European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 31, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday december 31, 1987 the stars and stripes Page 7 critics fault a for inadequacies Vietnam War veterans swell homeless ranks Phoenix. No. Invt hundreds of homeless people live in Llu a irk behind the sprawling she lick in Phoenix where him terns line the Fence and fires Flicker All night in set Al Drums. Tinl 31, where Jay Martin sics. Is decorated with a Small american slag an ironic reminder of Manin s War service and his failure to find n Way into the mainstream of american life in she 11 a cars since his return. Mariin feels betrayed by his country and angry thai since the Vietnam War he has been unable to find a Good Job or a place to Settle Down. Instead he and hundreds of thousands of other veterans Drift from one shelter to another sleeping in doorways or under a Bridge. From a Quarter to a third of the homeless peo ple in most parts of inc country arc veterans according to studies by researchers in nine regions. In a few Cit ies including Phoenis and Baltimore. Inc number is Clos of to half the veterans administration provides Many Bene fits including educational assistance Job training Dis ability compensation pensions readjustment and Job counselling housing Loans and medical care Bui few of the homeless veterans receive All the benefits they arc entitled to. Advocates for the homeless have filed suit charging that despite inc swelling population of homeless Veter ans the a has no comprehensive program of reach ing out to them and has also slashed the number of its Benefit Counselor. Estimates of homeless veterans Range from 230,000 to More than 150.000, about two thirds of whom served since he beginning of the Vietnam Era. Some sociologists a nil historians say that since it was mostly the poor and uneducated who were drafted to fight the Vietnam War. It should come As no Surprise thai so Many Are now on inc margins of society. Veterans arc Home ices for much the same reasons As other on the streets a growing shortage of Low Cost housing less demand for Low skilled jobs an increasingly fragmented family Structure drug alcohol and mental problems and he  Opsy Bell accused of $6 billion in overcharges Washington a excessive local Tele phone rates have Cost Consumers nearly $6 Bil lion and helped regional Bell phone companies earn big profits since the breakup of the Bell system a consumer group said tuesday. In a report tilled take the Money and run the consumer federation of America also cautioned thai reducing regulation of the Bell companies Wilt produce More bad news for their customers. The study said average local monthly residential charges have increased from about 110.50 in january 1984 when the Bell system was broken up to about s16 today. It said Rales increased three1 times faster than inflation for the same period. Nearly half the increase is from the subscriber line charge which Rose from $2 to s2.60 per month last july since the Federal communications commis Sion implemented the charge in i98s, More of the costs of maintaining the local network have been shifted to focal subscribers and away from Long distance callers. Before 1984, local network costs were subsidized by Long distance rates. The consumer federation said Bell companies arc charging too much for local service and arc trying 10 persuade government regulators to lift limits an their profits in Exchange for Caps on Salt s. Stariing from a set of rates that Are much too High they Are seeking to completely deregulate Many services and to end rate of return Regula Tion on the rest thereby Locking in excess prof its inc Ripon said. Bell companies responding to the report Dis agreed with its conclusions.  patient1. While l Viry War his its casualties experts Siy inc Vietnam experience created special problems not Only because of the Lack of consensus about inc tightness of inc War. The War left Many veterans with alcohol or drug problems or inc mental illness called pos trauma Lic stress disorder. According to the Vietnam veterans of America one third of the homeless veterans have substance abuse problems and another third have mental or physical disabilities. You can t Tell the Boss you re living in a shelter Vietnam vet Jay Martin Many of the veterans who Are now homeless held jobs in the 1970s, often Drifting from one entry level Job to another every few months. But with the recession of inc Early 1980s, jobless rates soared and even Low paying jobs became hard to find. Most Guys when they first Gol out. Could gut a Job even if in was a Job thai was t going anywhere said Shelburt Johnson a Vietnam Era Veteran who lives and works at the volunteers of America s shelter in Cleveland but when the Economy Gol tight the jobs dried up and for i Guy like me who does t have vocational training there s nothing out there anymore. It s my Hope against Hope thai i can slay Here Long enough and establish enough of a track record so that i can go to an employer with a real Good recommendation and someone will take me on you can t Tell the Boss you re living in a shelter said Martin who has been everything from a garage Man to a. Bumper Jack maker since his discharge. Two years ago he Trica to re enlist but was rejected As too old. Every War since the american Rcv Lulion has left some veterans homeless and angry and each War has rekindled debate on Benefit. The most famous pc Tresl by veterans was the 19.12 Bonus army a washing ton Encampment of 15.000 world War i veterans who became such a political embarrassment Hal president Hoover ordered tanks infantry and cavalry in drive hem out. World War ii Veteran had an easier time of it. Thanks to the . Bill of right sin 194 f. World War ii veterans had a lot of  a id Marjoric Robertson who has written about Veter ans . Fly Korea veterans rights had eroded to some degree and by Vietnam the level of benefits had dropped  Many homeless veterans say hat the a has treated them badly and made them feel that Only Middle class veterans could be helped. Others complain of filling out endless forms and waiting months to see if Aid will he forthcoming. The court papers in the pending lawsuit against the a Cilc a Boston study showing that less than 20 per cent of thai City s homeless veterans receive Agency benefits a los Angeles study indicating that Only 2 percent were receiving Veteran s medical benefits and surveys of three Washington shelters where most of the homeless veterans had neither been reached by Agency officials nor received any benefits. The a which has moved to dismiss inc lawsuit says that inc homeless Are a poor Sample by which to measure its efforts these arc people who have sifted Down to the Bot Tom of inc system said Bonner Day. A spokesman for the Agency. Everything the a docs is to keep Veter ans from being homeless finding that Home ices Veter ans Don t think the a helped them is like going to a Hospital for amputees and finding that people Don t like  he says no Veteran need he homeless. The Agency s domiciliary program has 7.000 Beds in 17 locations 20 percent of them vacant he said and will add 525 Beds in 10 cities Farewell flight was Pilot s last fort Bragg . A an unqualified air Force Pilot who left his retirement party to Lake a Farewell flight was in the co Pilot s scat of a helicopter when in crashed last August killing All four aboard an air Force report says. The report issued monday by he 23rd air Force stated that the use of a co Pilot not qualified to Fly the uh-60 Blackhawk violated air Force regulations but thai circumstances surrounding the crash made its cause inconclusive. An investigating officer wrote that the probe was hampered by extensive fire damage. The co Pilot was identified As maj. Kenneth Reinhard 4l,, Texas. Also killed in the aug. 14 crash were Cape. Ril Jyh Gehringer 26, of Tacoma wash., a Pilot capt. Jeffrey Stevens. 26, of Billings mont., another Pilot and senior airman Jeff Becske. 21. Of Alexandria minn., a flight Engineer. The report does t say whether rein hard was flying the dual control helicopter said Rob Fortenburry a spokesman for Pope fab from which the helicopter departed before crashing in Woods at adjacent fort Bragg. Although Reinhard who was stationed at Pope was an experienced Pilot and qualified to Fly two other types of helicopters he was not qualified in inc Black Hawk to Accident report states. Forty people have been killed in crashes of Black Hawks since 1978, and the choppers have been grounded at least Ihrcke times in the last two years because of possible design flaws. The helicopter made by Sikorsky aircraft is used primarily by the army. Embattled Trenton principal stands behind suspensions Trenton , a a principal with a nation Al reputation for ruling his inner City High school with an Iron hand says he will fight any Effort by inc school Board to suspend him for expelling 60 students. The Pairson Board of education discussed such a move at a closed meeting dec. 23, but has nol decided whether to discipline Clark said a school Board Mem Ber who asked not to be identified. Clark principal of Eastside High school in the Northern new Jersey City said tuesday he would fight such punish tical with every ounce of Fervour in my mortal body. There is no conceivable Way i can be suspended because i have not Dune anything wrong to warrant such an  he vowed to sue the Board if it denigrates my professional  although his Lough Guy techniques Are controversial Clark has been praised by . Education Secre tary William j. Bennett and won the backing of much of his Community. Bennett reaffirmed his support of Clark on tuesday. I Don t want to Lake Over local Deribera Lions but from what i be seen at Eastside High school we need More of Joe Clark not less of  Bennoll said. He refused further comment. Clark expelled the students for poor grades earlier this month though state Law says the school Board must give permission for expulsions. The Board then ordered inc students readmitted. Clark complied but called the teen agers hoodlums thugs pathological deviants and said Many of them had foundered at the school for up to six years. Clark a fierce disciplinarian and self proclaimed Lough Guy arrived in the slate s third Large is City six years ago. He quickly made National news by patrolling Corri Dors with a bullhorn and with his efforts to drive out drug dealers push pupils to work harder and instill Pride in students