The war at home

It looked like any impromptu party, but the group gathered in the Rocklin Park Hotel lounge recently wasn’t there to drink. They were getting acquainted between press interviews.

Shad Meshad, a Vietnam veteran and the president of the National Veterans Foundation, and Patrick Campbell, the legislative director for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, had come to town to speak at a Sierra College Veterans-sponsored forum, “The Road Home: From Combat to College and Beyond.”

They were joined by two people from Sierra College who have made that journey. Student Kyle Williams did two tours as a Marine in Iraq before a wound sent him back to civilian life. Catherine J. Morris, a Sierra College veterans counselor, served in three branches of the military.

The conversation varied from rowdy to serious, heart-wrenching to hilarious. What they all agreed on, though, is that the U.S. government needs to pay more attention to its returning veterans.

Williams talked about the mortar attack that sent him back from his second tour with wounds to his face, shoulder and arm. “They replaced these front four teeth and fixed my nose.”

“It looks pretty good,” quipped Meshad.

But now Williams is waiting for an appointment to be tested for traumatic brain injury (TBI).

“And we know, because he was evacuated out and lost consciousness, that he probably has TBI,” said Campbell. “Now, I dropped a tank hatch on my head—it sounds stupid, I know—but we flipped three or four vehicles in a mortar attack right in front of me.”

The story got less slapstick, more tragic. Many men in his unit suffered head injuries and hearing loss. Campbell now has short term memory problems. “I can remember things long-term just fine,” he said, “but don’t ask me to remember a phone number for two minutes.”

Physical wounds and scars are just the outward manifestation of the cost of war. The problems vets encounter once they return to civilian life “range from simple economic problems to serious problems with post-traumatic stress disorder and TBI,” according to Williams.

Campbell recalled how his mother asked him if he had PTSD.

“How do you answer that question?” he asked rhetorically with a laugh before switching to a serious tone to suggest resources should have been made available to his mother in preparation of his return. Educating loved ones on warning signs to look for is especially needed, the vets agreed.

“It took me a year to make it in to the Vet Center,” Campbell said of the government agency that provides readjustment counseling and outreach services to all veterans who served in any combat zone. “It took two of my friends saying that they’d never talk to me again. But you shouldn’t have to wait until your social network is collapsing to get help.”

Morris says the same thing happens with the student vets. “They’ll say, ‘I was having some problems, but it wasn’t until my wife said she’d divorce me if I didn’t go that I went to seek help at the Vet Center.’”

Physical and psychological help isn’t all the returning vets need, however. “If you’re trying to go to school and use your education benefits, there’s another whole set of problems,” said Williams. Campbell’s call for a G.I. Bill that really pays for school was met with hearty agreement.

Morris detailed all the obstacles standing in a veteran’s path to college. “If it’s not an approved major, they won’t pay for it,” she said of the dispensers of military education benefits. “It’s got to be one major, and all the courses have to be required for the major.” As she continued listing difficulties, including the cost of textbooks and the general stress from trying to make a living while going to school, Williams and Campbell nodded.

“That’s why only 9 percent of veterans ever use their education benefits,” said Campbell. “And that’s got to change.”

All discussions seemed to come back to the struggle vets face acclimating to a new environment and everyone around them truly understanding what they are going through.

“You’re used to wearing your respect on your collar,” Williams said, “and you’re coming back to an environment that doesn’t understand you or doesn’t understand what you’ve done.”

That lack of understanding may stem from the fact that only 1 percent of Americans are fighting our current wars. “There’s a generation of people coming home that don’t have other veterans to welcome them that will understand what they’re going through,” said Campbell.

Meshad, who pioneered diagnosing and treating PTSD among his fellow Vietnam vets, wasn’t surprised by his younger colleagues’ stories. “Having been through this already myself and then watching it happen to these guys, my thought is: Here we go again.” But he’s hopeful progress is being made. “These guys are organized. They’re talking to each other already. People right out of deployment are talking to each other and getting recommended to the Vet Center.”