Yellow ribbons on car bumpers rally commuters to “Support Our Troops.” Deployed soldiers receive care packages of toothbrushes, socks and magazines. Wisconsin National Guard units overseas watch Green Bay Packers’ games on streaming video, and Jessica Simpson and Dane Cook travel to Baghdad to enliven soldiers with curves and crude humor.
But Simpson isn’t waiting when the soldiers return home.
“They have a big parade when they come back, but then they just fall off the grid,” says Elijah Jacobson, a 29-year-old Marine veteran and a Wisconsin State Advocate for the Iraq War Veterans Organization. “That’s one of the biggest things facing them today.”
Applauded for their patriotism as they serve, veterans face an uphill battle when they return home. Unemployment, mental health issues and the change in daily life can overwhelm these men and women, and many do not get the help they need.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, more than 27,000 Wisconsinites have served in Iraq or Afghanistan as of June 2009. Furthermore, 88 Wisconsin soldiers have died in Iraq. Thousands come home to the open arms of family and friends, unprepared for the changes ahead.
Just as war experiences differ across branches, units and individual soldiers, so too do the challenges of coming home. For some, it’s the lack of structure back home, while for others it’s the struggle to abandon bad habits.
A big change in lifestyle
In late September 2009, Nate Toth met fellow veterans and members of Iraq Veterans Against the War at UW-Madison’s Art Lofts Building, the graduate art studios on campus. Toth and the other veterans, many of whom had never met before, took part in the Combat Paper Project.
Based out of Green Door Studio in Burlington, Vt., the project’s goal is to “utilize art as a means to help veterans reconcile their personal experiences” and find a non-traditional means to express the significance of their service.
Toth tore the buttons and badges from his Navy uniform and cut the fabric into one-inch squares. These scraps were then pulverized to a linty pulp and pressed to make thick, starchy paper. As he wrung out the wet paper on a hydraulic press, Toth discussed his time abroad and the transition back to civilian life.
“I had lots of recurring dreams of the bombing footage when I got home,” Toth says. “But I think it’s good to talk about.”
Toth served two combat tours in the U.S. Navy aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt. Although the 29-year-old Minocqua native was glad to come home in 2003, he didn’t anticipate the tough adjustment.
“I was really depressed. It was a big change in lifestyle,” Toth says. “Life in the Navy is very consistent. You’re told when to eat, when to sleep, when to shower. And when you come back you’ve got all the concerns of being a normal adult.”
Toth is a sturdy man, with a lumberjack beard and dark eyes to match. Appearing shy at first, Toth is open about every aspect of his life, from post-war weight gain to money trouble.Currently searching for an information technology position in Madison, Toth wishes he had more opportunities to discuss both his service and the Iraq war in general, which he now opposes.
“It’s hard to understand for a lot of people,” Toth says. “People say, ‘Oh that’s cool.’ Most don’t really care. A lot of people don’t want to understand.”
In an effort to find a forum to discuss the war, Toth joined Iraq Veterans Against the War in 2005. Since then, Toth says he has lost two-thirds of his friends, who are offended by his anti-war stance.
At the Combat Paper Project reception Oct. 3, Toth displayed the paper he had made from his uniform. Red ink blots and screen prints of helicopters and graffiti in Greece covered a table in a coffee shop on Madison’s east side, and Toth discussed what the pieces mean to him and his fellow veterans.
“The paper has a sentimental value to me because of my uniforms,” Toth says. “But the display of it and the use of it as a form of art may help me and others find some healing and solace in the paper. I think it also has helped me find some more of my creative talents as I create art out of unfinished paper.”
Finding a niche
Veterans groups, many of which have bureaus in Wisconsin, try to assist with normal adult concerns – bills, employment, relationships – that often overwhelm veterans. In addition to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Iraq War Veterans Organization, Vets for Vets and Wisconsin Paralyzed Veterans of America are just a few of the organizations dedicated to helping veterans find their footing back in the states.
“We help them with job issues, personal issues from health care to educational opportunities,” Jacobson says of the Iraq War Veterans Organization. “We try to get awareness out as much as we can.”
Jacobson’s experience in the Iraq war bestows him with a unique ability to reach out and relate to transitioning veterans. As a Marine with the Gulf Company, Jacobson served one year in Iraq in 2004. During this tour, he lost his best friend and many others close to him. But when he returned home, he refused to acknowledge his grief, choosing unhealthy habits instead.
“I didn’t think about the war for the first year and a half,” Jacobson says. “I worked to exhaust myself so I wouldn’t be thinking about it.”
Experts say this avoidance occurs all too often among veterans. Military experts worry returning veterans, eager to get home to their families, do not take advantage of the resources available to them at the demobilization sites. They say this prevents veterans’ successful transitions and prolongs their struggles at home.
Eventually, Jacobson sought counseling with the Tomah Veterans Administration Medical Center, where he completed an inpatient post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment program. It was then that Jacobson decided to take his life in a new direction. He moved from Eau Claire to smaller Black River Falls, Wis. He quit his job as a machinist and signed on with the fire department, where he has worked since 2007.
“It’s hard for a lot of military servicemen to come back and find a niche,” Jacobson says. “Rather than taking my issues to a bar, firefighting is the best fit for me. The tempo of being a firefighter matches the tempo of being in the military.”
As he adapted to life back home, Jacobson realized that on top of the adjustment from Iraq to Wisconsin, military men and women come home to the same concerns as everyone else. Veterans are not shielded from bills, family problems or unemployment in exchange for their service. Jacobson saw the Iraq War Veterans Organization as a useful tool to help veterans handle all these challenges.
“It’s basically helping veterans get what they need,” Jacobson says. “It might be as simple as helping them fill out paperwork for veterans’ benefits. Sometimes it’s helping them find a local vets group.”
The Iraq War Veterans Organization also tries to help veterans face their war experience. Jacobson says the bravado in the military prevents veterans from recognizing the warning signs of problems like anxiety and PTSD. Jacobson and the other organization leaders, most of whom are Iraq or Afghanistan veterans, try to help veterans confront traumatic memories.
“Coming home, it takes a little bit to unwind, and once you do unwind, that’s when the symptoms start to show up,” Jacobson says. “We try to get out and talk to the vets about it – tell them the warning signs.”Soda can explosives
At UW-Milwaukee, occupational therapy graduate student Heidi Plach conducted a study to determine the post-war outcome of young veterans. Realizing the ripple effect of veterans’ physical and mental health, Plach wanted to find out what issues the veterans struggled with as they adapted to life at home.
“The topic of veterans affects everyone,” Plach says. “It’s your brother, your mother, your coworker, your sister, your uncle. This is a population that needs a voice.”
With support from her academic adviser, Plach’s inquiry began in May 2008, and she was amazed by the quick response.
“When I posted the study, within two days, I had 87 responses,” Plach says. “The fact that they were so willing to share means they’re asking to share.”
Plach held group interviews with ten veterans and conducted in-depth interviews with 30. She finished her research 18 months later. Her results showed five key struggles most often cited by the veterans: relationships and belonging, school, physical health, sleeping and driving. Of these, driving most surprised Plach.
“Over in Iraq, one of the most dangerous places to be is on the road,” Plach says. The fear of improvised explosive devices, she explains, persists as veterans come home. As a result, many veterans drive recklessly to avoid perceived harm, which may be just a soda can on the road.
At the end of her research, Plach concluded much the same as Jacobson about returning veterans’ transitions.
“I heard this over and over in interviews,” Plach says. “[Coming home] is a letdown in a way. The hype is less and less. The soldiers are in it every day, and when they come home, they’re just Joe Schmo.”
Bad habits, poor sleep
While Jacobson found his niche in helping fellow veterans and firefighting, a job he credits with allowing him the same adrenaline rush as the military, other veterans transition into a life completely separate from their service.
Twenty-five-year-old Anthony Moore of Madison went to Iraq with the U.S. Army Reserves in 2005. Deployed in the middle of his second semester at UW-Madison, Moore was never gung-ho about serving in Iraq. When he returned after his yearlong tour, it was the military lifestyle that most affected his transition.
“It was difficult. Really, really hard at first,” Moore says. “You pick up a lot of bad habits in the military: cursing, saying ‘faggot’ all the time, playing with a pocket knife. But the sleep was really what got me.”
Moore’s erratic sleep schedule affected his schoolwork – so much so that he enrolled as a part-time student for three years before feeling ready to take on more than 11 credits. After a diagnosis of a sleep disorder and a Trazodone prescription, Moore’s sleep troubles are now “abnormal instead of normal.”
Part of Moore’s transition process has been to build an identity separate from his military service. Whereas other Iraq war veterans may wear their service proudly on their sleeves, Moore chooses to keep it to himself.
“I don’t bring it up. I don’t make it a part of my identity,” Moore says. “If anyone has specific questions, I can talk about it. But I’d rather they get to know me as myself rather than some soldier.”
Despite their different transition experiences, the veterans all offer the same advice for deployed soldiers: When you come home, get help.
“Whether or not you think your issues are your fault, you have to ask for help,” Moore says. “In the Army, you’ve got that mentality of not bringing up issues, but you’ve got to be the squeaky wheel to get the oil.”