CHI GAMMA IOTA

Devised as a support entity for military enlisted personnel on the university campus, Chi Gamma Iota may be losing its grip. The various campuses where the veterans club has sprung up are finding it a fall behind among student involvement through pledges. Without a veteran support entity veterans who sacrificed time and money, career options and lives are lost, thrown to rubbish piles and walked over.

The halls are littered with old green patch and a few tan and sable ununiformed characters no longer playing the role. Uniforms fade along with ideals and fantasies of being what is needed. They fade to a blur of what is left after the bomb burst or the bullet grazed or the shrapnel, whole or broken, met with flesh on some distant field or roadway while performing what was felt to be duty by reason of designated orders. Fantasies of being that "all you can be" fade once returned and waiting to be serviced in the civilian world. Dreams of being something to someone, friend... family... or an expectant civilian audience; those too timid to don green or tan themselves. The halls and the waiting area, sometimes the lobby are littered with the refuse of society we label veteran.

If encountered in the main-ways away from what home and family remains after "the nerve of them" brought him or her back home to stir up the platform dictated by a signed to form for guardianship of minor children, the veteran of any military branch is the one unappreciated. The guardianship form gave full rights to the individual signed to. The enlisted, upon his return may find it difficult to regain authority over his life because the will of those signed in his or her stead is and has been the authority over home and children. If no "romantic understudy" has found his or her empty space, they are lucky on that one front. They are out of uniform and not toting the weapon of chivalry. On his or her return most will have to fight an emotional battle for respect of the general public as he reassembles his life. To assimilate into mainstream, he has education if necessary, career and gainful income, homestead and family to attain, hopefully with the assistance of government provided Veteran Service Representatives. Unrecognizable except for his seat planted in line at such an austere place - a V.A. Hospital. He can't sit there forever. If he did not fulfill the enlistment contract or was not injured during his enlistment term, he is an invalid in line and can access these services only for the short period following out processing.

Provided there was some form of injury... PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), Agent Orange (chemical inhalation and superficial burns), traumatic injury (invasive physical injury), blunt force trauma (physical injury from blunt impact) and other notable resolve resulting from the military enlistment experience; the Department of Veteran Affairs Hospital and its clinics are the right place. Special undivided attention to documented issues of enlisteds and prior enlisteds are the purpose for existence of the entity. The department relies upon medical skills from both civilian and military medical professionals to attend these nation's heroes. The medical concern is only a portion of gratuity accessible to a veteran. Veteran Affairs provides a HOME LOAN PROGRAM to buffer the potential for realigning with the civilian world. Although the V.A. Home Loan Benefit has stringent requirements for eligibility, some do actually qualify and purchase an existing home or use the loan for a new construction home. Conversation with many will advise that the fruition of this much expected benefit is a rare occurrence. Far too many home purchased through the V.A. LOAN end up in foreclosure resulting in a homeless veteran or worse, homeless family.

The number of homeless veterans in these United States at May of 2021 was estimated to be above 40,000 where over 11,000 are in California alone. Florida, Texas Oregon, Washington and New York reflect much lower number hovering between one and two thousand each according to Statista Research and Analysis Inc. There are slow to evolve programs to provide a shelf and shelter that would present a means for rekindling individual life support of the homeless veteran. Housing in form of homeless shelters among the general population is first note in the problem of regaining self respect brought with a space to call home. Home in that event is generally for a short term as part of a program for establishing an address so that other government entities might follow through on a more successful plain to remake the life of a veteran. The mass homeless shelter provides an overnight stance with warming or sleeping space to be reassigned daily. Newer programs present opportunity for privacy and dignity. The tiny house programs springing up in cities from Washington to North Carolina and north to New York construct and site structures to be let at little or no cost to appreciative formerly unemployed homeless veteran. With the provision of a stable address the homeless individual can enroll in a retraining program to supplement their military skill set. They can seek employment and establish a bank account which is now mandatory criteria for any legitimate employer employee relationship. With the provisions of a stable address created by a "tiny house" program an otherwise homeless EX G I can get back to becoming the best he can be for himself, for his family and for the general public. He or she can regain a sense of heroic value for having volunteered to be a service to a civil public.