From homeless to helping others: A West Allis veteran shares his comeback story
WEST ALLIS, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Bouncing back when life brings you down. A U.S. Army Veteran had a close call in 1993, not on a battle ground, but rather, on the streets of West Allis after he returned home and found himself homeless.
The military gentleman in him had Mark Flower making sure we didn't fall down this steep embankment as he led us to the very spot he took shelter for an entire year.
"It's been a while since I've been underneath this one particular bridge," said Mark Flower, U.S. Army Veteran, 1976-1980.
That was 1993. This West Allis bridge near 70th and Dickinson has since been reconstructed.
"I'm kind of amazed that they made it harder for people to live under them -35 but then yet I get it," said Flower.
And back then this wasn't a walking path, it was railroad tracks. Every day, the homeless veteran would follow the tracks east for miles, sometimes walking all the way to Milwaukee's food pantries for a hot meal, other times stopping if his panhandling netted him a little cash.
"Panhandled a little bit. I don't know if it helped but it allowed me to eat occasionally," said Flower.
Mark Flower knew of someone who died of cold exposure the winter he was homeless out here and that was frightening. He says he himself relied on his blankets and the bridge overheard, but it was his military training that really got him through.
"Persevere that's kind of what our job was," said Flower.
Flower enlisted in the U.S. Army at age 18 where they taught him how to work hard and how to persevere, but he picked up some bad habits too.
"My party expanded while I was there because whatever money I was making, that's all I spent it on. And then my journey of extreme insatiability I guess you could say took place," said Flower.
In between all the partying, the teen did learn a thing or two about hard work and camaraderie.
"I was an Eleven Bravo back in those days. I went as an Infantryman coming to realize how important the guy on your left and the right are because really, it's all about my buddy on my right which I protect and my left which I protect, but then they're protecting me too," said Flower.
Back to civilian life four years later, life was hard.
"And unfortunately, through that period I always thought to myself do I really need to be around?" said Flower.
Alcohol and drugs seemed to take away his cares as he shared on this show 10 years ago.
"I used substances back in my life to run away from certain aspects of my life and that was all internal," Mark Flower told WWRS-TV in 2015.
Jobs, relationships, housing, he called it one failure after another.
"I had a couple relationships that lasted for a few years but in the end it all went south. Tough love from my parents because they were always kind of a fall back for me until they said, don't bother us anymore," said Flower.
A downward spiral, and negative self-talk, leading up to the night of September 22, 1992, one day after his 35th birthday.
"I was just sick and tired of being under the bridge. Let's just end it and not have to worry about it no more," said Flower.
Standing beside the traffic on 70th Street and looking below, ready to jump, but something held him back.
"I decided that trying to get better was better than sitting on top of a bridge thinking about jumping off of it," said Flower.
Hours later, Flower walked himself into a recovery program in a daze, unsure what to do. He sat there all day long.
"Eventually they got tired of me just hanging around, so they put me to work. It was such a weird day," said Flower.
Strangers in civilian life who had his back, one on the right, and one on the left.
"And it's always about the guy on our right and left and trusting that they got my back too well we come back to civilian world and it's so different because we don't live in a world that I got your back," said Flower.
But over the years, Flower's proven to be that guy, working as peer support through the Captain John D. Mason Program for one, to veterans struggling with addiction and/or suicidal thoughts.
"I was here for 2019 at the start of the kind of inviting us veterans to the conference, but this year totally stepped it up where we actually were allowed to present a lot of our work," Mark Flower said at a conference where he was representing the Captain John D. Mason Program.
Flower also took part in the 2024 Freezin' for a Reason event held at the War Memorial in Milwaukee, drawing attention to veterans' homelessness in Milwaukee.
"So, this here is my box. I got my name on the side of it," said Joseph Leone at Freezin for a Reason.
"This is where everybody's gonna be sleeping and then we're gonna be resting right out by the eternal flame here," said Sean Clark, Program Director of the War Memorial Center at Freezin for a Reason.
According to a Veterans Affairs report, just over 64-hundred veterans took their own lives in 2022, including 136 in Wisconsin.
"I understand those thoughts based on my own personal experiences at one time in my life and that's another really important part of what we try to do is stop that -46 suicide sucks," said Flower.
At this office in West Allis, the Milwaukee County Veterans Services started a new peer support group for vets recently.
"I firmly believe that until I told somebody about my journey and my needs of getting better, I was not getting better, so my thought is let somebody know if you're not feeling good. Start that journey of talking about it," said Flower.
Flower helps facilitate the group which meets here on the first and third Mondays every month at 10am.
"When a veteran talks to another veteran, the really cool thing is is that they know that we got their back," said Flower.