LONGWOOD STUDENT VETERANS

Here's the link: www.southsidemessenger.com/articles/2008/11/07/feature_stories/71veterans%20day.txt Read about the LSV, Greg, Steve, Chris, Dustin, and Eric below (Matt was in hiding!): From Combat to College and Beyond Longwood University's Veterans Day Program By Susan Stinson Published: Friday, November 7, 2008 1:32 PM CST On November 11th, Longwood University will host a Veterans Day program, the first of its kind in Longwood's history, sponsored by the Longwood Student Veterans Group (LSV), entitled "From Combat to College and Beyond." The event is free and open to the public and will address many of the transitional issues facing soldiers returning from combat theatres in Iraq and Afghanistan. The keynote speaker will be Martha Mead of the Virginia Department of Veterans Services' new Virginia Wounded Warrior Program, which coordinates support services for veterans with stress-related and traumatic brain injuries from combat. Political Science major and Homeland Security minor, Greg Serwo, 27, a native of the Boston suburb of Boxford, Mass., who served eight years, including two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Marines, started the LSV to help smooth the transition from soldier to student life. "We're trying to provide a consolidated network of services available to people getting out of the military and coming to Longwood, especially those with physical injuries, Combat Stress Reaction (CSR), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs)," said Serwo. "The transition to college is always difficult, and these disabilities can make it even more challenging for veterans." Hard and fast numbers are difficult to nail down, but earliest estimates indicate that 45 to 50 Longwood students are veterans-a sizable population. According to its mission statement, the organization "coordinates campus activities, advocates for student veterans' concerns regarding policy, promotes pre-professional networking, and generally provides a touchstone for student veterans pursuing higher education." In particular, organizers are working to implement additional education transition services that will provide soldiers who are coming to college for the first time clinical information on the problems they're having and to establish 24/7 crisis counseling services because the suicide rate for those deployed is double that of the average population, and nationwide, statistics indicate that there's only a 3% retention rate for veterans. Serwo and his buddies want to see these statistics change and are taking steps to ensure it. They've developed a web site to help veterans and their spouses access and understand their benefits, from VA healthcare covering PTSD and TBIs to education benefits under the Montgomery GI Bill and the new Post-9/11 Benefits Act. And they serve as a peer-to-peer network, helping one another work through the transitional issues. According to the Virginia Wounded Warriors web site, more than 30% of returning service personnel "have a mental health condition or reported experiencing a traumatic brain injury. Virginia's share of this serious health concern comes to more than 50,000 veterans over the next 20 years. Considering the impact on spouses and children, the number increases to 200,000 during the same period." THE STUDENTS A Combat Infantryman, Serwo began his first tour in 2003 on the attack and transport U.S.S. Bataan (LHD-5) and, once disembarked, served as one of four Fire Team Leaders in his squad. He was in charge of four other guys who served as "door-kickers" in Kuwait and Iraq where the only solid structures in the camps were port-a-johns. On company movements, his unit was in charge of clearing portions of cities and looking for Ba'ath party members and leaders who were hiding out and hiding contraband paraphernalia in Iraq's fourth most populated city, Nasiriyah. He says the worst part of his first deployment was when there was a communication breakdown and he, as team leader, couldn't give his men a complete picture of what was going on. "It made me mad because we could have been hurt big time," said Serwo. "We had to concentrate on completing the small tasks: 'dig your fighting hole and cover your sector of fire' or 'get your gear on because we're going out on patrol.'" He remembers when his unit found terrain models during one raid that indicated "they [insurgents] knew exactly where we were located." A sobering find. On his return home, involving a multiple week ride on the Bataan, officers stressed decompression as the main mission-no guilt, no stressful activities. Back at Camp Lejune, N.C., the Company Commander encouraged the same until the men were given leave. But on his second tour, in 2004, his operation was totally different. He lived in a trailer and had access to TVs and computers and served as part of the security force guarding the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. On this deployment, Serwo says, he "learned most about the politics behind the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan" and "more about the complexity of the various sects of Islam." "You really have to go into the past to understand the conflicts, the people and the culture." Serwo attributes part of his success overseas to the bonds he was able to form with the men with whom he worked and the young men assigned to him. These he treated as he would have younger brothers. "The relationships were professional and everyone was embraced. Usually if you're a new guy, you're life is miserable, but we were all going to war, so we really embraced everybody. There was no foolishness [hazing] going on because that's what makes guys ineffective, and like I said, we were going into combat," says Serwo. On the issues that come with the transition from soldier to student, Serwo noted that you have to work hard to adapt. The students are, for the most part, younger than him. Lectures are different from the loud, audio-visual inclusive, movement oriented military classes he attended. He has to take core courses that he has a hard time relating to his current life. "I really liked my terrorism and homeland security class," said Serwo. "The global politics classes interested me, so . . . even my world geography class . . . these were kinda easy for me to get into because they're relevant to where I've been and plan to go. This semester, though, I'm having some concentration issues. I've been assessed for PTSD and they want to assess me for TBIs, based on my answers to a battery of tests. For some reason my balance is off. They also want to assess me for Gulf War Syndrome." He thinks all soldiers who qualify for the five years of VA heath care afforded to returning vets should be recalled for TBI and PTSD screening because the symptoms can take weeks, months, even years to present. Much like his military camaraderie, the formation of the LSV group, in response to transitional issues-now from instead of to the military-resulted in a new band of brothers, and several of them are Farmville natives. Dustin Meadows, son of Marvin and Nancy Meadows, graduated from Prince Edward County in 2005 and served as a Marine Combat Engineer spotting IEDs in Iraq from 2006 - 2007. His transition to academic life has been difficult both academically and socially because, he says, "you are with a group so long, and out of a class room for a year, [so then] you have trouble getting back into the swing of things and everything [non-war related] seems . . . insignificant." For him, the LSV group "is helping, and it's going to help a lot of guys on campus." Additionally, Christopher Alan David is a graduate of Prince Edward in Farmville, VA and is majoring in Criminal Justice at Longwood. He served in the Army as a Specialist at Abu Ghraib on his first tour and on the Kuwait / Iraq border on his second. Now calling Farmville his home, Steve Young, 26, moved from base to base often as a child, his father a career military man, and graduated from Mayfield High School in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Now attending Longwood, Young was married August 9th of this year and majors in Chemistry. He joined the service in 2000 and served two tours with the Marines-the second was a combat tour involving demolition-breeching as an Infantryman in 2003) and one combat tour with the National Guard. He got back from Camp Taji in July, just before classes began. His Guard work was a little deceptive, he says, because he figured he'd be moved off the front lines he served on as a Marine into more of a backup capacity, but he ended up on the streets in the slums of Sadr (formerly Saddam) City in Iraq looking for, and eventually being wounded by, IEDs. They lost two men the first week they were there. "You're helpless," said Young. "You're driving around at five miles an hour, and . . . well, imagine driving through a landfill looking for something the size of a paint can while, all around you, other things are blowing up all the time. It's really nerve-wracking." Young remembers sleeping inside the city, inside their trucks-four men to a vehicle. Now working just as hard to turn his attention to his studies, Young talks about his struggles to concentrate in his classes and awaits the results of a battery of PTSD and TBI tests that he received at the VA in Richmond. PTSD AND TBI "The symptoms don't start right away," says Young, "Camy [his wife] and I are just starting to notice it now." He says he's often angry and irritable, and he's suffering from short-term memory loss. "You hear a lot of horror stories about Vietnam vets and what they went through, but it seems like they're [the VA] getting on track." Any resulting disability rating, however, could take up to a year to process, and by that time, Young will have completed his stint in the Guard. Waiting on the paperwork is a real hardship because current academic protocol says he has to have official documentation from the military before he can apply for learning assistance from Longwood's Disabilities Services office, further delaying help with his issues involving concentration. While overseas, Young considered a career as a pharmacist, but now, he says, "I can't do simple math, when I used to get it [instantly]." As far as PTSD, I get weird dreams . . . I mean, we lost four guys." On his thoughts about coming home, Young said, "The whole time you're over there, whenever you get time, you daydream about home and what you're going to do when you get home, and then you get home and realize you still have to pick up. You still have bills; you still have to interact with people . . . and you realize that's not really what [you] wanted [in terms of getting home]. It's hard to make that transition [home] because you're with your buddies the whole time . . . and you establish that core, then you get back home, and poof! You're doing your own thing again." Eric Anderson, who hails from Richmond, Va., served two tours, 2004-2005 and 2007-2008 with the National Guard as a Combat Engineer whose main duty, like Young's and Meadows', involved clearing roadways of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). He's young and energetic, always wearing a smile, and he wants to reach out to others who will listen. Both he and Meadows plan on attending the Southern Humanities Conference in Durham, N.C. in February to enjoy the rare opportunity of talking about their transitional issues and listening to those of a group of Vietnam Veterans who came before them. ONGOING EDUCATION ISSUES On education and reaching out, Serwo says, "I've got friends all over . . . who got out [of the Corps] in like 2003, who are still in school, probably based on the transition alone from the Marine Corps to student life. You know, for whatever reason, maybe they have to take time off because they're just like, it's . . . different, not that they've even seen combat, just that [the military] is just a totally different culture. So they've been in college for like five years now." It's okay, he says, for faculty to notice when a veteran is not in class. It's all right to ask if they're okay. Many times veterans are missing class because of their appointments at the VA, which can not easily be rescheduled, if at all. Young adds that all of his professors have been very understanding of this, providing him with excused absences. He has missed nearly one day of class each week since the semester began. FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS To put his experience in perspective for his classmates, "[Regardless of politics]," Young comments, "the best thing students can do is try to "put themselves in [ a soldier's] shoes, realize there's people their age over there fighting and dying." His loudest plea, echoing the words of the others in the LSV, is that we, as Americans, don't forget the ones still over there. FOR PARENTS AND SPOUSES For parents, Serwo suggests that parents shouldn't be discouraged if a child acts different when they come back. "Don't ignore it, but don't be overbearing. Your child's more grown up than you think. Be patient and continue to give them positive reinforcement. I mean, after four years, I just now had a conversation with my dad about what went on over there." For spouses, Serwo adds, "I saw the organizations for and the networks of spouses when we deployed, and I know the benefits that they provide. I understand the helpless feeling they may have, and that is another aspect that the LSV can address. We can reach out to and work with the spouses and children of vets [of all wars], and help them understand what is going on and what they're going through." ONGOING WORK The group is currently working to identify all veterans and spouses / children of veterans on campus, and they have applied to the Longwood Student Government Association (SGA) to become a recognized on-campus group. Once that happens, they'll be able to join and network with the national organization Student Veterans of America. They're currently planning outreach and educational forums for interested members of Longwood's faculty, staff, and administration and say that if anyone from the community [veterans, clinicians, VA reps., etc.] is interested in working with the group, please contact them via their faculty advisors by calling 804.306.9406. VETERANS DAY PROGRAM Longwood's Veterans Day program will be held in the Lankford Ballroom from 3:30 - 5:00 p.m. For additional details, contact Susan Stinson at stinsonsc@longwood.edu or 434.395.2113. Additional information concerning veterans' issues may be found at the following: Longwood Student Veterans Group: www.longwoodstudentveterans.org Virginia Wounded Warriors Program: http://www.dvs.virginia.gov/woundedwarrior/ Natl. Center for PTSD: http://www.mentalhealth.va.gov/ptsd/alert.asp