Shelter helps homeless female vets get on feet

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Iraqi war veteran and former Army private Margaret Ortiz, 27, sits in her room Dec. 1 at the U.S. Vets women's shelter in Long Beach, Calif. The $15,000 Ortiz had in the bank when she left Iraq is long gone, spent on alcohol and cocaine. She is one of the faces of America's homeless female veteran population.


Shelter helps homeless female vets get on feet
By Kimberly Hefling - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Dec 15, 2009 11:55:24 EST

(Editor’s note: The third of a three-part series.)

Part 1: Women Combat Vets Battle for Acceptance
Part 2: New VA patients younger, more likely women
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LONG BEACH, Calif. — The $15,000 that former Army Pvt. Margaret Ortiz had in the bank when she left Iraq is long gone, spent on alcohol and cocaine.

By the time she found her way to a program run by the nonprofit U.S. Vets for homeless female veterans in this Southern California city, she’d slept in San Diego on the beach or anywhere she could find after a night of partying. One morning, she woke up behind a trash bin, her pants torn, with no memory of what happened.

Instead of helping her forget her six months in Iraq, where she said she faced attacks on her compound and sexual harassment from fellow soldiers, the alcohol and drugs brought flashbacks and raging blackouts. She said she tried to kill herself.

“You knew something was wrong with you, but you didn’t know what was wrong with you,” said Ortiz, 27, from atop her twin bed in a plain dorm-style room, a black 4th Infantry Division ball cap on her head. “Nobody knew, and so you couldn’t really handle it.”

Ortiz is one of the new faces among America’s homeless veterans.


Rest of this heartbreaking article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2009/12/ap_military_women_homelessness_121509/

[ClayZ]

1. K and R