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the street homeless. To put this into perspective, in 2018
there were roughly 8,400 U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan,
according to the Guardian. This means that there are roughly six
homeless Veterans for every soldier serving today in Afghanistan.
“Homeless veterans can be found all over the U.S. Here in
Cherokee County, Georgia, our intake and processing of homeless
veterans is up 32% from last year, and we still have 45 days to
go,” indicated Jim Lindenmayer, Director of the Cherokee County
Homeless Veteran Program, who is also an Army veteran and a
graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point.
veterans does not seem to be going away. Earlier this year the
program was contacted by Joseph Hickey, CEO of Canton
Cemetery, to discuss the issue of homeless veterans in the area.
Hickey had been contacted by a mother from Cherokee County,
whose son was found frozen to death near St. Louis in the woods
with a Bible in his hand. Her request to Hickey was “please bring
my son home.”
16 | December 2018 | Real Hero Report
Bart Williams, Hickey’s business partner, also had an encounter
with a homeless man this past spring. He encountered an 82 yearold
homeless Korean War veteran living on the streets in the area,
and he also reached out to Lindenmayer for assistance with this
veteran, which was provided.
Hickey and Williams, who is not a veteran, wanted to do
something to highlight the issue of homeless veterans, both on a
local level as well as on a national level. Additionally, Hickey and
Williams saw in this project an opportunity to honor their fathers
who were both veterans. Hickey’s father was a Navy veteran of
WW2, while Williams’ father was a Medal of Honor recipient
for his service with the Army Special Forces during the Vietnam
After discussions with Lindenmayer, the idea of creating a
statue depicting the homeless veteran issue was put into motion.
The Cherokee County Homeless Veteran Program (CCHVP)
created a statue task force, comprised of veteran representatives
from the county, including veterans who previously had been
homeless.