Missing After Action

Not every veteran was physically held as a prisoner of war. But, each and every veteran
has the memories of his or her tour of duty.
Lets face it,some of those tours, were not as easy,
as some tours of duty......were.
Many suffer for the rest of their lives, trying to cope with civilian life. It is a true hardship
as the number of homeless veterans rises.

The 2013 Annual Homeless Assessment Report  shows that 57,849 veterans are homeless on any given night. Over the course of a year, approximately twice that many experience homelessness.
Only 7% of the general population can claim veteran status, but nearly 13% of the homeless adult population are veterans.

Those  that anguish the most, and are in the streets. When you see a homeless soul out there, it is
very likely, that they were once  a member of our military force.
Missing After Action, the afflicted fill veteran hospitals,  prisons, and the streets to a point of over flowing.




I know this blog is about, Prisoners Of War,  am I a bit off that track?  I have dedicated this page to those many that suffer long after their war has ended.  They are still prisoners of war ....in their minds, even if.... they never saw combat.


The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs  states that the nation’s homeless veterans are predominantly male, with roughly 8% being female. The majority are single; live in urban areas; and suffer from mental illness, alcohol and/or substance abuse, or co-occurring disorders.

About 13% of the adult homeless population are veterans.
Roughly 40% of all homeless veterans are African American or Hispanic, despite only accounting for 10.4% and 3.4% of the U.S. veteran population, respectively.

Homeless veterans are younger on average than the total veteran population. Approximately 9% are between the ages of 18 and 30, and 41% are between the ages of 31 and 50. Conversely, only 5% of all veterans are between the ages of 18 and 30, and less than 23% are between 31 and 50.

America’s homeless veterans have served in.... World War II, the Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam War, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, Persian Gulf War, Afghanistan and Iraq (OEF/OIF), and the military’s anti-drug cultivation efforts in South America.
Nearly half of homeless veterans served during the..... Vietnam era.

Two-thirds served our country for at least three years, and one-third were stationed in a war zone.
About 1.4 million other veterans, meanwhile, are considered at risk of homelessness due to poverty, lack of support networks, and dismal living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing.

                                                     

                                     UP DATE: NOVEMBER 2016    

                                         MAKE THE CONNECTION

https://t.co/EPAL8VdCyj #THANK #YOU #FOR #YOUR #SERVICE #REMEMBER #TO #NEVER #FORGET #YOUARENOTFORGOTEN #PEACE #now pic.twitter.com/FtnjWvWfqU

— Rodger Badgerow (@Freemall4u) July 16, 2015

UPDATE: November 11, 2021

Sunny California is sitting at the top of the list with nearly 11,000 veterans currently living without any shelter. The exact number in 2019 was 10,980,