“Deployment is the scariest part of the whole situation. It’s hard not to think that there is that chance that he could die,” said Dana Schulz, a junior architecture major at New York University when reflecting upon the fact that her boyfriend Brian Errickson is a soldier, during the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars.
Women like Dana are left behind by their significant others in military service. Errickson has yet to serve a tour in Iraq or Afghanistan, and yet the very thought of him being scheduled to in September is what worries Schulz. “The distance and the times not being able to talk are tough, but they are doable. Having those scary thoughts of losing someone in the back of my head is what is the most scary and difficult part.”
According to the Huffington Post, in an article from March 19, 2008 entitled “Iraq Casualities, Iraq Costs, and Iraq Numbers,” about 3,990 women, men, and family members have had to come to terms with the fact that they have lost someone.
This war is quite different from other modern wars. For example, during Vietnam loved ones often had to wait weeks to hear from their men overseas and nowadays the soldiers have access to the Internet and can email their loved ones from wherever they are, be it Iraq or Kentucky. According to Mary Lou Lauricella, Drama Therapist at the West Haven VA Hospital, this has changed the way soldiers react to the war and ultimately how they come home. It is similar, although dramatically different at the same time, to how students still feel a part of their family and friends’ lives while studying abroad. They are participating but they are not. They are constantly living in two worlds at once, and that is exactly what these soldiers are now forced, by modern technology, to do. The real problem arises, according to Lauricella, when they are forced to separate one life from another. “One minute they are reading an email from their wives or husbands and looking at pictures of their children and the next they are back in the desert trying to survive. It is hard to compartmentalize that,” Lauricella said.
Schulz and a friend, Emma, at New York University, have begun to try to help these soldiers stay connected with life at home in an attempt to ease their suffering while involved in their tours. The name of the organization is “NYU Supports the Troops,” and the University officially recognized it this year. According to Schulz, Emma’s cousin is in the Navy and has been deployed and her boyfriend is currently in the Naval Academy. “So far, we only have about 5 members aside from the 4 officers. No one really attended the spring club fair, plus it's really hard to get liberal NYU-ers to join. A lot of people think "support the troops" means you support the war, which is not true at all,” Schulz said. As of right now the organization has been able to send blankets oversees. These blankets had to be a specific size and also had to be red, white and blue, according to Schulz.
Schulz also spoke of other events the organization plans to take part in, such as a bake sale where all the proceeds go to Manhattan’s Veteran’s hospital and also spoke of the Adopt a Veteran program.
Adopt a Veteran is run through Angels N’ Camouflage and allows students and other civilians to adopt a veteran or a soldier. Schulz has decided to apply for the program and adopt a Veteran because “many of them are elderly and alone.” Another organization designed to help Veterans, particularly of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, is Iraq and Afghanistan Veteran Association. This organization, if you choose to sign up on their Web site, will send you information about their upcoming events and ways to help.
Schulz has seen the horrors of war through her interactions with Errickson. “His cousin who's in the army has gone to Iraq, one of his best friends who was a Navy Seal has gone to Iraq and Afghanistan, and his other cousin who's in the army is in Iraq right now,” Schulz said. Although Errickson will talk about these friends, Schulz says some of them decline to speak about their experiences, all of which are varied. “Brian’s cousin who went into Somalia never really talks about it. He is now a successful cop and is engaged. Brian's cousin that is already back from Iraq has pretty bad PTSD, married a girl that he didn't know very well whom he now doesn't have a good relationship with, and has gotten distant from his family. It really varies based on the person, there is no clear pattern or way to determine how the solider will come back,” Schulz said.
Schulz summed up the experiences perfectly, “Brian will talk about these friends, but it is usually about what they are up to now, not what they experienced oversees.” Lauricella said that this contributes to the compartmentalization of soldiers’ lives when they return, which ultimately results in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other issues such as alcoholism and drug addictions. “It was a bigger problem in the 70s after Vietnam, but it could still be a problem today.”
An informed public, a public who realizes that “supporting the troops is not necessarily supporting the war,” as Schulz says, and a public that wishes to help those left behind and those who return is the only way to prevent the problems that ensued after Vietnam. Schulz and other University students are on their way to ensuring that this does not occur, but helping students feel connected to a war that is oceans away; a war many do not even realize is going on, but each and every day it is. Each and every day someone looses someone they love; each and every day someone is left behind.
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