Veterans at Home, on a Mission of Compassion
New York Times
By TINA ROSENBERG
February 26, 2014
Rachel Gutierrez was an army sergeant in Iraq, but back home in Phoenix she leads a platoon. At 2:30 in the morning last Oct. 18, members of the 1st Platoon Phoenix gathered at an all-night McDonalds in a bad neighborhood downtown. Their mission was to comb the streets for chronically homeless veterans (who tend to sleep in groups but scatter during the day) and register them to get housing and other services.
A program based on the proven idea that helping others is healing, usually more healing than being helped.
This was the platoon’s first mission. Thirty of its members worked over the three nights of the mission ; there were veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan, Desert Storm and Vietnam, and one 78-year-old who served during the Korean War. The platoon members worked with the Arizona Coalition to End Homelessness, the state’s Department of Veterans Services and Community Bridges, Inc —125 volunteers in total. The organizations drew a grid of the city and divided it between them.
Once on the street, the platoon quickly fell into military habits. “When we came across abandoned homes that were drug dens, we didn’t have to say anything, we just formed a perimeter,” said Gutierrez. “It happened naturally.” They moved quietly, separated by no more than five meters, using the standard military hand signs for stop or rally.
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