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Brian by way of Florida now living in Portland Oregon. Brian served in the US Army where he did his basic training at Ft Benning, where he said the humidity was 1000! I laughed. Brian told me that he served from 1997- 2003 Bravo 1-24 as an infantryman (11B) and was in the first push of the Iraq war.
After he got out of the military he went on to work on his degree at the University of Florida in English. He said after some difficulties he dropped out and went to the Santa Fe Community College. He showed me some of his writings and they were so deep, some Journals of his daily travels, some poetry, and some song lyrics.
Brian said that he has been on the streets since about 2005. Brian was pretty bummed because when he woke up this particular morning from sleeping on the streets someone stole his shoes from the area he was sleeping which was under the awning of a store front. He said that his VA check that he recently cashed that he had recently cashed was in there.
So, I asked him would he walk with me to get him a pair from the local Payless Shoe store. So, we went up the street to store and got him a pair for which he was grateful and hugged me.