Homeless Vietnam Vets? Nope.

You’ve seen them at intersections, holding signs that read something like “Vietnam Vet, homeless, please help.” Feeling a bit guilty-after all. they served their country and now they’re out on die street-you dig in a pocket and find a few bucks. You drive away shaking your head, sad that so many of die homeless are traumatized Vietnam veterans, at least according to the “scientific” surveys. But are they? To check B.G. Burkett’s thesis that most are frauds, D Magazine sent photographer Skip Nail to photograph homeless Vietnam veterans. He scouted street intersections and homeless camps. He found nine who claimed-quite adamantly-that they had served in Vietnam. After being photographed, they filled out a form listing their names and details of their service. (Each who completed the process was given $20, but this was not offered until they had identified themselves as Vietnam vets.) Burkett men attempted to obtain their military records.

Four of the men-Clifford Shuttleworth, Wesley Dale Turk, Jeff Wayne Coons, and Alex Paul Doodick-are familiar sights at the intersection of Motor Street and 1-35, where they share “Vietnam Vet” signs and work one- or two-hour shifts soliciting donations from drivers. Though all foui claim they served in Vietnam, none are veterans of that war; Turk and Coons were never even in die military. Of the nine “homeless Vietnam veterans” photographed, five had no military service; three had served briefly in the military, but not in Vietnam. Only one was a Vietnam vet-and ht had repeated AWOLs, a desertion, an undesirable discharge, and a civilian criminal record, hardly the paragon of a patriotic vet down on his luck.

“At least 90 percent of these guys are bogus,” says Burkett. “Frankly, I’m surprised even one was a Vietnam veteran, but he’s hardly the average serviceman of that war. The advocates that claim mat there is a problem with tens of thousands homeless Vietnam veterans on our streets are perpetrating a fraud on the American public.”