RALEIGH -- Two years out of the U.S. Navy, retired Lt. Cmdr. Steven Harper is still on a mission to help service members.
Instead of a submarine or an aircraft carrier, he spends most of his days between the battleship-gray walls of the South Wilmington Street Center coaching homeless veterans to find jobs. In his spare time, he helps wounded warriors rebuild their strength and their psyches through the game of racquetball.
Harper's love for his military brothers gives him the passion for both types of work, and 20 years in uniform give him the credibility.
Vets trust Harper, said John Youker, veterans services officer at the county-owned shelter who shares a small office with Harper.
In working with veterans, Youker said, "If there's no trust, you're already done."
Harper is at the shelter on behalf of StepUP Ministry, founded in 1988 by members of White Memorial Presbyterian Church to provide housing to the homeless or those on the verge of becoming homeless.
Advocates say many of those with no permanent place to live are in that predicament because they've made poor choices, and others because of events they couldn't control. Losing a job is a major factor.
To his surprise, Harper found himself without a job for two years after leaving the Navy.
Born in Washington, he grew up in Raleigh, graduated from Enloe High School and went to college at N.C. A&T State University in Greensboro, where he joined Navy ROTC. Two months after graduation, he was in basic training in Pensacola, Fla.
He became a supply officer and worked aboard ships above and below the world's oceans. He spent one stint on a sub that stayed under for seven months, testing his ability to plan for every contingency. Whatever the sailors needed for those seven months - uniforms, medical supplies, the makings of T-bone and lobster-tail dinners - it had to be already on board.
"I like the responsibility" of military service, Harper said, along with the friendships and the unpredictability, including his deployments during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. "It's never routine."
Finding StepUP
When he retired in 2009, he came back to North Carolina expecting to find work quickly.
But the nation was in recession, and even with his military rank and a master's degree he acquired in service, he couldn't find work. If not for his military benefits, he too might have had ended up homeless, he said, by the time he knocked on the door ofStepUP Ministry to volunteer.
As it happened, the nonprofit wanted to hire a veteran to work with other veterans at the South Wilmington Street Center, which provides emergency and transitional shelter for 200 to 300 men, about a tenth of them former military.
Harper started with StepUP four months ago and, like Youker, learned there are a few rules to working with veterans.
Be honest, Harper said. Don't promise a vet anything you can't do, and do everything you promise. Let them know what's required of them.
Once they have a relationship, Harper said, he and the vet can work together at everything from how to dress for an interview to how to manage money.
Racquetball on deck
The 42-year-old Harper stands out sharply in the shelter setting, where he usually wears a tie to set an example.
Harper's other project - his own nonprofit - began while he was still in the service. He fell in love with racquetball and in 2008 organized the first installation of a portable racquetball court on the flight deck of a U.S. naval vessel.
Later, he explored racquetball as therapy for soldiers who have suffered a traumatic brain injury, the loss of a limb or post-traumatic stress. Harper launched the Military Racquetball Federation, using certified trainers to teach wounded veterans to play within their limits.
The still-young nonprofit group has raised enough money to run regular racquetball clinics at three military bases, none of them in North Carolina. Harper, who lives in Garner, hopes leaders at bases here will see the benefits and that private backers will support it. Each clinic costs about $40,000 a year.
Harper, who isn't paid by the federation, said racquetball is ideal for veterans who know the intensity of combat but now face the tedium of recovery. "The game gets them to be active physically while thinking strategically," Harper said.
Enthusiastic recruit
Army Staff Sgt. Marcia Morris-Roberts took one of Harper's clinics at Fort Sam Houston while healing from frostbite injuries that took part of a leg, a toe and a finger. Now at Fort Gordon, Ga., she can't wait for a new prosthetic leg so she can play more.
She'll take medical retirement from the military soon, and plans to help Harper spread the word about racquetball as rehab.
"It's done me a world of good," she said. "And I thought I was A-OK before I walked onto that court."
Harper's racquetball work was recognized last month by the Raleigh Mayor's Committee for Persons with Disabilities. Harper received the Excellence in Recreation award.
Unlike the Navy, where each tour of duty had a start and end date, Harper's civilian work is open-ended.
"I'm here for God-knows-how-long," he said. "But while I'm here, I want to do something that may be a little out of the ordinary. I want people to look back and say, 'At least he tried to help.' "
