Enjoying the new Vet’s Place facility are (from left to right): Jim Blackmon, Case Manager, Ron Abraham, Randy Byrd (holding “Izzy” the puppy), Gary McCluney, and Henry Laster.

By Bill Moore

This is not your typical soldier’s story, because it is not about a single soldier but many.

They can be easily identified as your average Joe, your brother, son, nephew, uncle, or dad. The only difference is that something has happened to them that has changed their personalities, their lives, and outlooks. It has changed the way they look at themselves, for they are homeless. They live in the woods or under bridges. On cold nights they warm themselves with whiskey or whatever might be available.

The marvels of modern science and air travel can have a soldier in a war zone fighting for his life and twelve hours later sitting in his own living room. The problem is that his body, brain, and psyche still have months of lag time to deal with in some way. Therein lies a potential human disaster. Many of these vets don’t make the transition easily or safely back to “the world.” Some don’t make it at all. They struggle with their experiences aided by the bottle, or other chemicals that ease the pain for a while as marriages, careers, bank accounts, and self-respect are sloughed off like layers of skin. When enough layers are gone, and you’ve found there’s no solution at the bottom of the bottle – then what?

If you are willing to remold yourself, and you can stand to face what you have become, there is hope and help. Many of you who have been around Asheville for any length of time knew the ABCCM rescue mission on Coxe Avenue. That became “The Vets’ Place” a few years ago, and eventually outgrew the old facility. In 2008 ABCCM began the move to the old Motel 8 in Oteen, and in May the move was completed. Today 160 men occupy the “Veterans Restoration Quarters and Inn,” with the number expected to rise to about 200. Each man has a roommate and all the amenities of a good motel as well as three meals a day from the newly completed commercial kitchen, built by the vets themselves.

The men are (if unable to work a regular job) expected to do at least twenty hours of volunteer work each week. Those who are able-bodied must seek employment and eventually independent housing. These elements, though important, are only adjunct to what happens from day to day. The program is structured so that a man is given the opportunity to help himself. But the real impetus to accomplish the remolding process has to come from a man himself.

And what of these men - and how did they come to such a state as homelessness? Bodies are battered from misfortune, abuse, or combat; but so are psyches and spirits. The reasons are all different, and all remarkably the same. There are many stories that could and should be told, about suffering and sacrifice, about hardship and bad decisions, about dumb bad luck and tragedy. They are all different yet similar, and reach from the terrible winter at Valley Forge, the rice patties of Vietnam, to the deserts of Iran and Iraq. One such story went this way:

He endured a war, combat wounds, and came home to marry the woman of his dreams. He started his own business and became a success story in the American tradition. Then one day the doctor said: “Your wife has multiple myeloma.” All the money, the land, the two houses suddenly meant little if anything. Half a million dollars later his wife died. He was broke, lost his business, and had no home. He found his way to Asheville, and had the will to remold himself. Today he is self-sustaining and has becoming whole again. A short and simple tragedy that ended with a major triumph!

As a ministry, that is what ABCCM is all about: the program seeks to help heal and strengthen the soul and spirit as well as the body and mind , for that is where the remolding of a mans life begins. That’s what the Vet’s Quarters is all about.

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