So often we forget to acknowledge veterans who served and now struggle in their daily lives. Thursday was a chance for local veterans to get haircuts, clothing, and more, at the 11th annual Veterans Stand Down.
More than 300 veterans turned out for the event at Stramler Park and organizers say that is a new record. However, there is more to the annual Veterans Stand Down event than tents and giveaways.
Richard Wojtesky got a free hair cut and talked to 17 News while his son was getting a trim.
"I have a bullet in there from Vietnam," Wojtesky said pointing at his braced-up knee.
Wojtesky served in Vietnam for 12 years, earned two purple hearts, and was a prisoner of war.
"I was missing in action 3 years 21 days and six seconds," Wojtesky recalled.
Surprisingly, life was just as hard when he came back home to Bakersfield.
"I was living on the streets the whole nine yards at one time," Wojtesky said.
But now, with help from the Veteran's Affairs office in Oildale and Veterans Stand Down, Wojtesky has a new life waiting for him in Kentucky.
"I used it for eight years. It's time to move on," Wojtesky said of the services. "I have a house back there waiting for me and everything."
Over 4500 people are homeless in Kern County, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates one third of them are veterans. The annual event used to be exclusively for homeless veterans but the services have been expanded to all veterans the past two years.
However, resources are slim, and many troops that usually assist at the event are serving overseas. So the three-day event now has been reduced to one day.
A few months ago, Dave Posey was one of the thousands of homeless veterans in Kern County.
"Anybody who has been through something traumatic has to understand that we don't feel like we fit in with anybody," Posey explained.
Posey worked at the first annual Stand Down event eleven years ago, passing out socks and underwear. Now he serves as an assistant chairman of the event.
"There's a certain camaraderieship and something therapeutic about one veteran helping another veteran," Posey said.
Posey said the event offers a little bit for everyone, from legal services conducted in a certified courtroom to just having a fresh shirt on your back.
In the military, "stand down" refers to exhausted troops removed from the stress of combat to a place of safety and security, and that's exactly what many veterans say they found at Stramler Park today.
