Combat vets — especially those who are homeless or suffering from mental health issues — can get help Friday and Saturday at the second annual Great Falls Veterans’ Stand-Down.
Organized by the Vets4Vets group and staffed by about 100 volunteers, the stand-down gives vets free clothing, survival gear, haircuts, medical and dental exams, mental health assessments and counseling.
It’s designed to help vets like Mel Deppneier, an Army vet from the 1960s, who had been camping under a bridge in Great Falls for the past four years but lost virtually everything he owned this spring when the Missouri River rose nearly out of its banks and flooded his camp. Four or five sleeping bags were reduced to a soggy, muddy mess.
“I could use a couple new sleeping bags,” said Deppneier, a wiry 63-year-old with a bushy salt-and-pepper beard who makes his living collecting aluminum cans in company of his old Dalmatian, Sarah. “And I need a good military-issue poncho.”
Last year, it was raining on stand-down day, and Deppneier decided not to leave his tent, but Don Scott, one of the volunteers, dropped off a new sleeping bag and some cold-weather gear.
Organizers believe they served more than 200 vets and about 400 people, including family members. Thirty-eight percent of the vets reported a service-connected disability, and 14 percent were homeless.
Stand-down volunteers brought in two semi-truck loads of surplus gear, about 63,000 pounds, and gave away about 35,000 pounds of it — duffel bags full of fatigue pants and shirts, underwear, socks, raingear and overcoats.
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