured unspeakable horror.  Many died, and those who returned were changed forever.  Surely, their sacrifice merits our remembrance.  And Frank Buckles is the last veteran of that war to whom we can express our thanks. 

So here is a practical way to do it.  In 2010, the Federal Parks Department said that renovations on the District of Columbia War Memorial would soon begin.  That is positive.  So rededication of the memorial as the National Monument to World War 1 remains an objective.  You can show your support for this rededication by signing a petition to Congress.

Just click this link to the World War 1 Memorial Foundation.  Look at the upper left-hand corner.  You will see the connection to the petition.  Press it and follow the instructions.  In this way, you can thank Frank Buckles and all other World War 1 veterans for their service.  It is a way for you to tell them that we—as a nation—remain grateful for their sacrifice and that we will not forget. 

I am proud personally to be signature 2659.  

Have a blessed Veterans Day.  And remember to thank a veteran!

–David Richardson, HVRP Employment Coordinator

 

DISCLAIMER:  Preparation of this item was funded by the United States Department of Labor under Grant No. E-9-5-6-0037-H2.  This document does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U. S. Department of Labor, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U. S. Government.