After war, some veterans continue to fight

'Welcome home, Baby Girl," Jack Holzman, a Vietnam era veteran, told Denise Ruiz, a veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Holzman, of North Bellmore, and Ruiz, of West Hempstead, are Army veterans who trained at Fort Drum. "Yeah," Holzman said, laughing, "We went in there 45 years apart."

Almost the last thing on veterans' minds during a Stand Down in Hempstead Monday was the release of more than 90,000 confidential documents about the war in Afghanistan. They had other pressing concerns - some needed homes, clothing, food, information.

It's not that veterans didn't have opinions - in some cases very strong opinions - about the business of war being posted on the Internet.

"I think it's a travesty," said Dawud Abdul-Ali, an Army cook who served before the beginning of the Gulf War. "Confidential is supposed to be confidential," he said. "Posting that stuff is exposing a lot of us who are still out there."

Ruiz, who was wounded in her back and hip while serving overseas, also worried about soldiers and their families.

"When you talk on the telephone, you say everything's OK because you don't want them to worry," she said. Holzman said he believed that not every confidential document should be made public because a soldier's job never should be made more dangerous. But, he said, if some of the documents gave a clear, accurate picture of what was happening, it was important that the public know.

"Politicians tend to keep things back," he said. "People ought to know what's really happening so they can make good decisions on whether politicians in charge should keep their jobs."

Many of the veterans crowding the American Legion Hall in Hempstead were trying to navigate the confusing maze of bureaucracy to get everything from benefits to care for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Some came to the Stand Down looking for jobs. But most of all, veterans - 75 of whom lined up in the hours before the Stand Down even opened - were looking for homes.

The crowd of veterans was astonishing as volunteers, like Holzman, reached out to veterans like Ruiz. Meanwhile, veterans of many ages - and many wars - shared laughs and a barbecue lunch outside.

On a stage inside the veterans hall, a barber sheared hair, while veterans, many carrying big plastic bags, picked up other things they needed - peanut butter and canned peas, toothpaste and brand-new T-shirts.

So many soldiers crammed into so little space. It was an astonishing sight. And a shameful one, too - especially after seeing so many other soldiers at a Stand Down in Suffolk County earlier this year.

So many veterans. So few jobs. And even fewer homes.

Old soldiers never die, they just fade away, Gen. Douglas MacArthur once said. He was more right than he knew.

The luckiest of veterans don't die. They come home and have to keep fighting. And that fight - which for too many local veterans goes on for years - too often fades from public view.

"We do this because we have to," said Patrick Yngstrom, head of Nassau's veterans affairs office.

But he said - rightly - "We shouldn't have to."