Battle Continues for Veteran Home from War

[Guest guest]

BATTLE CONTINUES FOR VETERAN HOME FROM WAR

> By David Abel

> Boston Globe

> August 21, 2003

>

> http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_action=print

>

> Three months ago, Vannessa Turner was in charge of a small unit, drove a

> 5-ton truck through ambushes, and wherever she went in Iraq, the Army

> sergeant held her M-16 at the ready.

>

> The single mom's war ended in May, when she collapsed in 130-degree heat,

> fell into a coma, and nearly died of heart failure. Now, after more than a

> month recovering in Germany and Washington, D.C., the muscular Roxbury

> native spends her days riding city buses to ward off boredom, roaming area

> malls looking at things she can't afford, and brooding over how she and

her

> 15-year-old daughter are suddenly homeless, sleeping on friends' couches

and

> considering moving into a shelter.

>

> " I almost lost my life in Iraq - and I can't get a place to live? " said

> Turner, 41, who Army officials say is the first known homeless veteran of

> the war in Iraq. " Yeah, I'm a little angry. Right now, not having a home

for

> my daughter is the greatest burden in my life. "

>

> Though Army officials said they're trying to help, Turner, still wearing a

> leg brace and limping from nerve damage in her right leg, blames the

service

> for not doing more.

>

> When she went to the Veterans Administration Medical Center in West

Roxbury

> after coming home last month, officials there told her she had to wait

until

> mid-October to see a doctor. When she asked the Army to ship her

possessions

> from her unit's base in Germany, where she lived with her daughter for

more

> than a year, they told her she had to fly back at her own expense to get

> them herself. And when she sought help to secure a veterans' loan for a

> house in Boston, she said mortgage brokers told her her only real option

was

> to move to Springfield or Worcester.

>

> The Army acknowledges " mistakes were made. "

>

> " The Army can be a bureaucracy, but there are people in the bureaucracy

who

> want to help, " said Major Steve Stover, an Army spokesman. " I don't think

> it's acceptable for anyone to be homeless, and I believe most people in

the

> Army want everyone to take care of each other. "

>

> Unfortunately, Turner is unlikely to be the last soldier serving in Iraq

to

> return without a home.

>

> Although veterans make up just 9 percent of the US population, they

account

> for about 23 percent of the nation's homeless, according to the

> Washington-based National Coalition of Homeless Veterans. In a given year,

> of the 2.5 million people who become homeless in the United States, about

> 550,000 are vets, many of whom served in Vietnam and suffer from

> post-traumatic stress disorder.

>

> But many are also like Turner - physically disabled, unemployed, and

unable

> to afford their own place.

>

> " In a country as wealthy as ours, with the best military in the world,

it's

> outrageous veterans become homeless, " said Linda Boone, the coalition's

> executive director.

>

> Raised by her mother and grandmother in Roxbury, Turner earned a

scholarship

> to study at Saint Mary's College in Moraga, Calif., where she graduated in

> 1984. She moved to Los Angeles to become an actress. When it proved

> difficult to find a job, she returned to Boston and soon gave birth to her

> daughter, Brittany. Over the next decade, she held a variety of low-paying

> jobs, working as a ticket agent for airline and bus companies, as a

security

> officer for local universities, and as a performer in a few dance groups.

>

> Then one day she saw an Army commercial and thought life in the military

> might really be, as the ad promised, a way to be all she could be - a way

> beyond the dead-end jobs, a way to learn new skills, earn decent money,

and

> see the world. She enlisted in 1997 and served in Saudi Arabia, Korea, and

> Germany, before the Army sent her to Kuwait in February.

>

> A cook and driver who thrived on the discipline of military life, Turner

> remained close to the front lines after her unit crossed into Iraq in

April.

> " The hardest part was the unknown, " she said. Guerillas ambushed her

convoy

> while she traveled to Camp Balad, 40 miles north of Baghdad. " There were

> snipers all around us, and I kept thinking: `God, don't make my daughter

> motherless'. "

>

> Not long after dawn on May 18, Turner stood in a long line, waiting to buy

> food. Perhaps it was the heat, the 70 pounds of equipment she wore, or an

> ointment she used to protect herself from all the sand fleas, she said,

but

> she started to feel dizzy. The last thing she remembers, she couldn't

> breathe. She collapsed, medics forced a breathing tube in her mouth, and

she

> was taken away in a helicopter.

>

> A few days later, she awoke in Germany with her mother next to her. The

> military flew her to Washington, where she stayed under close observation

> until doctors at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center released her July 10.

>

> Discharged from the Army, a friend drove her back to Boston. Since then,

she

> and her daughter have gone from the couch in her mother's cramped

> one-bedroom apartment, to a friend's couch, to her sister's friend's

> friend's couch, she said. She has little money - she sent much of her

combat

> pay to help her brother and sister, who's also homeless - and feels

> uncomfortable about imposing on relatives and friends, most of whom have

> little space to provide.

>

> So now, she and her daughter's clothes and possessions are scattered

around

> town and the two aren't sure what to do.

>

> " It's aggravating - I like having my own stuff and I don't like invading

> other people's space, " said Brittany, who this week slept in a cramped

> Roxbury apartment, on an air mattress with two cousins. " It shouldn't be

> this way. "

>

> Not sure whether her case is a fluke, Turner wonders whether other

veterans

> should expect the same treatment. In the past two weeks, the Army has

> promised to ship her possessions back from Germany, she's seen doctors at

> the veterans' hospital, and she's been told to expect her first disability

> check next month.

>

> But the help, she said, only came after the office of Senator Edward M.

> Kennedy intervened. For example, she said, the Army refused to fly her

> brother and sister to Germany to bring her daughter home. Then the

senator's

> office called and suddenly a flight was offered.

>

> " Was that a coincidence? " Turner said. " I don't think so. "

>

> Veterans' officials, both nationally and locally, now know about her case

> and vow to make it a priority. " I don't know how she fell through the

> cracks. She really shouldn't have, " said Tom Kelley, commissioner of the

> Massachusetts Department of Veterans Services. " No veteran, especially a

> wartime veteran, should be homeless. "

>

> Wearing a bandanna around her head to cover bald patches caused by trauma

> from her collapse, and refusing to cut off her hospital wristband, Turner

> hopes things improve before her daughter starts school next month. As

angry

> as she is about the military's treatment, she hasn't given up on the

> possibility of reenlisting when her medical condition is reviewed next

year.

>

> " I think I like being a soldier better than being a veteran, " she said.

>

> ------------

>