Major Thomas Egan: Why'd you do it? (Originally published 24 Dec 08)

I originally posted this 17 years ago today (24 Dec). And it bears repeating.

This story was in the paper... although, unfortunately, not on the Columbian web.

It is the story of a retired Army Major, one Thomas Egan; a veteran of 2 years on the Korean DMZ, a Master's graduate of the University of Oregon; a retired Oregon Army National Guard officer. He was found dead, apparently frozen to death, next to a bottle of booze, in Eugene, Oregon within the past few days.

Unfortunately, the story speaks for itself. Sometimes, the desire to destroy one's self can overwhelm all other instincts.

I never knew you, Major, but we served in the Army together at the same time. I have no idea what happened to you, but I wish I did... and I wish it could have been fixed.

Tomorrow is Christmas. If you know someone who needs help, take the time and the effort to try and get that help to them. Major Egan had help available, but made bad choices when it came to using it.

As I look outside at the foot of snow, I ask myself: "how many Major Egans are there? Is there more that could have been done?"

Probably not.

But I wish there had been.

Good bye, Major. From all accounts, you served us honorably and well. I never met you, but I won't forget you.

I could have been you.

************************************
Soldier’s death resonates
Homeless veteran froze to death though services were available
By JACK MO (Eugene) Register-Guard

EUGENE, Ore — Thomas Egan was a scholar and a decorated soldier. He was also a homeless alcoholic whose life ended last week when he froze to death in Eugene during an unusually long and harsh cold snap. His body was found covered in snow near the corner of West First Avenue and Blair Boulevard, a bottle of liquor by his side.

News of the demise of the longtime Eugene resident troubled many local veterans — especially those who knew that with some effort and some help, the man they called Major Egan could have had a roof over his head.

Memorial for Maj. Thomas L. Egan ret.

“The whole National Guard community is taking this very hard,” said Bud Dickey, a vocational rehabilitation coordinator with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ community reintegration service center in Eugene.

“It’s very disturbing for all of us, because Major Egan was retired and could have been drawing his (veterans’) benefits,” Dickey said. “He had options that he did not access.”

Egan collected monthly Social Security checks, but the amount was a pittance compared with the payments he was entitled to as a retired military veteran. When he turned 60 in July, Egan became eligible to receive $909 each month in National Guard retirement income, Dickey said.

Then Lieutenant Egan

Egan also could have applied for a separate pension check based on unemployability. “That would have gotten him an apartment if he wanted one,” said Jay Rea, a Springfield resident who served under Egan in the National Guard in the late 1980s. “I shed a tear when I heard he died,” Rea said. “It breaks my heart because he was the friendliest guy, and so smart.”

A New York native, Egan joined the Army in 1971 after graduating from Quinnipiac College in Hamden, Conn., with a bachelor’s degree in history. He was stationed at the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea for two years, and was reassigned to the Oregon Army National Guard in 1977.

Earned master’s degree

Egan earned his master’s degree from the University of Oregon in 1983, and ultimately attained the rank of major with the National Guard.

He retired honorably in 1991, following a 20-year military career during which he was awarded several service medals and ribbons.

Dickey said Egan’s desire to drink made him ineligible for VA housing programs that require sober living.

Egan had declined to enroll in substance abuse treatment programs offered through the veterans agency, Dickey said.

According to those who knew him, Egan worked sporadically. He did some landscaping, and most years helped deliver telephone books.

Sometimes, he found an apartment to stay in for a while. At other times, he lived on the streets. In August, Egan spent two weeks at the Eugene Mission — which is less than one block from the spot where a passer-by discovered his body last week.

Mission officials said Egan never caused any trouble there, and could have stayed any time. Dickey said Egan has no relatives in Oregon, and tracking down members of his extended family on the East Coast has been challenging.

Dickey, who served five years with Egan in the National Guard, is helping to direct an effort to have Egan interred at the Roseburg National Cemetery.

“He will be buried as a veteran in a veterans’ cemetery,” Dickey said. “He was a good soldier, and we’re going to get him the burial he’s due.”

************************************

Isn't it time to stop spending on homeless and to insist, instead, that they begin adulting?

Two articles on my timeline, one directly followed by the next (in just the tiniest bit of irony) that are yet ANOTHER illustration of Portland wasting millions on the homeless.

Article one: KATU - Portland Mayor Keith Wilson said the city is on track to reach his goal of adding 1,500 shelter beds for the homeless.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1F6VgQ3uZS/



Followed by Article two: Willamette Week - Data released by Mayor Keith Wilson’s office last week shows that most of his new emergency shelter locations are struggling to reach 50% occupancy on any given night.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AYSZhU3Uz/



Hopefully... one day... the leftist morons running government on the left coast will wake up one morning and discover that they've failed to do anything but waste billions on a problem they've completely misread and have to get off their concept that throwing truckloads of money at ANY issue, let alone the proven failure of their efforts on the homeless... will, not, work.

Continuing to do the same things, over and over, while expecting a different outcome, is insane.

And the left's example of THEIR insanity continues to vaporize billions with nothing to show for it.

Earlier this month, a report from Portland State shows that the TriCounty area of Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas has spent over $730 million dollars on the homeless during the last 2 years.

And during that same time frame? Homeless numbers have skyrocketed over 61%. And of that number, 73% were living in that area before they became homeless, meaning the homeless destination resort Multnomah has built accounts for roughly 1 out of every 4 homeless uprooting from other areas around the country to join the Portland touristas.

PDX City Councilor Eric Zimmerman admits this area is the worst in the country for the homeless blight. And the hundreds of millions they've already wasted isn't enough.

“We’re the 51st out of 51. So we’re including territories now in terms of access to mental health. That is a failure. But that’s not something that right now the city of Portland can solve. I need the state,” Portland City Councilor Eric Zimmerman said. “We, the city of Portland, can work on the affordability, getting our communities more dense, getting more apartments and homes built. But that won’t help if a huge part of our population remains sick and untreated.”

As expected, there's no mention of the primary root causes of homelessness: self-accountability, self-responsibility and a desire to end their own homelessness.

Providing shelter without demanding these requirements does not solve the issue of homelessness... it enables it and increases it.

A blind squirrel could see it in a minute.

But the leftists allowing this insanity at ever-increasing costs to those paying the bills for this obvious failure?

They've got a Homeless Industry(tm) to support, and By God, they intend to support it. Costs be damned, results be damned.

Both Seattle and King County struggle to top each other in the gross incompetence category: contaminate hotel with fentanyl and then abandon the owners.

More fringe-left, "shelter-first" insanity by the leftist scum running both Seattle and King County.

The incompetence of leftist government is not only frightening... it's all-too-frequently deadly.

The last time I live in Seattle was as I was finishing up ROTC at the UW.

Every element of the city and county of my birth... not to mention the pro-terrorist actions of the UW administration make me ashamed I ever lived there or attended school there.

This doesn't just happen there. It also happened in Everett, where I hotel used for the homeless became so badly infested with fentanyl that it was shut down.

It is likely a tale repeated around each leftist enclave feeding the ever growing homeless industry, even more voracious and worthless a bureaucracy as the TVA.

Those running the governments of both the county and the city are provably incompetent and uncaring about their constituencies. And the crowded morgue, overloaded for years, proves it as hundreds of millions are wasted every year and the problem keeps getting worse with no end in sight.

What's up with leftist violence? Why is this OK?

Why is this OK?

HOMELESS WOMAN ATTACKED BY MOB FOR DEFENDING TRUMP'S HOLLYWOOD STAR...

How is it that we could reach a point in America where destroying someone else's property for political reasons is OK?

Locally, here in Clark County, leftists have been destroying Trump campaign signs at warp speed.  Around the country, these scum not only destroy and steal signs, they actually BRAG about it on facebook and youtube.

When did that become OK?

A couple of days ago, a leftist scum bag actually destroyed Trump's Hollywood Star, videos the destruction while doing it, put the video up and then BRAGGED about it!

Gotta wonder: is he on the DNC's payroll like others who've been paid to foment violence?  After all, what better way to get earned media about a bogus DNC talking point?  We might find out, since this clown has now been arrested, finally.

Why is that sort of thing OK?  Why isn't Hillary condemning this sort of violence?

Not a big deal, you say?  OK, swell: how about this?

Had I been there, had many of us been there... all hell would have broken loose.

Why is this OK?  Why do leftists resort to this kind of thing?

Where is Obama on this?  Where is Hillary?  Where is Gov. Brown, for that matter?

These scum do this because the left has lent its approval to this kind of Nazi mentality.

Look, I admit it: I'm a Trump supporter.  He has his flaws, but none of them rise to criminality. 

I live in a location that's off the road and behind other houses, so I don't do campaign signs.  But I'm not above doing bumper stickers on my vehicles.

But not this time.

Windows have been broken out.  Paint has been keyed... tires knifed on vehicles with Trump stickers on them.

And who could possibly forget THIS insanity, that also took place here, locally:

Why is this sort of thing OK?

In this day and age, if you don't agree with a leftist, you're liable to be attacked in some form or another.

You're liable to be assaulted. 

It's not just a leftist thing:  My opposition to Hillary-like Republicans has caused me a certain amount of grief from the RINO contingent...

But their assaults, such as they are, haven't gone beyond words.

My fear?

That the left is ramping up to spill blood if they don't get their way: even more blood than they have already spilled... and that a real, genuine, fight is going to break out along political lines.

The right, of course, has the guns.

But it would not end well if it were to break out regardless.