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“We were trained to be invincible.” Not only did I earn the title of US Marine I earned the title Pig/Hog in the pig pond. After four tours and being shot three times Gerald now lives on the Tampa Florida streets. After recently going though chemotherapy, he strives to have as simple of a life as possible. A few days after meeting him I happened to run across him in search for other veterans and he told me that he could introduce me to his other veteran buddies. He told me that they all spent most of the days fishing out of local cove where they could fish for free without being bothered.
On this day the temps in Florida were about 75 degrees which the locals told me was pretty chilly. Gerald explained that he would later that day go to the VA in hopes that he could work with JAG. He said he needed to speak with JAG to assist help him with his exe wife whose current husband felt entitled to his past disability compensation that he was trying to obtain for his prior injuries.
Gerald told me that he would be happy to give him whatever he wanted as long as they would allow him to keep enough money to buy new fishing tackle so that he could keep fishing in the cove which was the primary way he fed himself.