“I joked with her that we went camping on our honeymoon,” said Murray, inching his way through the line. “She never thought that was funny.”

He said he and his wife have children but are now separated.

In mid-June, after an outburst, he said, he was taken by ambulance from Indiana to Jefferson Barracks because it was the closest Veterans Affairs inpatient psychiatric ward that had an open bed. Medications stabilized him. After treatment, he said, the VA released him with contact information for several area nonprofits.

“They pretty much said, ‘Good luck,’ ” Murray said. “And you know what, I’ve had good luck. This city has been wonderful to me.”

He stayed a few nights at New Life Evangelistic Center and also slept on the riverfront. A caseworker at St. Patrick Center recently got him a short-term room at the Mark Twain Hotel downtown. The caseworker told him to show up at the event Wednesday to get an apartment.

Within an hour of waiting in line on the ground floor, Murray was taken to the top of Soldiers Memorial, where he was fed breakfast — coffee, quiche, biscuits and gravy — and placed in a new line.

The veterans said they felt like they were in the military again: Hurry up and wait.