'My Life Was Hell': Hope For 'Forgotten' LI Veterans, Living In Woods

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Veterans came forward to open their hearts and share their truths with Patch.

One veteran, Richard, undomiciled, is an Army veteran who served in Vietnam.

“I was in hell over there and I came home to more hell,” he said. “To being spit on, beat up in the airport on my way home. I was hated, you know? Some people thought I was a hero — but I knew I wasn’t s—, because I went against everything that my parents taught me, my religion, when I was over there, killing people.”

The road home was pitted with dark experiences, he said. He was sent to the Creedmor Psychiatric Center in Queens, and then, to the Northport VA Medical Center. “In those days, there was no such thing as PTSD,” he said, adding that no one understood the anguish he was dealing with.

He lost his home, has been divorced numerous times. His family, he said, “couldn’t take the nighmares. Every time I think I’m over it, it pops up again.”

Life since Vietnam, he said, “has been a rollercoaster,” marked by substance abuse issues and difficulty in securing and keeping a job — despite the fact that he has a master’s degree in social work. “It’s a stigma that follows you,” he said.

Right now, he’s living in Massapequa in a nursing home. His voice breaks as he remembers those dark days in Vietnam. “I’ve killed a lot of people over there,” he said. “I was 17, 18 years old. I didn’t know what I was doing. Going to war for the United States of America was the biggest mistake I ever made in my life.”

Simoni has helped him, helping him secure an attorney for legal issues in regard to securing his benefits.

And, Richard said, even more life-altering, Simoni has been a friend.

“He was the only one that came to see me, took me out on Christmas, to dinner at Jade’s sister’s house,” he said. “It was nice. I felt like I was part of something, for a minute.”

According to Simoni, the tenets of Bravo Foxtrot are adapted from a military acronym, A.O.R., which meant “area of responsibility” originally and now stands for advocacy, outreach, and collaborative resources.

The veterans’ plight has been depicted in “Long Island’s Forgotten Heroes,” a documentary filmed for and about Bravo Foxtrot by a Glen Cove-based production company.

The challenges those veterans face are daunting.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were about 16.2 million veterans in the United States in 2022. And, statistics from the National Low Income Housing Coalition or HUD, in 2023, 35,574 veterans were experiencing homelessness, marking a 7 percent increase, or 2,445 more veterans, between 2023 and 2023.

However, HUD said, despite increases in veteran homelessness between 2022 and 2023, the number of veterans experiencing homelessness is 52 percent lower than it was in 2009.

Those veterans grapple with an array of challenges including PTSD and substance abuse disorders.

According to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, more than 2 of 10 veterans with PTSD also struggle with substance abuse, and almost 1 out of 3 veterans seeing treatment for addiction also have PTSD. In the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, about 1 in 10 returning veterans seen in VA have a problem with alcohol or other drugs, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said.

Veterans came forward, one by one, to share their gripping stories, including Will, a Babylon native who served in the First 82nd Aviation Regiment at Fort Bragg In North Carolina from 1988 to 1991.

“I liked jumping out of airplanes, working with helicopters. I always felt fulfilled,” he said.

Growing up, he wasn’t college-minded, Will said. His plan was to enlist and then, get a skill and bring his talents home to Northrop Grumman. “But by the time I got out,” Grumman had closed its doors on Long Island and was no longer an option, he said.

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There were parts of his time the service, such as the travel, that he loved, he said. “I had the travel bug in me for a long time,” he said. “When I got out, I moved around a lot to different parts of the country. It didn’t allow me to be stable but it was a good experience.”

Adjusting to civilian life was not easy, he said. “It was always hard,” he said, adding that a reentry program structure was lacking. His family, including his mother, “God rest her soul,” was always supportive. And up until the past seven years, he was always able to find work.

But over the last seven years, he has been homeless, on and off, Will said. Living upstate, employment opportunities were limited and winters with heavy snow were harsh. Finding employment has been his greatest challenge, he said.

“The only time I was ever homeless was not because of drugs and alcohol but because I can’t maintain a job,” he said.

And living on the street, he said, makes finding, and holding on to, a job next to impossible. “Trying to live on the street is tough, when you sincerely need help,” he said.

Often, he would show his VA card and just ask for a sandwich but, he believes, because he wasn’t persistent or abusing drugs or alcohol, he was often overlooked, he said.

A broken system meant that those who are working, trying to survive, often earn too much to qualify for heat assistance in the cold winter or other vital services, he said. “I saw one lady crying in Social Services because to qualify she would have had to quit her job.”

For awhile, Will went to live with a relative and help with their new house. He doesn’t need thousands, he said — just enough to get by.

He served time in prison around 20 years ago, he said and said, although he was not using drugs, if he had been, he feels there were more services available to help. “People don’t understand that it’s a Catch-22,” he said. “Not everyone who winds up on the street is drugged out.”

Having lived upstate, surrounded by a sea of abandoned buildings, Will would like to see those buildings renovated into real housing opportunities. But in those areas, where there are wide expanses of land and an abundance of abandoned structures, a lack of public transportation is a concern and jobs are hard to find, he said.

On Long Island, for those living in the woods, when local governemnts come in and tear down the trees and break up the encampments, there are no options for those whose lives are spent in tents and in the shadows, he said.

“Where do they go?” he asked. “There are no other options .It’s one thing if they have real options.”

For now, Simoni is helping Will, giving him work and a place to stay. Before they met, Will was living in the woods in a tent in Wyandanch, he said.

Living in a tent wasn’t something that scared him, Will said; he wasn’t in that situation long and had plans to move on and find work. “I can live in the woods,” he said. “I want to live, though — not just survive all the time.”

His dreams are humble but very real, he said. “I just want a job. My own little place. That’s it. I don’t want anything complicated. I just want to make my own money, so if I want to buy a pack of gum — I can buy a pack of gum.”

Don, 59, also shared his story.

Born in Brooklyn, he moved to North Babylon and served in the Army. “When I got out, I was drinking and drugging for many years. I did live in the woods for two years — it was horrible,” he said.

Sternos provided heat, or blankets. It was Simoni and another volunteer from Bravo Foxtrot who came to his tent and saved him, in all the ways that mattered. “I was in a hospital gown, sitting in my tent, freezing. Matt took me in, fed me, clothed me. This outfit is 100 percent great,” Don said.

After serving in the Army, Don said, “I couldn’t wait to get back. I was in Beirut. I picked up body parts for a couple of months. When the Marine barracks got bombed, I went and cleaned it up. I was 18 years old.”

The PTSD has blanketed the years since, he said. “I was heavy into drinking,” he said. “That’s what I knew — alcohol could numb the feelings. I drank most of my life, but I haven’t had a drink in nine years now.”

His early life was marred by abuse, something that is still too difficult to talk about, he said.

He worked from time to time, as a trucker, he said.

“But what I really want to talk about is Bravo Foxtrot,” he said. “They took me off the street, fed me, clothed me, got me out of the woods, out of the tent. And even when I was in the tent, they supported me, gave me clothes and boots, meals. And they do it immediately, you don’t have to sit and fill out paperwork. You don’t have to go wait on a line.”

Simoni and Pinto, he said, “are beautiful people. They work hard.”

The couple were his lifeline when all was dark, Don said.

“I was on the verge of suicide when I met them. I was done,” he said.

The couple, he said, helped Don get in touch with his children. “I have three — and a granddaughter who just turned 7. I’ve never met her, but through Matt and Bravo, that’s going to come true.”

And that’s not all. Simoni also helped him to find a place to live, a rented room he can call his own.

“He said to me, ‘You’ll never be homeless again.’ I just got out of the hospital and they came to see me and brought me food. They are just wonderful. Without a doubt, they changed my life,” Don said.

Now, Don wants to give back, to help other veterans find the light in the proverbial darkness. “I want to be a part of the Bravo team,” he said. “I want to help the next guy. Because we need help.”

Every day, Don said, there are veterans on Long Island living in tents alone. “Matt takes the team and goes to encampments. He brings them food and blanket and sternos for warmth — even on Christmas.”

He added: “There’s no bureacracy. They don’t do anything but help. They say, ‘We love our veterans,’ and they’re proof of it.”

Because of Simoni and Bravo, Don said: “I have hope now. I want to help them in any way that I can.”

Speaking with Patch, Simoni mentioned another veteran they’d met a little over a year ago, living out of his car. “Since that time, we’ve gotten him service connected, with a monthly income and an apartment of his own.”

That veteran, Simoni said, served in the Navy. He is 30 years old.

Seeing concrete changes and veterans reborn is deeply fulfilling, Simoni said.

“We don’t take the money, salary or pay, here,” he said. “We work strictly on volunteerism. We depend on the veterans that we make part of our family to pay it forward. These are the people that are making it happen, making it possible for Bravo Foxtrot to grow — the veterans.”

Every night, Simoni said he and his wife head out to different parts of Long Island — Brentwood, Patchogue, Babylon, Riverhead, among many other locations — where they find veterans living in the woods “in complete squalor,” and bring donations of food and clothing.

The service doesn’t stop for the holiday season, Simoni said.

“Christmas, Thanksgiving Day — the holidays are when we really get out there. That’s the time when everyone is off from work and spending time with their families. Those are the hardest times for us — and the days that it is most important for us to be out there and show them that they have people that care — family, community, that cares. That they aren’t forgotten.”

He added: “No soldier is left behind. Those are the most important days. Not Christmas Eve, not the day after Christmas. Those are the most important days because this is what outreach looks like.”

His mission, Simoni said, is to help those veterans that are struggling without resources. “Why do we find veterans still suffering, living at the woods or at train stations?” he asked.

The simple logisitics of reaching out for help are staggering for someone living in a tent; it’s nearly impossible to follow up with phone calls, and emails, or to make appointments, Simoni said.

“All these variables are impossible to someone dealing with mental health issues,” he said. “And there are issues with living in the woods. Even if they have a working cell phone, they can’t plug it into a rock to charge it.”

Veterans are dealing with daunting challenges, Simoni added. “We shouldn’t have to fight for our benefits.”

Veterans, all too often, suffer in silence, Simoni said.

“They isolate,” he said. “As veterans we’re always told, ‘Don’t complain, do what you’re told, follow your orders, hurry up and wait.’ So we regress into our own selves, own worlds. It’s easy for us to be forgotten. We are the forgotten heroes of this nation, truly,” he said.

Simoni said he personally does not like to be called a hero. “No one really likes that term to be used, but I have to say, 100 percent, we depend on volunteerism in this country for our military. It’s certainly not too much to ask that none of these men and women be left behind, be forgotten — be left to fend for themselves.”

The Department of Defense, Simoni said, has “no shortage of funding” to ensure that soldiers are fit for full duty upon entering the miltary or before deploying. “However, when it comes time to return to civilian life, there is a major, major chasm. The amount spent to reintegrate soldiers is a far, far cry from the funding received to activate our soldiers.”

Simoni still believes that the United States is the “greatest country that has ever been. We believe that; we fought for it. That’s why we put our lines on the line to defend it, and why so many of us lost our lives.”

However, Simoni feels there is a dearth of resources to help veterans with issues such as housing, health care, and other issues. He believes in helping immigrants who have newly arrived in the United States, Simoni said. “I’m a first-generation US citizen. My father was born in Italy. So I believe in the words, ‘Give us your tired, your poor, your hungry.’ But not at the expense of our soldiers.”

A more effective reintegration program is needed, Simoni said. “We send our soliders when many are so young, 17 years old. And when they are discharged, if they do not have a very strong support system at home, and very few do — it’s no secret that many recruits are from low-income neighborhoods — they struggle.”

Enlisting in the military, Simoni said, “increases your odds of incarceration, homelessness, substance abuse, suicide, divorce. This is proven, factual. This is not contested,” he said.

The young men and women who go to serve, Simoni said, often come back forever changed. “These are our children who are now living in the woods.” Not just on Long Island but nationwide, Simoni said. “This is a problem that exists everywhere; it’s not just a Long Island-specific issue.”

As for Simoni, he said he feels Bravo Foxtrot helps him as much as it helps others in need. “I’m lucky enough to have made it to the point where I am still living. I am still alive, not homeless, and my everything, my passion, everything I have is owed to helping others. This is my purpose in my life. It keeps me healthy and gives me a reason to wake up in the morning.”

As a nation, Simoni feels all should get behind helping the forgotten vets who need help. “It should be a no-brainer. We are talking about the citizens of our nation who signed their names on the line to give their lives for the betterment of the collective.”

Personally, Simoni is grateful to be rebuilding his own relationshiop with his daughter after spending years overseas fighting — a new beginning he tries, every day, to share with the veterans opening their hearts to hope.

As for Jade Pinto, she, too, is passionate about Bravo Foxtrot. Of the veterans, she said: “All they need is a supportive community where they are loved unconditionally — to accept their pasts and move forward.”

Pinto also believes it’s important and life-affirming for the veterans to reach out to one another and help each other, forging a deep connection. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be,” she said.

The donations the organization garners run the gamut from food to shelter, clothing to financial assistance. “One man just found out he has colon cancer. We want to be sure to visit him every day, to make sure he has gas money,” she said. “Anything he needs.”

Pinto said her own life has been forever changed by her mission to help — and empower. “There is a point that helping becomes enabling, so we expect them to be able to also help themselves. And part of that is giving back, helping each other. We want to encourage them to be a part of the community that we are trying to grow.”

Charles Shelley, a trustee on the Bravo Foxtrot board, also helps Simoni with donations, traveling from Pennsylvania to help where the need is dire .”It’s devastating,” he said. “It’s terrible what these veterans are going through. It’s shameful.”

Many are willing to help, to offer donations and services, but the desperate need has to be spotlighted and shared, Shelley believes. “There is kindness, but to find it, you have to ask,” he said.

For Shelley, seeing the impact of Bravo Foxtrot on the lives of veterans has been deeply rewarding. “When I started helping Matt, many of these guys were living under tarps in the woods, that were strung from trees.” Through is work with the Knights of Columbus, Shelley was able to secure inflatable mattresses, backpacks, food, boots, water, and so much more.

For Shelley, the desire to help is fierce. “This is my way of giving back,” he said.

Brandon, 36, a Purple Heart recipient who served in Afghanistan until 2008, suffered injuries so severe in a roadside bombing that he disconnected his back and had to learn to speak again. Today he is back on Long Island caring for his mother after his father died from COVID pneumonia in 2020.

Right now, their rented Islip home has black mold and has been without working heat for two years, he said; he was told by the landlord to use space heaters and to turn on the oven, he said.

Simoni is working to help Brandon and wants to shine a light on what is happening. “This is a combat veteran,” he said. “Someone has to stand up for this veteran.”

To learn more about Bravo Foxtrot or to donate, click here.

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