On This Veterans Day: Veterans Affairs Secretary Reveals Poignant Acknowledgement

Our nation’s Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Jim Nicholson, admits a reality that homeless and veterans activists have insisted for years… Some veterans from the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars are ending up in homeless shelters. Here's the article.

Those of us on the frontlines of homelessness knew about this for years. It is estimated that at least 10% of the homeless population are men and women who fought in some past war. So it is only obvious that Post Traumatic Syndrome would affect those who have fought in our current wars.

I have a chapter in my book on this sad fact that men and women who fight in our armed forces, end up being homeless.

It is sad, frustrating, and simply… wrong.

Why can’t we dispatch our own squad of rescuers to go behind the lines of homelessness so save every Private Ryan, every homeless veteran, caught in the trenches of hopelessness and despair?

Where are the Tom Hanks of today seeking to rescue those postwar veterans dangling their lives between life and death scenarios on the streets of America? Certainly, saving homeless veterans should be a priority for our government!

Our country needs to develop a more comprehensive system of preparing soldiers to return home. The Pentagon designs elaborate campaigns for war—Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Desert Storm, Operation Infinite Justice—why not Operation Healthy Veterans?

We need to attack those ghosts that haunt our veterans so they can live with their families, emotionally healthy and able to reconnect to loved ones, and not resort to living on the streets.

Perhaps every war campaign should have Robin Williams as a military disc jockey lobbing joke after joke soothing the stress levels of our soldiers.

Good morning, Vietnam! Good morning, Afghanistan! Good morning, Iraq! Perhaps even… Good morning, Homeless America!