One-on-One
supporting services like a family for that individual.”
Why do you do this work?
“I signed up for the military when I was 17, a junior in high school. All I wanted to do was be in the military and be a cop, and I actually got to do both of those in the military. My career got ended abruptly because of my injuries, or I’d probably still be in the military. I ended up in the nonprofit business after I got medical retirement in 2008, just because somehow by virtue of my rank, soldiers who were injured used to call me all the time and ask me for guidance and advice. And somehow that transcended over to the nonprofit business, which is probably the closest thing you can get to the military by way of selfless service and helping others in need.
Being in a veteran nonprofit was kind of crucial to me as far as my adult life... and then continuing to be able to serve.”
Are there any specific cases that you’re particularly proud of?
“One of the things we do are peer support outings. We have a little campfire talk at the end of each day, and a gentleman who was in program for about three months just all of a sudden ... kind of thanked everybody because he said we had saved his life. He said, ‘Five days ago, I was thinking of killing myself. Nothing works. I feel like there’s no hope. After getting involved with you guys and actually coming to this event, I see something — that there’s light at the end of the tunnel.’ And that’s why we created the programs we did.”
Is there a situation that stands out as particularly sad?
“We had a gentleman, about 56, 57. He had struggled with drugs the last 15, 18 years. He was the second time in our program. You could see the change in him physically, losing weight and other things. He was remorseful. He was in about five months the second time, and he was doing well but then all of a sudden, he disappeared. Time goes by, and we find out that he passed. We have maybe one or two of those cases a year because people are still people. Things don’t always go the right way as much as you try and as much as the resources you give somebody, that happens sometimes with us.”
What’s the best advice you’ve ever gotten?
“One of my supervisors in the military sat me down before I went to Iraq the second time and told me, ‘Don’t assume that each day is going to work out.’ And by that he meant no matter what I did, it still might be a bad day. And I have to accept that and process it and kind of just wake up the next day and start all over again. And that’s kind of what I do in the nonprofit business.”
What were you like as a kid?
“My father was in at the end of Vietnam. I’m a first-generation Korean-American because my mom was from Korea. My entire family served ... in the U.S. or Korean military. When I was a kid, I was always aggressive and assertive. I guess I was Type A. I always helped people. I didn’t realize that until I got hurt, and my parents reflected on that. Even if it was as simple as helping someone pick up their groceries, walking the kid who always gets picked on across the street or something. You know, when we deploy, it’s an opportunity to also do community service projects in the combat zone. People don’t realize that you don’t just go and fight. When I was in Bosnia, we actually rebuilt a school and got school supplies. When I was in Iraq, we used to help the super impoverished neighborhoods and try to clean them up and take care of those things.”
What’s been your most embarrassing moment?
“In my recovery, having my kids have to take care of me. I was basically wrapped up like a mummy. Every time I walked, I was in pain and my son basically had to take me to the bathroom all the time. That was probably the worst thing.”
What makes you laugh?
“I think probably just life in general. In the business of helping others, you can do the same thing the right way more than once, and it doesn’t work. You can talk to somebody, and I could give testimony and do everything perfect to try to get help for veterans, and it doesn’t work. Sometimes you’ve just got to laugh at it.”
Ask Bobby Ehrig about his life, and you quickly learn that it’s all about homeless veterans — from helping them find housing and jobs to cooking for them on camp outings during his off time to talking them down “off the ledge” when things get really tough.
Ehrig’s mission as head of the nonprofit Veterans Integration Centers in Albuquerque is also about saving himself.
Ehrig, an Army master sergeant, was in Ramadi, Iraq, in August 2006 when a suicide bomber driving a flatbed truck with 100 tanks of propane detonated the load. The fireball caused injuries to 56 U.S. and Iraqi personnel and resulted in 16 Iraqi deaths.
Ehrig says he “literally died” and had to be resuscitated more than once when he was evacuated from Iraq and taken to San Antonio, Texas, where he is from. He underwent 31 surgeries in less than five years to deal with third-degree burns on 40% of his body.
He suffers from neuropathy, or numbness, and is unable to perspire over much of his body. He has hearing loss, corneal scarring, which makes him light-sensitive, and inhalation burns to his throat and lungs.
As for the scarring, “My entire head is not bald by design,” he says. “I’m bald because this is all scar tissue.”
Also, the 47-year-old decorated veteran says, his wounds include traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.
And that’s where his work with other veterans comes in.
“I have PTSD, but I’ve learned to cope with it and deal with it and figure it out,” Ehrig says. “But it’s a constant struggle. Part of my recovery is mentoring other guys and gals with their trauma, because they tend not to listen to anybody but other vets.”
The center recently moved to a location off Gibson that can provide transitional housing for up to 42 veterans, plus family members. Residents get support services, such as counseling and job help. Other emergency housing options accommodate as many as 75 on any given day.
At the same time, Ehrig and his staff try to educate local businesses about veterans and homelessness in a way that “allows us to break barriers to obtaining employment.”
“A lot of the issue of struggle is that businesses don’t know how to easily adapt to hire people in need,” Ehrig says. “That’s everywhere — not just for military — but just understanding that some people are coming with a little bit of baggage. So we try and work with businesses who are interested in hiring our veterans from our program and letting them know we have