Mission Statement:

The purpose of Eddie’s place is three-fold:

• Tell Eddie’s story to put a name and face to the difficulties faced by our veterans when they return home and fall through the cracks.

• Provide a safe forum for veterans to network and find the help they need

• Raise awareness to the fact that we all, as individuals, need to step up and do our part to support and help our veterans when they return home.

I have been referring to my uncle’s story as Eddie’s Place for 7 years.  I believe his story will open our eyes, and hopefully our hearts, to the fact that our Veterans and their families endure hardships long after their service to our country.  You will see on this site that I wrote very little; the letters Eddie left behind tell their own story of despair, hardships, PTSD (not knowing the condition by name, but able to identify that he was suffering the symptoms), and Eddie’s fight with the VA to get the help he earned on many fields of battle.  The pictures of Eddie’s Place are grim, but it shows us what happens when we let our Veterans down; Eddie is not the only Veteran that this has happened to. 

Eddie was15 years old when he lied about his age and joined the Army.  He was a WWII vet and an ex-POW; he served with the 82nd airborne, 504th Infantry, 3rd Battalion, "I" Company. His campaigns were in Sicily , Salerno, Cassino, Anzio, and Normandy.  Normandy was a jump he volunteered for with the Pathfinders of the 508th, they were the first to jump that night prior to D-Day to set up beacon lights to guide the rest of the airborne invasion.  Eddie was captured and severely beaten a few days later on June 9, 1944. The Germans lined up three guys in front of Eddie and shot them.  He was then forced to dig four graves, one for each of the dead men, and one extra.

While a POW he served time in Bergen-Belsen & Buchenwald where he was made to work on cleanup crews.  They had to watch Jews tortured and killed and, in his own words he told me that he had to clean the blood off the walls and floor. 

Eddie shed his blood on all five battlefields; he has 7 purple hearts, 3 bronze star medals (1 with a V for Valor), 2 Presidential Unit citations, and was awarded but never actually received the Distinguished Service Cross for Normandy.

When Eddie came home from the war he was furloughed for 73 days to recuperate, when he reported back after furlough he was kicked out, deemed unfit for further service.  He had multiple scars on his head from being beaten by the butt of a rifle in Normandy, from hand to hand combat in Alcamo and from his time as a Prisoner of War, he was awarded 10% compensation for the scars: $19.00 per month.

In 1962 he had 2 heart attacks and a stroke; but after almost 18 years of Eddie fighting for his benefits, President Kennedy and Vice President Johnson were instrumental in getting Eddie the full compensation he deserved for the nervous condition he suffered.  The VA had tried to attribute the same condition to a car accident that had happened prior to Eddie being in combat.  It was referred to as a preexisting condition, and that is still used today as a justification to deny many veterans the help they need and have earned.

In 2000 my brother found Eddie living with no electricity or running water; he had been living that way for over 30 years. He was paranoid and did not trust people.  Eddie was then placed into the mental ward of the local hospital.  The Dr. who saw Eddie while he was in the hospital testified in court that Eddie was not a threat to himself or the community.  Eddie was then placed into an assisted living facility, a separate facility from the one his wife Helen was placed into.  A judge told Eddie that he had to take colon cancer tests and that if he refused he would be put into the mental ward of the VA hospital, a place Eddie was deathly afraid of.  The court knew through interviews that Eddie feared, hated and overall did not trust the VA, and they used that to threaten him.  Because Eddie never received any kind of help for the mental trauma he suffered as a result of his time in combat or as a prisoner of war, he truly believed that their intention was to try to kill him with the colon cancer tests. I intervened on Eddie's behalf and contacted the VA in Alabama and told them that Eddie needed to be seen by doctors who specialize in helping ex POW's and I was told that there was nothing they could do to help.

Eddie then asked my brother if he could trust me, and when Gary assured Eddie that he could trust me, Eddie skipped town in Alabama and caught the Greyhound bus to California with nothing but the clothes on his back and a manila envelope with the things he felt were important. I had only met Eddie a month prior to him coming to my house; I use to write to Eddie when I was a kid of 8 or 9 years old and that is the only correspondence I ever had with him.  I went to Alabama thinking I could help out and clean his place up; I use to clean houses for a living so I thought with a little hard work I should be able to help put things in order...Eddie's house is uninhabitable.

His wife Helen was also in the house with Eddie; she was bed-ridden with a broken hip and he had been trying to care for her the best that he could, I'm not sure how long she had been living like that. When the paramedics came to get Helen out of the house the police handcuffed Eddie and took him to the local hospital. When Helen was brought out of the house she was worried about Eddie more than her own self; she told them she was fine and asked where her husband was. My brother told me that even the paramedics were crying while they were bringing her out of the house. None of us like the fact that Helen was living like that, but the fact of the matter is that Helen loved Eddie no matter what. She stood by him when no one else understood him or knew what to do to help.  I don't think Helen knew what to do, but one thing for sure is that she did not turn her back on Eddie; Helen loved him.  Helen passed away three weeks after Eddie came to my house, my brother told me she died of a broken heart.

In due time I will tell you more about Helen, but for now I want to get Eddie's remains back to Alabama so they can be together.  She has been patiently waiting for him; its time to take Eddie home.

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