October 1962. The supersecret U.S. U-2 spyplane has discovered nuclear tipped long range ballistic missiles on the island of Cuba, able to hit any city in the continental U.S. Just the year before,shortly after the Berlin Wall was erected, Nikita Krushev General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, at the opening session of the United Nations, had taken off one of his shoes and after banging his shoe on the lectern had declared that Soviet Russia and its "Communist Utopia" would be the agents of consigning western capitalism and democracy to the "ash heap of history"!

Witnessing these events as a young boy set me on the path I was to follow as an adult.

November 2008. Discourged and disgusted I hung up the receiver of the pay phone outside the 7/11. I had read of a new Vets Service Center that had just opened up on 1st November in Fallbrook and had gone there. It was almost noon on a weekday and the place was locked up tighter than a drum. So I got the number off the door and with almost my last half dollar had called that number and gotten voicemail! I left a detailed message, but really didnt expect an answer. You see I am a Vietnam Era Veteran and although I served God and Country proudiy, ( and would do so again without hesitation or reservation ), it has been my sometimes bitter experience that, it seems like anyway, most other Americans really aren't much interested in what happens to the combat veterans of that godforsaken fight against the " Red Menace".

        I picked up my Vietnam Era camoflage style rucksack, threw it up on my shoulder, turned, and started to dejectedly walk away.

        I had been laid off from my job in July of that year. Having already lost my truck and cell phone through lack of funds I was about to be evicted from where I was living and I was desperate. I made about two steps and that pay phone went to ringing. I turned and started to pick it up and I thought "nah" that could'nt be anybody getting back to me that fast. But I was desperate so I thought "what the hell" and picked it up anyway. And so thats how I had my first conversation ever with Albert Renteria founder and CEO of South West Veterans Resource Center. He let me know when the center would be open and we made an appointment to meet in the next few days.  I was very impressed with Mr. Renteria before we ever met. He was at a meeting in Vancouver Washington to set up a Veterans Center up there and yet he got back to me in less than a minute. So I knew right up front that he was serious about reaching out to his fellow veterans. When we met he laid out his fourteen point program and filled me in on his vision and plan for enabling veterans to reintegrate into civilian society. I discovered that Al Renteria was a retired U.S.M.C. Warrant Officer. He has a heart for his fellow veterans, is very patriotic and is determined that none of his fellow veterans will be jobless or homeless. So I had my orientation, signed my learners contract and here I go! I already know that with all the benefits that are available to me as a veteran that everythings gonna come out good. I am currently volunteering at the center and will soon be back on my feet. We Vietnam Veterans are known to be able to land standing up! And so here I am beginning to write my life story. Al says people are really interested in it although I personally don't know why. Anyway here we go and my only hope is maybe in some small way I, personally, can be of some assistence to a needy fellow veteran.