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Stand Down 2005: A Hand
Up
Photo and story by Staff Sgt. Barbara Harbison,
NJDMAVA/PA
On Sept. 23, the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs (DMAVA) and Stand Down of South Jersey, Inc., hosted Stand Down 2005 at the National Guard Armory in Cherry Hill. This follows a Stand Down that was held a week previously at Essex County Community College in Newark on Sept. 17. DMAVA, along with many volunteers
and civic organizations
held the Stand Down to provide This is the
fourth year that
Stand Down was held at the Cherry
Hill Armory. Before 2000, Stand On any given night there are an estimated 341,000 homeless veterans in the U.S., up from 274,000 in 1995. About one-third of the homeless have served in the Armed Forces. The number of homeless Vietnam veterans exceeds the number of servicemembers killed during any given conflict. And finally, there are currently 7,500 homeless veterans in New Jersey. Stand Down comes from the
military term referring to exhausted
combat units that were removed
from the battlefront to a place of security
and safety for rest and recovery.
Today Stand Downs are grass
roots, community-based intervention
program to help homeless veterans The organizations that supported Stand Down 2005 were NJDMAVA, Stand Down of South Jersey, Inc., the Veterans Administration, The Retired Officers Association, Disabled American Veterans, American Legion, Marine Corps League, American Ex-Prisoners of War, Veterans of Foreign War, Gold Star Wives, Jewish War Veterans, Burlington County Veterans Services Office, Camden County Veterans Services Office, Camden County Board of Social Services, Community Services of Camden County, U.S. Department of Labor and the Fort Dix post chaplains. -- Range Hosts Vineland Vets |
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