Homeless Veterans Get Early Thanksgiving Dinner
FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - More than 70 people gathered at Goodwill Fort Worth's headquarters for a thank you lunch.
All of them people have things in common; They're veterans and they are or were homeless.
Goodwill served them an early Thanksgiving dinner, provided a stylist to give them a hair cut reminded them that they are not alone.
You could still hear the Marine Corps training when retired corporeal Greg Donahue thanked the man who just put a spoonful of dressing on his plate.
"Thank you sir!" he said quickly with a heavy emphasis on the 'sir'.
But Donahue carried more than a manner of speaking away from his time in desert storm. He came home with post traumatic stress disorder.
"When I did get out I didn't know exactly where to go to and exactly what to do," Donahue said. "It was really hard going from place to place trying to find a job. I wasn't stable on the jobs I was on."
Donahue found himself unable to cope, unable to support his wife and two boys.
"I hate to say it but alcohol and drugs deterred me from trying to seek help," he said.
Studies show around 60,000 veterans are on the street on any given night and National Coalition for Homeless Veterans says 1.4 million hover near poverty.
Donahue says veterans like him aren't forgotten -- they're lost.
"I think, unfortunately, some of us like myself, wanted to be forgotten," Donahue said. "I hate to say it like that but I wouldn't blame it on society that's forgotten us. I would say we forgot ourselves. There's actually help out there for us if we just trust someone to help us."
Donahue found help. He is now working, in counseling and sober.
"Those years is history and I feel that i'm much better than i ever could have been back then," he said. "I'm much better."
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