Story by Russ Mitchell
CLEVELAND — Thirty-four thousand service members will ship home from Afghanistan by early 2014. Happy homecomings await many vets, who are anxious to get back to previous lives.
But the transition from combat zone to civilian life can be filled with unexpected hurdles. For troops, the long road home can end with a rough landing.
“You never feel settled. There is always anxiety,” says Sgt. Josh Collins, who left college and joined the U.S. Army after the events of 9/11.
Willing to die for his country, Collins was also determined to stay alive for his wife and a newborn son, he had yet to meet.
“I was going to see them. It was one of those things that keeps you going,” Collins recalls.
His homecoming was everything he hoped for, and Collins still becomes emotional when describing the first time he held his child. “It’s indescribable. Every day that I look at him, I still think about that day. How much it meant to me.”
For Collins and other vets, it is the days after that homecoming, that don’t always go as planned. The transition from wartime overseas, to peacetime at home can bring about unfamiliar feelings and emotions.
“After the homecoming, there is the coming home. And that’s the piece where there is the transition. There can be struggles and lots of adjustment coming back to the civilian world,” says Pat Hall, a program manager at the Louis B. Stokes Veterans Administration in Cleveland.
After months or years of being told what to wear, where to go, and what to eat, vets can struggle with simple decisions. Hall recalls the story of a nurse who was in the Army Reserves.
“She told me, ‘My first day back at work I got up and looked in my closet and burst into tears because I didn’t know what to put on. I was used to putting on the same uniform every day.’ She wasn’t prepared for how difficult it was to make so many more decisions every day,” Hall explains.
Some vets experience anxiety in public places. Crowded restaurants and checkout lines can leave combat vets feeling vulnerable and exposed. Others have difficulty driving vehicles. Bridges, roadside trash and stop signs are not cause for alarm here.
But to vets, taught to be on guard for improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.’s, they can cause panic. “People on bridges, people on cell phones because cell phones are often the triggers to I.E.D.’s and anything on the side of the road,” says Marc Samuels, an occupational therapist who helps veterans get back behind the wheel.
The feelings and emotions are common. Transition can take up to 12 months but Hall says veterans should see gradual improvement within about 8 weeks of returning home.
“After about 8 weeks, if the veteran is still struggling with things like bad dreams, nightmares, feeling low, depressed, separating himself from those he loves, that’s when we would encourage him to seek some readjustment”, Hall says, adding that it’s often a watchful parent or spouse who will bring them to the VA for help.
“I don’t think I realized some of the obstacles that me and maybe some of the other vets would run into. You are just so excited to be home, you don’t think about it,” says Collins. He was able to spend about 6 months at home with his son before returning to Kent State and finishing his education.
Collins credits that time, an understanding and patient family, and support from the V.A. with helping him transition successfully. But Collins knows of many others who struggled. “There were soldiers I was deployed with that had terrible family problems coming home,” he says.
Today, Josh Collins works as a veteran’s job placement specialist with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. He is also very active in the Wounded Warrior Program and the VFW in Strongsville.
“I have a wife, two beautiful boys, and I have a great job. It’s great, you know, living the dream,” he says. It is a dream, Collins worked for and one he hopes other veterans will realize too. “Use the V.A.. Don’t be afraid to talk to anybody. Don’t be silent. You have to go out and attack life,” he shares.
Pat Hall says the Veterans Administration offers wonderful support to troops who are struggling with a return to civilian life.
She also recommends The National Center for PTSD, an organization called “After Deployment,” and Swords to Plowshares.