HOMELESS [CONTINUED FROM PAGE 61] Resources

 National Call Center for Home- less Veterans, (877) 4AID-VET (424-3838), www.va.gov/home less/nationalcallcenter.asp  Directory of VA facilities near you, www2.va.gov/directory/ guide  National Resource Directory (provides access to community organizations that help veterans with housing and health and other services), www.nrd.gov

How to volunteer:  National Resource Directory of volunteer opportunities, www.nrd.gov/volunteer_oppor tunities  Opening Doors Across America, www.usich.gov/action

Kane says resources to help homeless veterans are available. “Ending veteran homelessness isn’t something the VA can do on its own,” he adds, noting assistance has to be available to veterans in their local communities. That’s where organizations like

WestCare come in. In Bernal’s case, WestCare gave him his fi rst hope in July 2009. By 2010, the organization had made him house manager, and, by 2011, he had reapplied to law school while working at WestCare as part of the AmeriCorps program. Bernal acknowledges getting to the point where he could ask for and accept help wasn’t easy. “Don’t give up,” he advises veterans suff er- ing from homelessness or at risk for it. “If someone is trying to help you, listen. Others have been through it. Life is a team sport.”

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— Deborah Huso is a freelance writer in Virginia. Her last feature article for Military Offi cer was “Navigating Your VA Claim,” December 2014.

86 MILITARY OFFICER JANUARY 2015

LESSONS [CONTINUED FROM PAGE 84]

in the ability of U.S. air power to con- duct not just extraordinarily precise attacks but also to persistently sur- veil large swaths of territory, we can infl ict a disorienting sense of help- lessness on ISIL that will facilitate success by allied indigenous forces on the ground.”

Lessons learned in Vietnam and,

currently, in the Middle East certainly have changed how the U.S. tackles insurgency and guerrilla warfare. But as the past decade has proved, such a fi ght is fl uid and ever-changing, forc- ing a periodic reevaluation of strate- gies and tactics. So what does the future hold? According to Thiel, ad- vances in communications technology will be the next challenging front. “Transnational communication via cellphone has created an increase in near-real-time communication of insurgents to be able to strike an op- posing force and know the counter- insurgent force is coming,” he says. “It has added to the fi eld expedient mines — IEDs that can be activated remotely through cellphones or radi- os. [This] technology is just one thing that terrorists or guerrillas are using to aff ect maneuver warfare powers because it is small and concealable.” Technological advances also will

allow people to connect who want to form a resistance, plan attacks, and maintain anonymity, Thiel adds. “I believe these are the elements we will see in the future,” he says. “Terror- ists will use these, but we can also use them to track them down.” Dunlap agrees. “Technological

prowess is one of America’s strong suits,” he says, “so ISIL’s momentary advantage in this area may well be- come a vulnerability — and perhaps a fatal one.”

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— Don Vaughan is a freelance writer based in North Carolina. His last article for Military Offi cer was “Battling the Blaze,” August 2014.