These men and women are used to serving, not being served.
The concepts of personal responsibility and self-reliance are drilled into their heads the day they start military training and are reiterated each day thereafter.
And then one day, these veterans return home, without a leg or half an arm, and they carry internal battle scars to match.
Fortress of solitude
U. of I. student and military veteran Patrick Sherill relaxes in one of the rooms in the residential section of the new Chez Family Foundation Center for Wounded Veterans in Higher Education, located on the Urbana campus. The building has an open and inviting design that creates a socially welcome atmosphere for student veterans seeking individualized campus services.
Returning service men and women have always faced the challenge of reintegrating into civilian life, but those returning with disabilities because of a combat injury face the additional challenge of having to redefine their physical identity.
Nicholas Osborne, the interim director of the Chez Family Foundation Center for Wounded Veterans in Higher Education, said disability is one of many issues veterans must face upon their return.
He said the center is hoped to be the nexus point for the recovering veteran, an oasis where mind and body can recover, recalibrate and reintegrate into civilian society.
The need for such a center has never been greater, he said, as soldiers return home from a long list of international U.S. military interventions made in the past 20 years.
Many returning veterans, wounded or not, carry a confidence deficit and initially sell themselves short when it comes to considering a post-military career.
Osborne said the first step in the military-to-civilian transition is convincing these ex-soldiers they still have valuable skills and can make a societal contribution.
“The first step is to learn about the campus and community and to rediscover and redevelop skills they have,” he said. “Just the transition from the military to civilian life is challenging. It’s really two different worlds.”
Osborne teaches a transition course at the center. He said reflective writing is a large part of helping students transition to a new nonmilitary identity. So far, 30 student veterans have registered for the classes and individualized assistance, which is varied and vast. (See related story on the center.)
“We want to help our students find a new mission and purpose,” he said. “They have to rediscover themselves and find something that motivates them. In the class, we give them the tools to articulate the skills they have.”
Garrett Anderson, a 38-year-old veteran who joined the U.S. Army in 1998 and subsequently served in the Illinois National Guard, was injured by an improvised explosive device during his second tour in Iraq in 2005.
The explosion took his arm, broke his jaw and caused a traumatic brain injury.
But it hasn’t stopped him.
He’s used several resources at the center this semester and said it is helping him get his life back on track.
“It’s a home and a resource that can help me achieve my goals,” he said. “The center offers so many opportunities and tells me about all of the benefits that I can access. Having this center has been a big plus.”
Anderson said his age has been a limiting factor in the classroom, as he is surrounded by students much younger than him. Thanks to perspective-changing information he’s gotten from center staff members, he’s been able to overcome that challenge as well.
“I’m the oldest guy in class, so my life and world experiences are much different than the students around me. I see and perceive things a little differently,” he said.
His overarching goal is to help other injured veterans successfully transition back into society.
“I decided I want to assist other veterans and find an occupation that will make their lives better,” he said. “I see things from a different perspective because, as a nontraditional student with a military background, I’ve been places other people would never step foot in and seen things other people wouldn’t want to see.”
Anderson has his sights set on a master’s degree so that he can become a rehabilitative counselor. He said the assistance of the center and its close association with the College of Applied Health Sciences have been invaluable.
“My career and life goals are pretty simple,” he said. “I want to make it easier for veterans and families going through this. My wife and I and our family had to learn as we went along. If I can make the journey easier for other veterans by helping them in their transition to the civilian world, I would consider myself successful.”
Caleb Carlson is in a completely different situation than Anderson, yet he’s still faced similar issues and has found solace and assistance at the center.
Carlson, a 22-year-old infantryman and sergeant in the U.S. Army, enlisted in 2011, straight out of high school. In about a year he found himself on the first of two tours in Afghanistan.
He escaped physical harm, but still is working to deal with the newness of being a civilian after months of unrelenting combat duty.
He said the center helped him access counseling and tutoring services.
“Being a student veteran without the center would definitely be much more challenging,” he said. “The center also works closely with the Veterans Administration, something that will help streamline the process when I apply for VA disability compensation.”
With the center’s help, Carlson is excited about the possibilities of his new life, despite its additional challenges.
But life as a student has been challenging.
“Personally, the hardest part of transitioning has been making friends, hands down,” he said. He said his age has been a factor.
“My first week in school, I walked into two freshman-level classes where people came up to me and asked me questions under the assumption I was the professor or teaching assistant,” he said.
The time gap since the last class he took in high school is huge, he admits.
“As a student, my greatest challenge is the constant game of catch-up I feel is being played between myself and my classroom peers,” he said. “I already feel that my fellow freshmen are learning and adapting faster than me.”
While he realizes there may be some truth to that because of his time in the military, he also understands it’s part perception and something that can be overcome.
“It’s something that drives me to study better and work harder,” he said.
He has a vision of himself in the future that he can’t easily shake, which may be the most powerful force at play in his life journey.
“Right now, my goals are nothing short of the American Dream,” he said. “I look forward to having a fulfilling career as an engineer, a wife and kids, and possibly a run for public office in some form or another. They feel increasingly attainable, when I factor in being a part of this quality university and the help being offered by the center.”
For related story, see Center for Wounded Veterans maintains campus’s commitment to disabled students
