Veterans’ Affairs

The Concord Monitor, a large newspaper in my area wrote a nice piece about the project this past Sunday. Check out the Press section.

The documentary short is currently in consideration with both Tribeca and the Woods Hole Film Festival. I plan to submit it to a few other select festivals. This is a very exciting time for the project.

It took about 2 weeks of post production to finalize on the ‘short’. The finished product came out to be about 13 minutes long. It literally was another job to get this part done. This intent is to draw in people with similar interests in mind and see what is actually going on within their own state. I plan to host a fund raising event in the near future to bring in support for more places that help homeless veterans.

If you are in the local area and would be interested in viewing the ‘short’ then certainly email here.

I took a week break from everything and visited my brother who lives in Oregon. I would normally keep my personal trips off the documentary site but I felt it necessary to raise a point. We passed through a town named Pineville. Its population is about 7600. We passed it twice in our travels and I noticed both times a homeless man. It was very clear and evident that he was homeless and it alarmed me to think that even in the smallest communities the same problems exist. I am so much more aware now then I’ve ever been with realizing the issue with homelessness. Now mind you that the documentary is focusing on Veterans not homelessness in general but it makes you wonder just how deep certain subjects can go when you just generalize them.

Since I’ve been gone for a week I felt it would be necessary to post an update about the current status of the film. Before I left on my vacation I was busy editing a section of the film that will be used as a short for the documentary. This piece will be about 20 minutes in length. I hope to have it completed this week. I am really excited about this phase of the project. The short will give others a chance to see what is happening and what direction the documentary is going.

In other news, the documentary may have a distribution agreement. This is very early in the overall scheme of it but the direction is positive.

I like to think that the recent events with the VA and me are just coincidence. For example, I had a review of my compensation and pension just recently. I never knew I was due for a review? I also received a phone call recently from the regional VA office. The person was very helpful and not to sound unappreciative, because I am not. I just find it ironic and somewhat coincidental. This site alone has has had nearly a dozen unique hits from VA.GOV.

I must explain that this documentary isn’t a hit out on the VA as a whole. Everyone can agree that not every aspect of the VA is broken. There are some great people who work within that organization. In fact I know a few and have become good friends with them. The problem isn’t at the top either. The problem is systemic and throughout. Almost like a cancer that has infested itself. I don’t have the answer to fix it but I will expose it as I see it. Provided people are doing their jobs and living by their motto…

“To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan,”

Abraham Lincoln said this on March 4, 1865 during his second inaugural address. If the VA or it’s members are failing to live up to this motto, it will be those people who will feel like the ass in the end.

Tonight I put the finishing touches on the Jeff interview. I will be posting the video soon and then another dispatch should follow. Something to note, not all scenes that I include in these videos will be in the documentary but you never know. There is so much footage that has been taken so far. Selecting will be tough. The small videos that I add on the site are intended to give you all a glimpse of this process. I hope you enjoy them.

I was out of town this past week so updates were put on hold. Currently I am pursuing a distribution option for the documentary. I will post more in depth details as that opportunity arises. I will say that if properly executed, the film will be able to reach the venues and audience that I feel will be compelled to make it a personal issue of their own. That being change in the system and change in their community. I am very optimistic about this entire endeavor. A film that can capture the stories and also provide simple solutions to help fix the problem is unheard of.

Last weekend I spent a day with a Veteran named Jeff. I wrote about him in an earlier post. It was a great day! I plan to put up a small piece of that day for you all to watch. Jeff was candid and brutally honest about his experiences and where he is at. So be on the look out for that.

I would like to ask the people who are following the project for some feedback. What you would like to see on the site, what sort of things you’d like to see more of, etc. That is all for today, look forward to your response. You can write me here.

I will post in more depth later on. The reality is there are many of these types of stories around the country every day. This really pisses me off because people are seeking help now and they get turned away. Veteran’s are reaching out but they are not getting the care they need. Whether it is being denied for PTSD which astounds me or the facility simply cannot help them.

Young Marine Dies Of PTSD - And Neglect
Jonathan Schulze was a United States Marine.

He died earlier this month at the age of 25 — not in Iraq, but back home, in Minnesota.

He died of wounds received during his seven-month tour of duty in Iraq, wounds different from the ones that earned
Schulze two purple hearts. This young man died of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, of wounds to the soul and not the
flesh. He died because the government that was there to send him far away to fight in 2004 wasn’t there for him when he
got home.

Schulze had a harrowing time in Iraq, spending time in the heated battles of Ramadi in April, 2004. While he was there,
35 Marines in his unit were killed, including 17 of them in just 48 hours of combat.

The young Marine was wounded twice in battle but returned home to rebuild his life and to cope with the things he had
seen, things he had done and friends he had lost. But, by the time he was discharged from the Marines in late 2005, he
was deeply troubled with images of combat and violence that he could not get out of his mind.

According to Minnesota press reports, Schulze went to the Veterans Administration (VA) center in Minneapolis on
December 14, 2006, met with a psychiatrist and was told that he could only be admitted for treatment four months later,
in March.

On January 11, 2007, accompanied by his parents, he went to the VA hospital in St. Cloud, Minnesota and told people at
that VA facility that he was thinking of killing himself. They told Schulze that they could not admit him as a patient and
sent him on his way.

The next day, January 12, Schulze called the VA, reiterating that he was feeling suicidal. He was told that he was number
26 on the waiting list.

A man who had risked his life in Iraq and done everything that was asked of him by the United States government, was
told by that same government that his sacrifice would be repaid by being 26th on a list of Veterans similarly crying out for
help.

“Jonathan wanted help so bad,” said Marianne Schulze, Jonathan’s stepmother. “At the end of the conversation,
Jonathan got off the phone so distressed.”

On January 16, Schulze called his family and told them that he was going to do it — he was going to kill himself. His family
called the local police, who raced to his house, kicked in his door and found him hanging from an electrical cord.

Attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.

Having read about Schulze while on a trip to Minnesota, Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) brought the story to the floor of
the Senate and read it into the record on Monday.

“The story is nearly unbelievable to me,” said Dorgan in a speech on the Senate floor. “The newspaper description of the
flag-draped coffin of this young marine who earned two Purple Hearts fighting for his country in Iraq contains a sad, sad
story of a young marine who should have gotten medical help for serious psychological problems that were the result of
his wartime experience.”

The Marine’s family says that he couldn’t sleep, would have nightmares reliving the combat he had experienced and
suffered from vivid flashbacks when awake.

“He was a delayed casualty of the Iraq war,” his father, Jim Schulze, a Vietnam Veteran, said of Jonathan.

Jonathan Schulze, who leaves behind his fianceé, a 6-month-old daughter and who had another baby on the way, was a
machine gunner who wrote often to his parents about what he was experiencing in Iraq, the firefights, the bombings and
dismembered bodies blown apart by Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs).

“I pray so much over here and ask God to keep me out of harm’s way and to make it back home alive and in one piece,”
he wrote to his parents in 2004. “I bet I easily pray over a dozen times a day and I always pray while I am on patrol as I
am terrified of getting hit by an IED aka a bomb. Our vehicle elements and Marines on patrols are getting hit hard by
these bombs the Iraqis plant all over and hide on the ground.”

He survived all of that only to come home and find neglect, the results of an administration big on tax cuts for the wealthy,
but not real strong on taking care of Veterans returning home from the war created by the George W. Bush and, until this
month, left unchecked by the do-nothing Republican Congress.

As is often the case when things like this happen, the VA is citing privacy laws and won’t talk about the Schulze family’s
account of what happened to Jonathan or issue any comment at all.

But Senator Dorgan says he’s going to press for answers.

“I am going to ask the inspector general to investigate what happened in this case,” said Dorgan on the Senate floor.
“What happened that a young man who was a marine veteran with two Purple Hearts turns up at a VA center and says: I
am thinking of committing suicide, can you help me, can you admit me, and he is told: No, the list is 26 long in front of
you?”

“Are there others who show up at a VA center and say: I need help, only to be told no help is available? I hope that is not
the case. It is the unbelievable cost of war.”

h/t: http://www.saveourvets.com/JohnathanSchulze.html

On the eve of a very big snow storm I went down to Nashua. At first I didn’t really have any goal or plan. I just wanted to see where people would sleep tonight. It will drop below freezing tonight and there will be people who will not have a warm place to go.

I first stopped at Buckingham Place. I talked with the person who was working the front desk. I wanted to see what people would do to seek shelter tonight. Where would they go, who provides this service locally and what was the reality if they didn’t. The feedback I got was just as I suspected. There are limited beds that are offered, many will get turned away and will sleep in the elements tonight.

The shelters are limited here and that is really a matter of unfortunate circumstance. Whether it is a limited amount of funding from the local government or something else, the situation is not the greatest in this growing city.

I left there and headed towards a foot bridge that is notorious for groups of people who pitch tents and create a temporary community for themselves. Along the way I passed a make-shift shelter. It was your stereotypical location. Underneath an old tractor trailer was the remains of a bed that looked to be freshly used.

Remnants of food and other material were present. I took a picture and was standing back up and ready to continue down my path when a man walked up to me. At first I wondered if this was his place but I didn’t want to offend him if it wasn’t. He was very much disheveled and it was very apparent that he had been on the street for quite sometime. He saw that I had a camera and jokingly asked if I wanted to take a picture of him. I told him that I didn’t want to pass judgment and asked if he knew the person who might have stayed there. His response was both a reality slap and sad at the same time. He asked me if I thought he was a bum. I apologized again and told him no and that I was trying to help people who might want it here in southern New Hampshire. He hesitated and looked as if he was going to say something but he nodded and just walked on. As he walked away he said out loud that, “I wouldn’t be in this situation if I would have gotten paid the money I deserved.” I didn’t know what that meant but I could only assume.

I just watched him walk away. It angered me and made me realize that this problem is more than the public wants to deal with. As neat and tidy that Nashua has become, there is still the ugly side to it that no one wants to fit into their aesthetically pleasing and bustling city. I don’t know where the problem stems from but there is no excuse when there aren’t enough safe places to sleep at night.

I didn’t end up going to the foot bridge because I didn’t want to over stay my welcome. This gentleman’s safe haven was in affect trespassed on and I have enough street smarts to know that it was time to leave that area.

I headed over to the Soup Kitchen because I wanted to see their times for lines. I didn’t stick around for very long after I got my information. Partly because there were two Nashua Policemen making some random stops on that street and I figured there were good reasons for that. After that I headed over to my old stomping grounds. I remember as a child seeing many people who lived behind a certain store plaza location. Although it has changed over the years, I figured I’d see if anyone was there. Now mind you, I wasn’t going to just put a camera in these people’s faces but I was hoping that if I did find people then maybe someone would care enough to want to reach out to them. I know I can’t save everyone and that certainly wasn’t my objective but people need to be aware of what’s going on.

There is a Shaw’s Supermarket in this plaza and I noticed a man sitting there. Now I don’t mean to stereotype, but there are times that the visual is very clear that someone is not well off. I was writing down some notes in my car when I noticed two employees walking towards this gentleman. It appeared that they told him to leave. He had nodded and got up, rather than walking away he went into the store. I guess my curiosity kicked in because I wanted to know what they said to him. I didn’t see him at the entrance so I went in to just grab a drink. I bumped into a man that I had spoken to at Buckingham Place the day of my shoot there. Although we didn’t speak on camera in the past he was more than willing to just talk in general now. I did ask him where people would go tonight. His response was what I expected. He said that when the space runs out, they will just sleep wherever. We spoke for a few more minutes and parted ways. As I was walking out I saw the man who I initially saw at the front of the store. I exited the door and I asked him if they told him to leave or shop before he went in the store. He said that they were just doing their job and it wasn’t a big deal. He also asked what I was up to. I told him that I was doing a documentary about issues affecting our state. He seemed interested and I told him a little more about it. We then sat down and talked for about 45 minutes. His name was Jeff and he is what you’d call a chronically homeless veteran. At times you could see the emotion overwhelm him and I would quickly shift the conversation, maybe another time and place we could discuss the real hard stuff. I told him that I was trying to help people and that was my only intent. He really opened up about the VA and things that he has seen on the streets. I felt that he would be a great person to follow up with and I asked him about his current living situation. It was only 2 months ago that he was living on the street but was fortunate enough to have a place for the moment. I didn’t ask how he was paying for it or anything like that. I did ask if I could contact him again. He agreed and provided me with a way to do so.

I drove home with the radio off and the sun was setting. I thought that it would be a pretty picture but then my thoughts quickly shifted to the people who will endure the weather tonight. I thought about the reality and how I could never fully understand certain plights. In many ways I have been blessed and not a day goes by that I don’t forget that. I know what I am trying to do. I hope it will eventually help people and possibly make the next winter a different situation for all.

I want to share an experience I had today. I had just left from a meeting with Peter and Mara from Harbor Homes. If you know Nashua, NH then you will know the area that I will describe. If you travel north on Main St. There is an intersection that has a pub on the right called Peddlers Daughter and on the left is an alley way with railroad tracks running through it. As I approached the red light I looked over towards the alley and noticed two people picking in the trash. I just stared through my car window. It looked like they were eating something from a bag. Most people would have just turned their head away in disgust and driven on, but I just watched.

The light turned green and for a moment I hesitated. I remember thinking that I could just drive home or do something. I cut across a lane and went down the adjoining road and turned around. I went back, parked and walked up to them.

I don’t know how much I had in my pocket but I just pulled out what I had and smiled and said that they deserved a better meal than that. The woman responded by saying that she didn’t want it. I insisted and without a word just nodded and walked back to my car.

On the way home I thought about the documentary. I thought about what goal I hope to accomplish in the end. I have no idea who those people were. All I knew was their situation was worse off than mine and I did something. I just hope that for a moment they felt like someone genuinely cared, because I did. Selfless service mixed with a little compassion can go a long way. That’s what I hope to spread when this is all said and done.