Coming Home PA

For more than two years, former Marine gunnery sergeant Matt Hannan has waited for a ruling on whether he is entitled to disability payments for PTSD.

An estimated 150,000 American veterans are homeless or become homeless upon returning from overseas, and an advocacy group said the government is not doing enough to alleviate the issue. The Circle of Friends for American Veterans (COFAV) reported 150,000 are without shelter with only 1/10 of 1% of the Department of Veteran Affairs’ (VA) $130 billion budget supporting homeless veterans.

Usually it’s customers who tip their servers, but when the waitress at the Wood St. McCormick & Schmick’s overheard JulieHera DeStefano talking to her bankers about needing to raise money for a project that will document the homecomings of female soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan, the server slipped her a $5 bill. A few weeks ago, when DeStefano shared a version of the same story at Chatham University’s Women Business Leaders Breakfast Series , the full house of mostly women gave her a standing ovation.

Essential Pittsburgh presents this special live broadcast of their public forum recorded Wednesday night focusing on the issues veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq face when returning home. Their panelists, Sean Parnell, U.S. Army Ranger and author of Outlaw Platoon, John Bittner, from Veterans' Employment at PA Career Link and Linda Klootwyk, from Health Services at Veterans' Affairs offer suggestions for dealing with the challenges.

Half the tattoo covering one shoulder of Robert G. Ryberg III seems to be sandblasted away. In 2010, during the last of his two tours of Iraq as an Army infantryman, Ryberg took part of an IED to his right side, including his forehead. He broke both orbital bones in his face, as well as his collarbone. He had internal bleeding in his brain, and post-concussive symptoms.

When many U.S. military personnel leave the service to return home, they might not have a home to return to or they wind up in the streets eventually.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) says there are more than 10,000 homeless veterans nationwide, including those in southwestern Pennsylvania, which has one of the highest veterans per capita rates in the country.

It was recorded in ancient Greek and Roman literature. In the 1600’s a Swiss physician coined the term “nostalgia” to refer to soldier’s conditions. Soldiers returning home from the Civil War were said to be afflicted with “soldier’s heart” and “exhausted heart.” After World War I doctors started using the words “shell shock.”

Military service is synonymous with sacrifice.

But for many troops coming home to Western Pennsylvania from Iraq, Afghanistan or elsewhere — what some officials have called “the coming tsunami” of veterans looking for work in a fragile job market — that sacrifice isn’t ending when they receive their discharge papers.