How To Transition From Iraq To Home

By Michael Thompson, Contributing writer

Many homecoming veterans of the Iraq War will need tolerance, patience and someone to listen.

Some will require mental health counseling or substance abuse treatment, which the government is striving to increase.

"Men coming home from war always experience some problems re-entering life with their families and communities," said John Cowart, a longtime social worker at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Ashville, N.C. He spoke with a reporter from the Ashville Citizen-Times.

"The main problem they all feel is that they just don't fit in," Cowart said.

Cowart said Iraq War combat takes an emotional toll because the enemy often stages ambushes, or a vehicle suddenly may strike a landmine. This means a soldier is "constantly keyed up," he said, which leads to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD.

There are no cure-all solutions, but federal lawmakers agree they could do more to help. Congress on Oct. 3 passed the self-describing Veterans' Mental Health Improvements Act, which President George W. Bush said he will sign. The basic bottom line is to provide more counselors.

Congress and Bush did not just act out of the goodness of their hearts. A clamor over inadequate medical services for veterans of both Iraq and Afghanistan has existed for five years. Problems on the physical treatment side were exposed a year ago at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other facilities. Now mental health is in the spotlight.

For example, Reuters reported May 6 on conditions at the Army's Fort Drum base in upstate New York. Middle East combat veterans and their families said they had to wait two months for a half-hour appointment with a counselor, which one vet's wife described as little more than "a medication appointment." An Army spokesman did not deny the statements, but simply said Fort Drum lacks enough counselors. The Veterans' Mental Health Improvements Act is aimed to address the shortage.

According to the RAND Corp., 1.5 million service personnel have returned from Afghanistan and Iraq, many after repeated tours of duty. Some 300,000, or one in five, have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

These are not just men. Fifteen percent of today's military personnel are women, and they are involved in combat more than in Korea or Vietnam or the first Gulf War, according to the Veterans Administration.

PTSD can result from a soldier's own encounters with danger, or from seeing others maimed and killed. Symptoms include irritable behavior, outbursts of anger, sleep difficulties and trouble concentrating. A sudden noise an cause an exaggerated startle response. Another symptom is described as "extreme vigilance," in which the Middle East combat veteran is always on the lookout for trouble.

Sometimes the symptoms are revealed immediately. Sometimes they are internalized for years, and then the distress emerges.

No matter what types of mental health services are offered, Middle East combat veterans and their loved ones say personal communication is the best recipe for recovery, and for adjustment back into American civilian life.

The report in the Asheville Citizen-Times told the story of Army Specialist Corey Edwards, who returned in June from seven months in Iraq. His wife, Lois Edwards, described his initial attitude as "hateful, very hateful."

Corey Edwards eventually opened up. Among his revelations was that he felt guilty about having survived, while seeing others die. In one tragedy, a terrorist with a suicide bomb set off the explosion in the middle of a group of school children.

"I'll be honest, I was on the verge of eruption," Corey Edwards said. "I had to open up, to basically try to get some control over what was happening to me."

His wife eventually became his "best friend" and his hatefulness waned, he said.

"It doesn't matter who you talk to -- a friend, a spouse -- anyone who will let you bend their ear for awhile, it helps," Corey Edwards said. "My wife, she's been great. We've talked and talked and talked about it, and it seems the more I get off of my shoulders, the more I can lighten up."