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VETERANS FACE TOUGH TRANSITION TO COLLEGE --

"It's a struggle. If I don't go to school, and learn

something new, I won't have much else."

 

 

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Veterans face tough transition to college

By Bobby Caina Calvan
Bee Staff Writer

Cody Conway, a combat Marine in Iraq, envisioned a lifelong career in the military. If not, perhaps a return to civilian life as a mechanic.

Four years ago, the Roseville enlisted man returned from war unexpectedly, his life and future shattered by a noncombat accident outside Baghdad that tore the muscles and tendons from his right arm and shoulder.

As a mechanic, he took things apart and put them neatly back together.

Repairing a shattered future hasn't been as easy.

"I want to move on with my life," Conway said Thursday between classes at Sierra College in Rocklin. "But I'm disabled, and I can't work. I've been a mechanic all my life. When I got back, I couldn't do that anymore."

For Conway and thousands of other war veterans, life after Iraq and Afghanistan has meant looking for new vocations and learning new skills as they struggle to put their lives back in order.

By the thousands, they are filling college classrooms across the country -- but few campuses, veterans and their advocates say, are adequately prepared to respond to the surge.

Colleges are bracing for a huge surge of military enrollees, reminiscent of post-World War II. More than 1.5 million Americans have served in Afghanistan or Iraq.

The college campus has become a new front line as veterans of the country's latest wars battle the bureaucracy at home to get the educational benefits they were promised from the military and confront what some perceive as stigmas of serving in an increasingly unpopular war.

"Let's face it, the majority of college campuses don't support the war, they don't support what we're doing," said Conway, who wants to become a social worker. "It's a struggle," he said. "If I don't go to school, and learn something new, I won't have much else."

Sierra College counts more than 200 Iraq war veterans attending classes, and school officials say more are on the way.

Many arrive on campus with the scars of war -- physical and psychological. While accustomed to the discipline of the military, they are unprepared for the rigors of academic life.

"We've heard some veterans tell us that they were more afraid to step onto a college campus than they were going to Iraq," said Bart Ruud, a Vietnam War veteran and a retired Sierra College counselor who volunteers at the campus.

Today, the college is hosting a symposium addressing the role campuses can play in helping veterans make the transition into everyday life. The event, dubbed "The Road Home ... From Combat to College and Beyond," is meant to be a forum for veterans and their advocates, as well as for educators and the rest of the community.

"Regardless of how we feel about the war, our duty is to help every one of these students become successful," said Catherine Morris, a veteran of three branches of the military and a Sierra College counselor assigned specifically to assist the growing number of veterans on campus.

"They want to come back home and put the war behind them, but they find that it's not that simple" Morris said.

For veterans, few things are simple. Many have been surprised by the complexity of rules governing the GI Bill, the federal tuition reimbursement program.

Last year, the Department of Veterans Affairs, which administers the GI Bill, provided $2.76 billion in education aid to 498,123 people.

But critics want the government to make key changes that would encourage more veterans to enroll. They want the government to pay benefits up front instead of requiring veterans to seek reimbursement for tuition after paying out of their own pockets.

"They were told that if they served their country, their schooling would be paid for. Then they are hit with reality," said Patrick Campbell, legislative director for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, who is taking part in today's symposium.

"I'm looking forward to hearing stories from all these vets," Campbell said. "I want to hear the good and the bad."

Some of the stories will be about discouragement, said Kyle Williams, who served with the Marines in Iraq and was injured during a mortar attack in the volatile Anbar province.

"There's been a lot of frustration," he said. "There are so many things people don't understand. You come across these 18- and 19-year-old (college) kids who haven't experienced life outside their parents' home. All they want to know is if I killed anybody in Iraq."

"Why do you want to know? Why does it matter?" Williams asked.

"Don't you realize the severity of the question that you're asking?"

"They don't realize that we're trying to put all that behind us," said Williams, president of the Sierra College Veterans Club.

"I don't like to talk about it, and I don't want to talk about it."

Shad Meshad, the founder and president of the National Veterans Foundation, plans to tell veterans at the symposium to talk about their experiences.

"Don't hide, don't isolate yourselves," he said. "Go get counseling. Get involved.

"I don't want invisible soldiers," he said. "If they don't talk about their experiences, they become invisible."

About the writer:

* The Bee's Bobby Caina Calvan can be reached at (916) 321-1067 or bcalvan@sacbee.com.

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Larry Scott  --