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You gave some, some gave All--the last measure of devotion--and you who remain with us deserve only the Respect and Appreciation of our Nation.
If you have no home -- you have no stability.
Thousands of Veterans in America are homeless.
Recycling in Support of the Homes4Vets Foundation
"If you value your Freedom...
Thank a Vet!"
Founded in 2014 by a group of concerned military veterans, The Homes4Vets Foundation is a California 501(c)(3) Non-profit Public-Benefit Corporation which seeks to eliminate homelessness in the veteran community through a series of innovative cost-effective community development projects beginning here in Southern California as a model, and to then build like communities across the nation.
The Homes4Vets Foundation not only intends to develop and construct these projects, but will oversee the operation and maintenance of these communities, and will help facilitate and integrate the necessary support services that will enable disaffected and displaced veterans the chance to re-engage with society and the economy in ways where they can become productive and self-sufficient enough to live the rest of their lives with the dignity they deserve from a grateful nation.
Chanh Huu 'Tony' Nguyen, Founder & Chairman
Mr. Nguyen has been a preeminent leader of the exiled Vietnamese community of refugees in the United States and other places around the world since the end of the Vietnam War.
Mr. Nguyen has a strong desire to help the veterans of the United States and its allies who have fought for, and have been protecting freedom and democracy around the world. His personal experiences as a citizen of South Vietnam, having witnessed the heart-breaking fall of Saigon, the broken promises of the U.S. Government, and his feelings of deep gratitude, especially for the American soldiers who had ultimately been the ones who had borne so much of the burden and sacrificed so much for his own native country (U.S. Casualties as of 8 July 2014: 58,300 KIA and non-combat deaths, 153,303 WIA, 1,641 MIA, and 724-837 POW). As a result of this, Mr. Nguyen now has much concern that what had happened to the veterans of the Vietnam War also not be repeated with the veterans who have returned and are returning from our current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. Nguyen wants to express his eternal gratitude through the establishment of the Homes4Vets Foundation and 4CharityBins to be a lasting source of assistance for those Vietnam Veterans, and by extension for all veterans of freedom who find themselves in need.
Mr. Nguyen graduated from Saigon University, Vietnam in 1975 with a degree in Civil Engineering, and then he worked as an Engineer at RMK Construction Company, Saigon, Vietnam.
From 1975 to 1977, Mr. Nguyen became a political activist aiming to promote democracy and human rights in Vietnam. After having been imprisoned by the government of communist Vietnam for his stand on democracy, human rights, and his political activities, he escaped from prison during the transportation of inmates from Binh Dinh to Saigon. He continued to go underground to promote his ideas of democracy and human rights. Due to the pressure of imminent prosecution from the communist government of Vietnam, Mr. Nguyen escaped from Vietnam in 1982 by boat with his family.
After his escape from Vietnam, Mr. Nguyen became a freedom Fighter in a resistance unit that operated in Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos where he served as Commander until 1984.
In 1988, Mr. Nguyen founded a Technical Training School in Cambodia with the support of the U.S. Ambassador, and he was also an organizer of 'BRAVO Indochina' with the support of General William Westmoreland.
In 1995, in a large conference in Anaheim, California, the Vietnamese community unanimously decided to form a "government-in-exile" with the name of 'Government of Free Vietnam' to represent them. In The Vietnamese Alliance Conference, Nguyen was elected to be the first Prime Minister of the 'Government of Free Vietnam'. In 1997, Mr. Nguyen left the United States of America in a campaign around the world, especially in southeast Asia countries, to demand the communist government of Vietnam open up their "mono-party government".
In 2004, Nguyen returned to the United States of America to continue on his campaign for human rights and democracy. He was elected Chairman of the 'Asian Alliance for Democracy (AAD)'. Visioning the power of media in the new generation, Nguyen started his television station in Garden Grove, California "Global IPTV' to serve his lifelong dream of promoting democracy and human rights for Vietnam based on the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration for Human Rights.
Mr. Nguyen had founded the non-profit 'NHAN HOA Healthcare Clinic' in 1990 until the present, providing free health care services for over 300,000 people without health insurance in Orange County, California.
Mr. Nguyen is also founder of 'CHARITY BIN' to help homeless individuals and families, and 'USIM' in an effort to combat the scourge of human trafficking around the world.
In 2002, Mr. Nguyen was appointed as Coordinator of the 'World Government Stateless Persons Commission', an organization representing and serving millions of stateless people. Then in 2006, Mr. Nguyen was the honorary recipient of the Human Rights Activist Award by the Asian Alliance for Democracy.
Thomas LaPorte, President
Mr. LaPorte had served in the U.S. Army for 6 years as a 'Vietnam-era' veteran from 1974 to 1982. His first two years were served
Tom had received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English with a focus on Technical Writing with minors in Communications and Environmental Science from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. He later went on to work for the Chicago Aerial Survey Company as a mapping engineer where he worked on a number of projects including a telecommunications records conversion project for Bell South, and several military installation and National Park Service mapping projects. After that, he went on to work for The Austin Company as a Computer-Aided Design specialist working on various industrial chemical processing plant designs. Tom had moved to California in March 1988 to work for the McDonnell Douglas Corporation at their Douglas Aircraft Company plant in Long Beach as an Associate Engineer/Scientist and Process Analyst where he had provided systems design documentation and support services for the MD-80, MD-11, and C-17 programs. In 1994 Tom had also worked for a time at the McDonnell Douglas Space Systems production facility in Huntington Beach where he had provided graphics services for their Technical Proposals Department on the Delta Launch Systems, Missile Defense, Space-based observatories, and Space Station Programs. In August 1997, Tom had returned to Long Beach after the company had changed hands and became part of The Boeing Company. At this time he went on to work as a Senior Process & Procedures Analyst for the Flight & Laboratory Test Group and Flight Operations Division
After fierce competition from larger corporations had eventually forced him out of the aerospace business, Tom had moved to Payson, Arizona in 2006 to start something new. He found himself drawn, particularly with his military background, to the Gila County Sheriff's Office Search & Rescue Squad (Tonto Rim Search & Rescue) and the Gila County Sheriff's Posse (Payson Posse) where he became a Volunteer Sheriff's Deputy providing Search & Rescue (and Recovery) missions in the wilderness areas surrounding the towns and villages of rural Gila County as well as providing various law enforcement support functions. During this time, Tom had participated with the team to execute a number of search & rescue operations that had saved lives and had recovered several unfortunate cases that the team had brought back to their loved ones.
In 2009, Tom had returned to the Los Angeles area where he has been working ever since as an independent contractor for a number of different small and startup businesses where he has been providing business development, administrative, publishing, marketing and sales services. Presently, Tom is also President of the firm 'Secure Investment Capital Group, LLC' which provides real estate investment, property development, trade, and business development consulting services. Tom continues to be involved in a number of other 'not-for-profit' startups including 'Global Business-Link' which seeks to 'Strengthen Communities By Bringing Business People Together From Around The World!', and the the 'Federation of Veterans Organizations for Global Peace', which seeks to foster better understanding, trade, and cooperation between nations and governments for theirs--and our mutual interests and benefits.
at Fort Polk, Louisiana as a Military Policeman with the 5th Mechanized Infantry Division MP Company as part of the '5th Combat Military Police Unit'. Tom also served as an Investigator for the Military Police Investigations (MPI) branch where he frequently worked with agents of the Criminal Investigations Division (CID). During this time, Tom had also assisted with the development of a training program for local civil law enforcement SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) teams in the early days when these types of specialized units were just being formed and deployed. After his first two years of active duty, Tom was assigned to the 47th Infantry Division Aviation Assault Helicopter Unit as a UH-1 Crew Chief based at Midway Airport in Chicago, Illinois for the following year as part of the Army National Guard. During this time, Tom and the 47th trained with, and were being evaluated to become attached to the 101st Airborne Division's Airmobile Unit at Fort Campbell, Kentucky practicing troop lifts, insertions, and conducting air reconnaissance missions. He then served his next three years in the Army Reserve.
on the MD-90, MD-95, and MD-10 Flight Test Programs. Tom had started his own business in 1996 as 'Aerospace Data International' providing technical documentation in the forms of wiring diagrams, systems schematics, and component maintenance manuals for customers who were making modifications
to their fleets. Some of his customers included United Airlines, Northwest Airlines, Horizon Air, BE/Sextant Aerospace, and interestingly, NASA's Airborne Observatory Program which featured a modified 747SP aircraft called SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy).
Dr. Maria Theresa Ferrer-Rosen, M.D., Chief Advisement Officer
Theresa Ferrer-Rosen, M.D. was previously Professor of the Department of Anesthesiology, and also served as Director of the Pain Management Center at the University of California in Los Angeles. She relocated to Bakersfield in February 1991 to help establish a unique pain management program named 'Advanced Pain Medicine' which was the first of its kind in Kern County.
She did her anesthesia training and fellowship at UCLA Medical Center where she joined the faculty in 1971. As Co-founder of the UCLA Pain Management Center in 1974, she also founded the UCLA Cancer Pain Clinic in 1980. This was one of only five in existence in the county at that time. She was in the forefront of innovating treatments for various types of pain problems including low back pain, cancer pain, herpes zoster, reflex dystrophy, and other difficult pain problems.
Over the past 16 years, she has published extensively on the topic of pain, having over 40 manuscripts published. She is nationally and internationally recognized in the field of malignant and non-malignant pain issues having received several grants to study intractable pain. She authored a book entitled 'Common Problems in Pain Management' which was published in 1990.
She has been active in several prestigious organizations including having previously served as President of both the Southern California Pain Society and the Western USA Pain Society. She served as a Board Member of the American Pain Society, and served on several committees of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP).
Dr. Ferrer-Rosen is active in the Kern County Medical Society. She was Chairperson of the Women in Medicine Committee from 1993 to 1995, member of the Board of Directors For the past 4 years, and recently nominated to the Presidency of the Kern County Medical Society. She is also actively involved in fundraising for various organizations. Dr. Ferrer-Rosen has dedicated her career to the alleviation of intractable pain by combining her academic, clinical and humanistic approaches.
Dr. Rosen retired as a Physician in 2003 and moved to the central coast. She volunteered as a grant writer for Hospice in San Luis Obispo. She also volunteered for an abused women's home in Santa Maria. She has been active in fundraising for several charitable organizations for many years. She was also active in the New Life Community Church, helping seniors navigate their medical care. Six months ago, she became aware of the need to improve the care of the dementia/Alzheimer's population after seeing Sanjay Gupta's CNN special on a dementia village in Amsterdam. She and her husband Steven left for Amsterdam on April 28th and visited "Da Hodgeweyk", the only Alzheimer's village in the world.
Returning with passion to bring the concept to the USA, she started the process of building a similar village here in California called "Mahal Cielo Village". Because of the escalating incidence of Alzheimer's in USA, she has feverishly gathered information as to how to build this huge project. She has gathered a volunteer team of Drs, seasoned caregivers, administrators, public relations specialists, attorneys, and business people as board members, all are passionate to put together a profit/non-profit organization and help this project become a reality. Her team has established an alliance with Container Building Systems, Inc. to build the village with recyclable sea containers. She is passionate in allocating a part of the village to veterans who are diagnosed with dementia and Alzheimer's as her husband, Steven Rosen, a Vietnam veteran, has suffered from the effects of agent orange many years after his service. She became aware of what Vietnam veterans may physically suffer after agent orange exposure, even after many years pass. Her 38 years of experience with pain management will be helpful to the veteran population.