U.S. Army veteran Myron Hennen had not owned a car in 18 months — not easy in Grand Forks, North Dakota, a small city with frigid temperatures most of the year, wide open areas and a close-knit veteran community.
The 68-year-old said he was struggling with mental health issues and was arrested on several charges, including theft and possession of drug paraphernalia. His car was seized by police and he was assigned to veterans court, where Hennen said he received help for the first time.
“By the time I was diagnosed and treated and began to take control of my life, I had very little money,” he wrote in a September letter.
Hennen told CBS News he didn’t have enough to get his car back.
Larry Mendivil Jr.
Hennen said he lived on a small Social Security check and was isolated in his home in East Grand Forks, Minnesota, just across the river from Grand Forks — until he met Larry Mendivil Jr. met through a coordinator at the court.
Mendivil, an Air Force veteran who had been deployed five times and worked on inspections and repairs, had difficulty returning to civilian life.
“I was homeless for a while,” he said.
The military, he said, “trains you for war, but doesn’t train you how to live when you get out.”
Larry Mendivil Jr.
Navigating life in Grand Forks or other rural areas without a car can be daunting.
“The most important thing in North Dakota is you have to have something to drive here. Everyone here knows how important a car is,” Mendivil said.
Sobriety and stability can come with transportation
Nearly a quarter of U.S. veterans – 4.4 million – live in rural communities, and many struggle with poverty, isolation and access to health care. Transportation can be critical for many military members returning to civilian life, but researchers found it is often an afterthought.
Researchers Andrea Lubin and Stephanie Dipetrillo found that access to transportation should be considered “an essential service” without which veterans “have difficulty reintegrating into civilian life,” they wrote in a 2015 report for the U.S. Department of Transportation.
For many, a vehicle is a necessity: 71.6% of workers living in poverty use a personal car to get to work. Without transportation, veterans can become isolated, which can exacerbate underlying mental health and other issues. About 35,574 veterans like Mendivil were homeless in the U.S. in 2023, according to Veterans Affairs.
Experts say that since American society is organized around cars, having a car is essential to making money.
Larry Mendivil Jr.
Mendivil told Hennen he had a 2007 Honda Accord that needed a new battery, alternator and starter, but that he would fix it for free. It was a kindness, Hennen said, that changed his entire situation.
Lubin, director of Rutgers University’s Voorhees Transportation Center, told CBS News veterans interviewed for their report that “transportation costs” or cars were rarely discussed with assisting organizations after returning to the United States.
Mendivil, 42, found his way back to sobriety and stability through cars. He started helping his uncle, a mechanic, in his shop. Mendivil was fixing cars when he got a call from an old Air Force buddy.
His Suzuki truck was idle and his friend couldn’t get to his new job. A setback that he was sure would get him fired and endanger the fragile life he had just begun to rebuild. Mendivil drove an hour to his friend’s house, picked him up and dropped him off at work. But then he went one step further and fixed the truck, showing his friend some mechanical skills.
He then launched the nonprofit Miracles for Vets, or Mv4, which helps veterans get rides, fix their cars and donate repaired vehicles to veterans who lack transportation.
“It’s a Brotherhood”
On a meager budget of less than $50,000 a year, Mendivil said he has helped 300 veterans repair their cars over the years and just gave away his 45th car. According to him, his methods are relatively simple. He talks about the veterans and the vehicle.
“We are so small and we have all been in the military. It’s a brotherhood,” Ross Weiler, the foundation’s board chairman, told CBS News. He said, “Larry’s a gearhead, and I’m a gearhead.”
Miracles for Vets operates out of a garage on Dyke Avenue in Grand Forks and partners with various vendors to repair the cars that come through. Auto Glass and Automakers have donated four windshields to cars for veterans, and Mendivil said the company “will give a free windshield installation if we run out of money and if it’s for a veteran.”
Grand Forks Treatment Court sends mandated employees to help out in the garage in the afternoons, Mendivil said, otherwise it’s mainly him and another mechanic fixing cars. Veterans sometimes gather in the garage to see the vehicles the organization is working on, or to get serviced themselves.
Larry Mendivil Jr.
Donald Lapham, 61, said Miracles for Vets helped him with his 2006 GMC Sierra truck when the transmission failed. He spent 17 years in the Army Reserves and now lives in his truck, Lapham said, “coping with depression and bad knees.”
Mendivil said there hasn’t been a single car that he hasn’t donated at least $500 in parts and $2,000 in labor. His girlfriend does all the accounting and his 11-year-old son helps out in the garage.
“I will never be an important person, but helping veterans stay mobile and giving them free cars is super important to me,” Mendivil said.
Hennen, the 2007 Honda Accord veteran, agreed. Once he had his car, he no longer had to take the bus to the supermarket. That trip, he said, would take him about an hour each way, and was arduous in the “heavy winters.” Now Hennen said, he jumps in his car and drives 10 minutes each way. He plans to visit his three granddaughters, who live 300 miles away.
“Having a car in my life gave me a sense of freedom,” Hennen said. “I could go where I want to go, how I want to go and I can go where I want to go.”
He said he hadn’t felt this way since he was a young man. “Life is a lot better than before.”
