LOS ANGELES: In 2003, Jon was leading a unit of 20 US soldiers in Afghanistan in the “war on terror”. Today he is heavily in debt, unemployed and homeless in Los Angeles.

As millions prepare to pay tribute to US veterans for Memorial Day on May 26, the case of this 44-year-old former platoon sergeant, and growing numbers of others like him, highlights the enduring problems faced by soldiers as they attempt to adjust to civilian life.

It is not a new phenomenon: tens of thousands of soldiers returning from fighting in the jungles of Vietnam during the 1960s and 70s found it equally hard to rebuild their lives. Today Vietnam veterans continue to make up the bulk of the estimated 150,000 soldiers who are homeless.

Yet there are striking differences between the returning soldiers from Vietnam and today’s modern conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Anthony Belcher, a Vietnam veteran, notes that soldiers from his war returned to face widespread opprobium from a public that were disgusted by US involvement in the conflict. “Soldiers from my generation were ostracised,” Belcher said. By contrast, US veterans of the post-9/11 campaigns are routinely hailed as heroes, regardless of the unpopularity of the war in Iraq.

Yet the age-old problems remain. And for many, their ultimate destination upon return to the US is a familiar one: the street.

Jon, who enlisted with the National Guard in order to help pay for his education, never once had to fire his weapon in Afghanistan. Yet the stress of being responsible for the men under his command weighed heavily.

“I was stressed by the fact that something could have happened. I had to worry about the lives of the 20 people I was in charge of,” he says.—AFP