Had, i was progressively spiraling down. Derek wittenbergs Second Military enlistment included a tour in afghanistan. And his return to civilian life two years ago was not what he planned. Its kind of hard to relate to that. It wasnt like it was before. I wasnt the same person. This time, he was homeless. The situation was different for henry frank. He served in the army more than 30 years ago. When i went in i did my tour at ft. Stuart, georgia. I stayed there pretty much the whole time, even though we did desert training; never saw combat, but his life changed dramatically a couple of years ago when financial problems left him with no home, no money, and no prospects. You show obvious signs of being homeless, its very difficult to get a job. Hacap says 40 per cent of iowas homeless are veterans and their families. Thats a startling statistic that hacaps Operation Home strives to eliminate. The whole sole purpose of the program is to end veteran homelessness. So we prioritize helping
Po through the day. Tonight, expect clear and Cool Conditions with widespread 20s. For those that have not experienced a hard freeze yet this season, you should get one tonight. This weekend continues to look great with highs primarily in the lower 50s saturday and upper 50s low 60s on sunday. Have a great weekend today mostly sunny. Wind n 1020. High 54 tonight clear and colder. Wind light. Low 28 tomorrow sunny. Wind sw 515. High 52 tom. Night clear. Wind sw 510. Low 33 thanks kaj. This morning, crews in Waterloo Commercial street. We spoke with authorities this morning and will continue to follow this developing story. Stay with us here and online, at kcrg dot com. Today is veterans day, a day when america honors all men and women whove served. Some veterans struggle after leaving the military and too many end up homeless. In eastern iowa, the Hawkeye Area Community Action program, or hacap, has a mission to Operation Home. We send our military men and women off to fight in foreign
From your 24 hour news source, this is kcrgtv9 news morning news. First, meteorologis t kaj omara has your first today will be another quiet day, though cooler than yesterday. A few more scattered clouds will be possible, but otherwise the sky should remain fairly clear through the day. Tonight, expect clear and Cool Conditions with widespread 20s. For those that have not experienced a hard freeze yet this season, you should get one tonight. This weekend continues to look great with highs primarily in the lower 50s saturday and upper 50s low 54 tonight clear and colder. Wind light. Low 28 tomorrow sunny. Wind sw 515. High 52 tom. Night clear. Wind sw 510. Low 33 in an update we brought you earlier this morning, trespassing after a fire in waterloo. Crews in waterloo responded to 919 commercial street just after three oclock this morning. No one was hurt, but the waterloo fired Department Says it rescued one person from an upstairs apartment. We are working with authorities to get more
To remember when the guns fell silent in ww1. Thats almost 100 years ago now. Its time to remember the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month music marking the press of the colors. The celebration here is usually the same. A crowd of 200 to 300 salutes the veterans of all wars and also those who served. Todays main speaker acknowlendege the debt of gratitude to anyone who served. Your service and sacrifce is the reason why we are here today. And we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. As is traditional here, organizers looked for the oldest veteran or veteran who served before anyone else. For that, they found one man who began in the military in 1940 that was of course 1 year before entering ww2. Organizers of course always remember the greatest generation. Men and women. Who served in ww2. Nearly a half a dozen. Live in cr, df kcrgtv9 news. Also today, veterans and their families can use the ymca of the cedar rapids metropolitan area for free. Veterans and their families can
Hes a waterloo native who served with delta battery and they went to desert storm 25 years ago. Hard to believe. And this is Derek Wittenberg who founded a very important Veterans Group called 22 no more. Now, derek is a combat veteran of a couple of wars, desert storm and also the afghan war and his new group is referring to the 22 veterans who commit country. So were going to talk about some of these key issues here as we go on. Derek, just real quickly, about your organization, youre really 22 no more obviously refers to that very tragic number of 22 veteran suicides a day. Youre also trying to develop quite a network of other organizations, so how is that going so far . Derek its overwhelming. We nationally launched 22 no more in january of this year and its grown exponentially. Organizations to help veterans not only dealing with pssd and suicide, but homelessness, food, paying the bills, the whole nine yards. Ron well get pour into that later. Kris, i had you on here five years a