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DIFFERENT WARS GIVE SIMILAR VIEWS ON RETURNING
HOME -- "War either flows around people, or it
engulfs
people. It's all about being in the right or
wrong
spot at the right or wrong time."
For more about reintegration, use the VA
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Story here...
http://www.pantagraph
.com/articles/2007/09/22/news/do
c46f5a7d92c354360801343.txt
Story below:
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Different wars give similiar views on returning
home
By Ryan Denham
rdenham@pantagraph.com
PONTIAC — At the Livingston County War Museum, the pleated fatigues of
Iraq war veterans hang from mannequins just like dozens of other
uniforms from the last 100 years of American conflict: perfectly still,
with a small placard describing who wore them.
In an age of improvised explosive devices and enemies in street clothes,
museum president Jack Murphy, 75, knows how the experiences of Iraq war
vets who donated those uniforms differ from when he fought during the
Korean War.
But in the end, it’s the common sacrifice of service that makes veterans
like Murphy proud of today’s troops.
“There’s a tie that runs through World War II, Korea, Vietnam veterans,
to (today’s vets),” he said. “We don’t think one’s better than the
other, or more deserving. We think what they’ve done is just as
courageous or important as any veterans.”
The 170 members of the Streator-based 1744th Transportation Company of
the Illinois National Guard returned from Iraq about a week ago, and 75
members of Bloomington’s 33rd Military Police Battalion are due home in
the next week. For some Guard members restarting civilian lives, the
yearlong tour was their first in a combat zone.
That reintegration process has dramatically changed over time, with the
government now taking a more active role in targeting obstacles that
have echoed across generations of veterans.
Guard members face unique challenges because they return directly to
civilian life, not back to a military base. A new wave of benefits may
make that easier, but wading through them can be daunting, especially as
the possibility of returning to war leaves some military families’
futures in limbo.
But, through interviews with more than a dozen Central Illinois veterans
who served in earlier wars and families of active-duty troops, it’s
clear that war’s impact is universal, though selective in its intensity.
“War either flows around people, or it engulfs people,” said Twin City
native Brian Hempstead, 27, who served in Iraq and is now in an
Urbana-based Guard unit that might send him back. “It’s all about being
in the right or wrong spot at the right or wrong time.”
A jittery readjustment
Veterans say the first few jittery weeks home may be the earliest signs
of a changed person — the inevitable effect of being close to war. When
Hempstead was home on leave, it was the fireworks and crowds that kept
him edgy.
Some come back unusually aggressive; others will lack patience. All of
the attention at homecoming celebrations — a community’s thanks that
most Vietnam vets didn’t get — may even be awkward for some.
“I can remember I’d scream some nights,” Willis Harms, 84, of Pontiac
said of his return to his own bed after World War II. “I’d just yell and
scream, and my wife would give me a chagrined look.”
Others will return largely unaffected, and many early jitters fade with
time, Murphy said.
“They expect you to come back and be the same person you were, but
you’re not,” he said. “It will take some patience on the part of
families and friends to give them time to readjust. That’s not an easy
thing.”
E-mail and video chats have changed how military families stay
connected, but even daily contact can create challenges without a
conscious balance of good and bad news from home.
“So what the veteran comes back to probably is the family saying, ‘Oh,
by the way, now that you’re back home and you’re safe, there’s all this
other (bad stuff),’” said Jerry Vogler, 60, superintendent of the McLean
County Veterans Assistance Commission and a Vietnam-era vet.
Mike and Melanie Alwes of Normal, who have three active-duty military
sons, know not to ask their boys too many specific questions about what
they saw: They’ll talk when they’re ready. For their 21-year-old Marine,
Jim, that happened when he was home on leave, driving back from a family
party.
“I said, ‘How was Iraq?’ and he talked for 45 minutes straight,” said
Mike Alwes, a Vietnam vet.
Reintegration: Then and now
The Streator unit, and then the Bloomington unit, are the first large
groups to go through a new Illinois Guard reintegration program for
soldiers, their families and communities. Through this and other
programs, troops have more time to discuss the delicate return to family
life and how to wade through an extensive but complicated benefits
system.
These reintegration efforts are a stark departure from what many older
veterans had when they came home: “Nothing,” as most described it.
“The Vietnam guys, one day you’re in battle, two days later you’re home.
You’re supposed to act like normal, but you’re not,” Murphy said, adding
it was easier on him because he took a ship home, not a fast plane like
many in Vietnam.
But like soldiers today, Vogler said those who served in previous wars
were focused on home, not sitting through some seminar.
“We didn’t really care. We just wanted to get back,” agreed Earl Oak,
77, who served with a Streator Guard unit in the Korean War.
Even with these programs, some younger vets find it challenging to wade
through the web of assistance and benefits, though the Internet and
service organizations do help. The timeless tendency among vets to be
independent and rarely ask for help adds to that difficulty, Vogler
said.
Clayton James, 62, of Bloomington waited until just a few months ago to
get screened for exposure to Agent Orange, a chemical used in Vietnam
that is associated with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other cancers among
veterans.
If unaddressed health issues are among the tragic lessons learned in
Vietnam, then the growing awareness of post-traumatic stress disorder
and traumatic brain injury are signs of progress. For example, mandatory
screenings for TBI — a hallmark of the Iraq war — begin this month for
Illinois Guard members.
Oak is sure his “excited, nervous, jumpy” brother would have been
diagnosed with some form of combat stress after his return from WWII in
today’s system. The PTSD label wasn’t used until post-Vietnam studies in
1980.
“Most guys had a terrible time,” said Mike Kerber, 62, of Bloomington,
of soldiers he served with in Vietnam. “And they really needed help but
didn’t get it.”
With recent reports of excessive waiting times for medical care through
the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and deplorable conditions at the
Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Kerber’s view is common among vets.
“We don’t want (today’s veterans) to have to go fighting through to get
VA benefits like we had to,” said James, who started advocating for
fellow veterans after seeing one of the first large welcome-home parades
after Vietnam — in 1986.
Many older veterans say they don’t see the next generation picking up
the advocacy torch until later in their lives, like they did, after the
hustle of family and careers slows down.
The possibility of being sent back to war, however, may make planning
for that future hard for Guard families. Illinois Guard officials say
the current goal is four years of downtime between deployments, but that
can — and has — changed.
Worries about being sent back to war after completing a tour were
something many older veterans said they fortunately never had to deal
with. For Vietnam draftees like Kerber, rotation policies meant that
after his 10-month tour, “When we got out, we were done.”
“To me, that’s the equivalent of picking somebody up by the shoulders
and just shaking the (heck) out of them,” Vogler said of troops going
back and forth between the front line and home.
For James, the unknowns add to the difficulty of reintegration and
deciding when and how to share with their families what they
experienced.
“Hopefully, this thing will end soon, but we just don’t know,” he said.
By the numbers
-- 15 Deployed Illinois National Guard members killed since Sept. 11,
2001
-- 38 Percentage of U.S. soldiers who report early psychological
symptoms of post-traumatic stress (2007)
-- 49 Percentage of National Guard members who report same symptoms
-- 75 Members of the returning Bloomington-based Illinois National Guard
unit
-- 170 Members of the Streator unit who returned home Sept. 15
-- 3,791 U.S. military members killed in Iraq since March 2003
-- 8,600 Illinois Guard members on active-duty deployment as of August
-- 12,500 Enlisted members of the Illinois Army and Air National Guard
-- 162,000 American forces in Iraq as of June
SOURCES: Illinois National Guard; Department of Defense Task Force on
Mental Health report; Associated Press
Changing needs
Highlights from “Voices for Action: A Focus on the Changing Needs of
America’s Veterans,” a 71-page report of inadequacies in veterans’ care
and policy recommendations prepared after last year’s AMVETS-hosted
symposium:
-- Upon separation from service, service members and families are not
getting adequate or timely information about federal, state and local
benefits.
-- There’s no measure of the effectiveness of the military’s Transition
Assistance Program (TAP), which consists of comprehensive workshops
focused on job search help and related services.
-- As part of discharge, enforce mandatory TAP classes focusing on soft
skills, such as personal finance and other routine items some soldiers
may have no real training or experience in.
-- Mandate standard reintegration programs on a state level for Guard
units, something Illinois has done.
-- Provide more resources to help self-employed veterans find business
capital, corporate sponsorship and job protection.
-- Female veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder are underserved,
and there should be gender-specific treatment programs available.
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Larry Scott --
