For Marine Dustin Evans, returning to civilian life after his time in the military was anything but smooth sailing. While his days of combat in Iraq were over, he found a new set of battles to face at home.
Evans served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 2001-2005, but nearly a decade after putting his life on the line for freedom, he became homeless — his livelihood at stake once again.
Evans said there were a lot of similarities between the mentality of combat and the mentality of being homeless. Vigilance and resilience were crucial aspects of life.
“In combat, it’s all about survival, and it’s moving forward. Whenever I was homeless, I was at a place where I couldn’t move forward,” Evans said. “I was dormant for a couple of years, and there just wasn’t really any forward progress in my life during that time.”
Evans had been living in an apartment, but it was a bad situation. The noise from his neighbors deeply affected his PTSD, and the rent was unaffordable.
“I had to get out of my apartment. Financially, I just couldn’t make it at that point, as I was dealing with some health issues,” Evans said. But, “When I left, that’s when all the rent prices almost doubled.”
Evans luckily found an ally: a local veterans nonprofit called the Warrior Clan. The Warrior Clan was founded by fellow Iraq veteran Russ Conner with the mission of helping veterans in need like Evans. Conner then put Evans in touch with Veterans Services of the Carolinas, which became another critical ally. Evans knew the director, Brandon Wilson, who had previously served as a Haywood County veterans services officer.
Evans was connected with a housing coordinator at Veterans Services of the Carolinas. Unfortunately, he still was unable to afford his own place, but the VSC provided him a storage unit to temporarily hold his belongings and fronted the cost of a motel for a couple of weeks while they helped him search for a home.
“But I couldn’t stay in a motel forever,” Evans said. “So I just dropped off the radar because at that point, even the cheapest place was way more than I could afford.”
Evans remained homeless for two years before he moved in to his family home. Family members eventually had to sell the house, however, and Evans became homeless again for yet another year.
A fighter
Finding work proved difficult due to Evans’ intestinal problems.
“I physically felt like crap. My life consisted of bed and bathroom. That was pretty much it — there wasn’t anything else at that point in time,” Evans recalled.
Evans’ intestinal problems interfered with his everyday life. A lot of veterans faced similar health issues and several factors from his deployment could’ve played into his medical condition.
“As far as deployment goes, I was around burn pits. I remember working on Humvees, laying in asbestos insulation. It was all over the ground, and we were laying in it,” Evans said.
Or maybe is was the bad batch of Anthrax vaccines distributed to troops, or the fact he was stationed at Camp Lejeune for a stint where toxic chemicals were found in the drinking water.
“I lost a lot of weight, didn’t have a lot of energy, didn’t have a job and couldn’t really get a job, didn’t have much of a life,” Evans said.
He has also suffered head trauma during combat in Iraq. Evans had mortar land within four feet of the door of the truck he was in. The ricochet caused him to hit his head so hard on the inside of the cab that he got a severe concussion.
At the time he didn’t realize the impact of the situation.
“It took me over 10 years to realize what happened. Because after the mortar hit, we took several more mortar rounds, and we were also taking small arms fire,” Evans said.
Veterans Services of the Carolinas helped set him up with a couple of therapists overtime to work through his past trauma and current situation. Evans said it really helped having someone to talk with.
“It took me realizing that I made it through one of the bloodiest battles in Iraq, and I survived. And there’s a reason why and I don’t know why, I may never know, but I’m still here,” Evans said. “So the least I could do is fight while I’m here. And that’s what I did. And Veterans Services of the Carolinas just helped equip me better for the fight.”
Next chapter
In April of this year, with help from the VSC, Evans was able to get on his feet — landing a job and finding his own place.
“I got an awesome little place out in Cruso. It’s out in the woods, it’s quiet and my landlords are great people,” Evans said. “Getting moved into a place was a huge deal because I do have PTSD and a traumatic brain injury. Those things affect my daily life.”
Evans now works at AVL Technologies, working alongside a fellow Marine brother to build satellite systems.
“I’ve had a good little group of people help get me to where I am today. VSC they’re sitting in the top chair on that. If it wasn’t for VSC, I couldn’t have made that step,” Evans said.
Despite having near nothing at the time that he was homeless, Evans still managed to give back to those in similar circumstances. He volunteered for a time with Helping Hands of Haywood, a non-profit serving the homeless population in Haywood County.
“I’ve grown to the point where now I have a tendency to try to help people. Even if I am doing bad,” Evans said. “That’s the one thing that truly always made me happy is if I can help somebody. Even if somebody’s having a bad day, and I can just make them laugh, it makes me feel better.”
Evans also credits his successes to coming from a family of survivors. He was raised by a single mom who was a Waynesville police officer and magistrate up until she passed away, and his grandma was a 42-year Army veteran.
After 9/11 Evans knew it was his time to serve.
“Despite all the bad sides of it, I got to see the world. And it’s a lot more than what I ever would have seen just staying around here,” Evans said.
Evans said that one of the things that helped him come out of rough circumstances was embracing all “the little goods” that come in life.
“I wouldn’t have traded any of those experiences for anything. Just like everything else in life, bad comes with good and good comes with bad,” Evans said. “You got to take the bad on the chin and stand up and be ready for the good, because it’ll be there.”
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