U.S. Army veteran Myron Hennen hadn’t had a car in 18 months – not easy in Grand Forks, North Dakota, a small city with frigid temperatures for most of the year, large open expanses and a tight-knit veteran community. 

The 68-year-old said he was struggling with mental health issues and was arrested for various charges including theft and possession of drug paraphernalia. His car was impounded by police and he was assigned to veterans’ treatment court, where Hennen said he got help for the first time.

“By the time I got it diagnosed and treated and started to get my life under control, 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. 

Hennen said he was living off a small Social Security payment and was isolated in his home in East Grand Forks, Minnesota, right across the river from Grand Forks — until he met Larry Mendivil Jr. through a coordinator at the court. 

Mendivil, an Air Force veteran who had been deployed five times and worked on inspections and repairs, struggled to ease back into civilian life.

“I was actually homeless for a little while,” he said.

The military, he said, “trains you for war but don’t train how to live when you get out.”

Navigating life in Grand Forks, or other rural areas without a car can be daunting.

“The most important thing in North Dakota is you got to have something here to drive. Everyone here knows how important a car is,” said Mendivil.

Sobriety and stability can come with transportation 

Nearly a quarter of U.S. veterans — 4.4 million — live in rural communities and a large portion struggle with poverty, isolation and access to healthcare. Transportation can be key for many military members returning to civilian life — but researchers found it’s often an afterthought.

Researchers Andrea Lubin and Stephanie Dipetrillo found transport access should be considered “an essential service” without which veterans “can have a difficult time 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 at the poverty level use personal vehicles to get to work. Without transportation, veterans can become isolated and that can exacerbate underlying mental health issues and other struggles. About 35,574 veterans, like Mendivil, experienced homelessness in 2023 in the U.S., according to Veterans Affairs. 

Experts say that since American society is organized around automobiles, having a vehicle is essential to making money.

Mendivil told Hennen he had a 2007 Honda Accord that needed a new battery, alternator, and starter but he would fix it, for free. It was a kindness, Hennen said, that changed his entire situation. 

Lubin, managing director at Rutgers University’s Voorhees Transportation Center told CBS News veterans interviewed for their report said “transportation costs” or cars were rarely discussed with assisting organizations after they returned stateside. 

Mendivil, 42, found his way back to sobriety and stability through cars. He started helping his uncle, a mechanic, around his shop. Mendivil was fixing cars when he got a call from an old Air Force buddy. 

His Suzuki truck had stalled and his buddy couldn’t get to his new job, a setback he was sure would get him fired and imperil the fragile life he just started to rebuild. Mendivil drove an hour to his friend’s house, picked him up and dropped him off at work. But then he went the extra step, and fixed the truck, showing his friend some mechanical skills in the process. 

He then launched the nonprofit Miracles for Vets, or Mv4, which assists veterans with rides, fixes their cars and donates repaired vehicles to veterans who don’t have transportation. 

“It’s a brotherhood”

On a scrappy budget of less than $50,000 a year, Mendivil said he’s helped 300 veterans fix their cars over the years and just gave away his 45th vehicle. His methods, he says, are relatively straightforward. He keeps it about the veterans and the vehicle.

“We are so small and we’ve all been in the military. It’s a brotherhood,” Ross Weiler, the foundation’s board chair, told CBS News. He said, “Larry is a gearhead, and I’m a gearhead.”

Miracles for Vets works out of a garage on Dyke Avenue in Grand Forks, partnering with different suppliers to fix the cars that come through. Auto Glass and Automakers have donated four windshields to cars for veterans, and Mendivil said the company gives “a free install for the windshield if we are out of money and if it’s for a veteran.”

Grand Forks Treatment Court sends mandated workers to help out at the garage in the afternoons, Mendivil said, otherwise it’s mainly just him and one other mechanic fixing cars. Veterans sometimes congregate at the garage just to see the vehicles the organization is working on or get a tune-up of their own. 

Donald Lapham, 61, said Miracles for Vets has helped him with his 2006 GMC Sierra truck when the transmission doesn’t work. He spent 17 years in the Army reserves and now lives in his truck, Lapham said, “dealing with depression and bad knees.”

Mendivil said there hasn’t been one car he hasn’t donated at least $500 in parts and $2,000 for labor. His girlfriend does all the accounting, and his son,11, helps out in the garage. 

“I’ll never be an important person, yet helping veterans to stay mobile and giving them free cars is super important to me,” Mendivil said.

Hennen, the veteran who got the 2007 Honda Accord agreed. Once he had his car he didn’t have to take the bus to the grocery store. That trip, he said, would take him about an hour each way, and was tough in the “rough winters.” Now Hennen said, he jumps in his car and drives 10 minutes each way. He is planning on visiting his three granddaughters who live 300 miles away. 

“Having a car in my life gave me a feeling of freedom,” said Hennen. “I could go anywhere I want to go, how I want to go and I could go where I wanted to go.” 

He said he hadn’t felt that way since he was a young man. “Life is a lot better than it was before.”