CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — U.S. Army veteran Victor Sarmiento, through his Chicagoland Veterans Community page, has helped dozens of veterans returning to Illinois find jobs, housing, mental health resources, events, volunteer opportunities and — most importantly — a sense of community and purpose.
“You just try your best just to live every day,” he said. “You don’t have a good day, you don’t have a bad day, you’re just in between, and it’s a very sad place to be.”
Sarmiento said he came back to the U.S. “broken.”
“And I do get a bit — my feelings do get the most of me, like right now,” he said.
Sarmiento joined the army at 19 years old in 2000. After basic training, he served in South Korea as a communications specialist before coming home for the first time.
“And then, I joke about it: Sixty pounds later, I got a letter in the mail stating, ‘Go to work or go to jail.’ Meaning, I got called back into duty, and I was sent to Afghanistan, and I did a tour in Afghanistan from ’06 to ’07,” he said.
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Upon Sarmiento’s final return home, there was no one to direct him to the resources that would help in the transition back to civilian life.
“No one told you about it until you go out looking for it, so I went out and looked for it and everything,” he said.
With the challenges that Sarmiento faced as he pieced together all the resources available to him fresh in his mind, he began maintaining a consolidated guide for others.
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“And that’s what I do with the Chicagoland Veterans Community page,” Sarmiento said. “I share it with all the veterans, so they won’t be like how I was when I came back: Not knowing who to contact and being stuck in that hole, being like hermits where your family’s always stuck inside. You don’t go out because it makes you feel [like you don’t] want to be here.
“That’s why I do what I do, so others don’t have to be in that place.”
Victor Sarmiento, difference maker.
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