“I served in the Marines for four years, I was in Afghanistan,” he told me. So, why did you join? He paused and then stated, “I went to Overton High School in Nashville and my dad was abusive - - I had to get out of that. My mom was sick and she died recently and my dad was there. We got into a fight at the grave site as they were lowering my mom into the ground, it was horrible.”
While overseas he was in a Humvee that received oncoming fire and the end result was shrapnel hitting him in the right side of the head. “I can’t think things out like I use to, I feel like I am slower due to the injury,” he told me. He later added that he visits with a counselor at the VA in Nashville on a regular basis, “The counselor has been great, it has really helped.”
Today he has no family and is alone on the streets of Nashville at the age of 21.
“While we can't begin to repay the debt we owe our veterans for their brave service, we can certainly take steps to ease the physical, psychological and financial hardships they may be experiencing.” - Kirsten Gillibrand, a junior United States Senator from New York