Special Assistance for Veterans Endeavors

20 years ago I do not know how I started but I began to help veterans in a big way. I don't know where to start but I am a REAL Veterans advocate. I tamed the Harlingen VA into doing everything I needed to have done. I saved veterans lives by interfering with the VA. a decade ago when a new Director would take over the Harlingen Clinic they would call me into the office to ask me how things were going in the community in reference to the VA.

I helped Steve Garcia a survivor of Hamburger Hill stay alive longer. While he went into the VA hospital his mom stayed at home. they lived together. She was about 4'6" tall. his nutrition consisted of the small cans of beanie weenies and crackers. He was service-connected at 30%. His sister Olga contacted me while I was the CEO of the Harlingen Veterans Memorial. She called for help for Steve and all the guys working on the memorial knew I could and would him help. While Steve was at home his mom passed away at the hospital. Steve was at home now minus a leg. It had been amputated while he was in the hospital. He was drinking beer and smoking weed. I would hat him whatever he wanted because my heart would hurt him. He asked me to please see if I could get him an e Xray for his purple heart. I could not get any of the doctors to do that for him. I would visit him every day and still be available for the Harlingen Veterans Memorial. The phone call I made to get Lee Roy for a c-pak was nothing when AJ needed to stay in the alcohol-free housing and he was denied I got it done in no time. I could have done more and some of me after I left help is in working. I am not a bragger I am a doer. I don't have money because I was busy taking care of my family and trying to understand why I was not like everyone else. why I had to be humiliated in front of everyone I knew. As you know PTSD is not visible. I wept and would live in cars with my family and once when we were broke my wife and kids and me out of gas I pulled into a Philips gas station and knowing I was behind in my payments. I pulled in and got a few dollars of gas and a half-gallon of milk chips for the kids and mayonnaise bologna and cheese.WE left and drove around until we found a place where my wife had relatives, We stayed until they said I was just a bum and did not want to work, so we were asked to vacated the premise. a short time past and I got a job and we were living in a horrible little house without the insulation it was winter in Dallas. WE would sleep all in one room and my wife kelp my children warn and we had a stove that burned all night. The windows were not sealed and we had ice on the inside. We had one car. I would have anxiety attacks and I would drive myself to the VA only to find out I was having anxiety attacks. One day as I was driving to work I was stopped at a regular police stop to check licenses. I was not worried until I was asked to step out of the car. I asked the officer why was I being stoped and he said credit card abuse. $7.00 at the gas station for gas and food. Off to jail and then my wife had to ask her relatives for bail money. At night when my wife and daughters were sleeping and I was outside with a 357 magnum guarding our house. If our children got sick we had to go to Parkland Hospital which was the free clinic for the indigent.then if we needed medication we had to get it on our own. We had to sleep in shacks for sheep and lambs. we cleaned as well as we could. This is a summary of what my book is about.

If you read the book and like it, you might be able to share it with Gary Sinise's people and they might like it and help me sell it. ( noticed he was part of the movie abut the guy on the motorcycle).

This is a short version of my book it is all true.

Think about it and if you can help please do so, if not it is OK. I am on the verge of the injection to help me with PTSD. If you think I am way too in love wit;h my book and it is not that good. I'm 71 years old. My main purpose is the help veterans.

Fred Rendon Jr.