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United States News Title: Homeless ex-Marine needs job Homeless ex-Marine needs job Jeremy Cofer realizes that today most people are grateful for a well-deserved break from work or school. A day to relax with family and friends, maybe kick back with a brat and a beer. He knows only a handful of people will give more than a passing thought to the meaning of Memorial Day and to guys like Cofer who, without hesitation, joined the military to serve their country. "I generally say a prayer for all the fallen veterans because this and Veterans Day are my two biggest holidays," said the 31-year-old Cofer, a Marine from 1992 to 1999 who served in Desert Storm and was critically injured 10 years ago while on a humanitarian mission in Bosnia. The Antigo native enlisted at 17, planning to make it his career. Photo by David Sandell/The Capital Times Jeremy Cofer says he's applied for nearly 35 jobs without any takers. Photo by David Sandell/The Capital Times Wheelchair user Jeremy Cofer (center), a former Marine who served in the first Persian Gulf War and was injured in Bosnia, has become homeless. He is pictured on State Street near the Veterans Museum with his friends Bobby Van Kampen (left), Wayne Allen and Gary Silvis. "They seemed to have what I wanted," Cofer said, adding that he enjoyed the training and discipline the Marines gave him. "They are the elites," he said. His unit grew close and Cofer cherished the camaraderie. "It was like a brotherhood," he said. Now Cofer is surrounded by a different band of brothers: men who take refuge in the shelters run by churches and nonprofit groups and store their worldly belongings in lockers. They swap stories and loose leaf tobacco and keep each other informed about the locations of free meals. Cofer became homeless almost four months ago after a disagreement with his girlfriend of five years whose home he shared in the Elvehjem neighborhood on Madison's far east side. "Things weren't working. She felt the need for change," he said. Cofer is nearing the 90-day limit at the shelter at Grace Episcopal Church on the Capitol Square. He is applying for low-income housing run by the city's Community Development Authority. But the agency has long waiting lists, said Cofer, who keeps his paperwork in a tattered purple Hallmark bag on his lap. If he is unable to extend his shelter stay, Cofer said he'll sleep on a park bench. Cofer, who gets $218 per month in disability from the military, was doing temp jobs when he could but has been unsuccessful lately in getting work. He estimates that he's applied for nearly 35 jobs at businesses where he can walk, bike or a take a bus, places like fast food restaurants and hardware stores. "It may just be that I am not the person that they are looking for. I've been told I was overqualified for work." Panhandling, which he does from two designated spots on State Street for two hours each day, nets him about $3 total, he said. "Out of 10 people, only 2 will spare a little change and actually acknowledge that we are there. In the morning, I will tell them good morning and only half of them will acknowledge that I even said anything," Cofer said. He plans to go to the library Tuesday to update his resume and cover letter. But now that he's in a wheelchair, Cofer predicts it will be even harder to find work. Cofer was wounded in Bosnia. He was on patrol when his best friend, John Rames, tripped a land mine. Rames, of Arlington, Texas, was 22 at the time. The two had gone through basic training and infantry school together. "He caught most of it. He was dead before he hit the ground," he said of Rames. Cofer still has flashbacks and nightmares from that day. What's more, he lost most of the use of one leg and has alternated between crutches and a wheelchair ever since. Three weeks ago, he lost all feeling and nerve control in that leg and has had to use the chair exclusively. Cofer, who wears a Desert Storm baseball cap adorned with four ribbons, joined the Marines during the Gulf War. After 13 weeks of basic training in San Diego and four weeks of infantry school, he was deployed to Saudi Arabia, where he was stationed for 18 months until the conflict ended. "We got into a few skirmishes - 'light resistance,' as they put it," he said, adding that the fights never lasted more than a half hour. He was proud and so was his grandfather, a World War II veteran, who was in the second wave of soldiers onto Omaha Beach on D-Day, Cofer said. Cofer spent two years stationed at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, before he was shipped to Bosnia on a humanitarian mission. "It was chaos. That's the only thing I can think of," he said about his year in the former Yugoslavia, where his mission was to supply food and medicine. "It was hard. Just walking down the street would make you sick," Cofer said. They saw children starving in the street, mothers with newborns they couldn't feed because they were too hungry themselves, people sleeping in bombed out buildings, he said. "We flew in by helicopter. We were taking fire as we were landing," Cofer said. When they'd go out on patrols they would take sniper fire and have to worry about ambushes and booby traps, he said. "I feel like it is the exact same thing as what they are going through in Iraq - just on a larger scale," he said. "I have nothing but respect for them guys over there right now." If he could, Cofer said, he would go to Iraq or Afghanistan "in a heartbeat." Cofer does not identify as liberal or conservative and although he follows current events, says he's "not much for politics." In terms of the war in Iraq, he says the U.S. military should be used as a security force and not a full-time occupying force. "Because even with Saddam out of power you've got warlords to worry about. It wouldn't take much for another militant faction to step in and take power." Cofer did agree with the original decision to go into Iraq. "The stuff that Saddam Hussein had done to his own people and the threat that he posed to that portion of the world, I wouldn't feel comfortable with him still in power." Wayne Allen, who has known Cofer for three months, got a general discharge from the Navy after three months for "not being able to adapt to military life." It was in 1970, during the Vietnam era. "I think veterans have really been taken down quite a few notches since Vietnam," Allen said. So will most people take a few moments out of their day today to consider the men and women who have fought and died for this country? "No, nope, nope, nope," Allen said. "Are you kidding? This is a good old liberal town." E-mail: skalk@madison.com
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