Basic Re-Training: Finally Coming Home

    When men and women are touched by war, they are changed. They are not the same men and women who come back, they have been forced to live in a society in which one is expected to fight to survive, and kill if necessary.            

            Twenty years ago a group of young men came back to a society, which shamed them into believing that they were baby killers and men not fit to live in our society, according to interviews with Rebecca Abbott, professor of communications and director, producer and videographer of the documentary “No Unwounded Soldiers.”

According to Mary Lou Lauricella, Drama Therapist at the Connecticut Veterans’ Administration Hospital located in West Haven, Conn., “being home is not the same as being back.” “Often these men and women are frozen in time; frozen in the traumatic experience. They come back and they don’t trust the government and don’t want to seek help from them. Many of them have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and back in the 70s, we didn’t know what it was. Many Veterans were simply placed in psychiatric wards and given drugs like Valium and told to get over it.”

PTSD, according to the National Center for PTSD “an anxiety disorder that can occur after you have been through a traumatic event. A traumatic event is something horrible and scary that you see or that happens to you. During this type of event, you think that your life or others' lives are in danger. You may feel afraid or feel that you have no control over what is happening.” It was not added to the Veteran’s Affairs diagnostic manuals nor the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders until 1980.

Ten years later, the Connecticut Veterans’ Administration Hospital created an in-patient Drama Therapy group to help Veterans retrain themselves and finally return home. Lauricella, although she has not been leading the group all that time, has been working with these Veterans for 14 years. The group is now an outpatient therapy group and is only one of the many ways in which Veterans are assisted in coping with their PTSD. Lauricella works with her Veterans--some of who have been there for as long as 8 years, others only attend two or three sessions--to help them recognize their symptoms and cope with it. She retrains them to live within relationships, within their families and ultimately within civilian society. “Returning Veterans compartmentalize their worlds. They put up cement walls around different parts of their lives. They tend to stray away from relationships because relationships and caring about someone means you run the risk of losing them,” Lauricella said. Her drama program allows these soldiers to talk about their problems, and then act out plays in which they play different roles. “The roles help them to rubberize these walls and step outside them to see these situations from other points of view.”

In 2001, professor of communications, Liam O'Brien of Quinnipiac University, did a production of “Antigone” with his media production students and Abbott assisted with the project. “It was just before Iraq and we interviewed Veterans from a variety of wars on the nature of war and they talked about things I’d never realized you would experience from a war; it made me realize how many untold stories there are,” Abbott said. Three years later, after Iraq and Afghanistan, Abbott connected with Lauricella to discuss the fact that Vietnam Veterans were having recurrent episodes of their PTSD symptoms based on the images of Iraq. “These Veterans had thought that the government had realized that going into a war like Iraq and Vietnam would always cause a high loss of life and really no clear winner. They thought the government had realized not to make that mistake again,” Abbott said. 

Abbott decided to create the documentary, “No Unwounded Soliders," to “help average people get a better understanding about what War is and wanted to help the Veterans [of Vietnam] help the new Veterans [from Iraq and Afghanistan] by telling their stories of how they dealt with PTSD through an original play.” Abbott decided to document the process and plans of this play. She spoke with Veterans from WWII, an army nurse and a Pearl Harbor survivor, Korea, and Vietnam and one Iraq Veteran.

Each Veteran told his own story and each had a different way of coping with and speaking about their PTSD. Lauricella commented on the fact that being drafted may have affected the Veterans of Vietnam in a way that differs from today’s Veterans. “I think a lot of Iraq Veterans are angry also with the system, but in a different way then the Vietnam Veterans,” she said.

Ultimately this documentary shows that by stepping into someone else’s shoes, the Veterans are able to evaluate situations and their lives in general in a way that shows themselves, and returning Vets that it’s okay to be vulnerable; it’s okay to have PTSD; and it’s okay to need to learn how to control it. It shows the Veterans returning from Iraq the difference between being back and being home and helped these soldiers, as Lauricella said, make the transition to ultimately be “welcomed” home. 

The First 100 Days

Ah, and the media bashing continues. Today officially marks the first 100 days Barack Obama has been in office, aka the first 100 days in 8 years we've had a competent, charismatic and intelligent man leading the nation- that is something you don't see very often.

Of course he has his faults (he is human you know) and of course not everyone is happy with the way our government is progressing, but that's what happens in this land we call America, the majority of people select a leader and then the minority and parts of the majority choose to complain about the choices he (or hopefully a "she" in the very near future) chooses to make. How can one man know and accomplish what will make each and every american happy- he can't! It is physically impossible.

I love him anyway, I am still proud to call him my President and very proud of myself for voting for him, and I don't really care if he's hip or not, he can speak english properly and that's really all that matters to me...

check out NBC's post - found via twitter, geez the way of the web these days...it's impressive!

The Women Left Behind

“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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Dude Where Can I Park my Car?

Quinnipiac University has about 5400 undergraduate students, 2000 of which, approximately, live off campus. This means each and every day about 2000 students need to get to campus to go to class, meetings and a variety of other activities. Quinnipiac’s North Lot parking lot, located off Mt. Carmel Avenue, is generally where these cars are expected to park. Once this lot, and the lot to the right, which is reserved for commuter carpools, is full students are expected to park down the road at the Hogan Road parking lot. 

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As you can see from this map, the Hogan Road commuter lot is a significant distance from the Mt. Carmel campus and ultimately from the University’s buildings where classes are held. The University has provided shuttles from Hogan Road Lot to North Lot, on Mt. Carmel’s campus, but often these shuttles take about 10 minutes to complete the trip. These 10 minutes can mean the difference between getting to class on time and being late.

Many seniors work and therefore cannot afford to come to campus all day for classes they have in the afternoon or stay in between morning and night classes. Each situation is different, but most times commuting students prefer to come for their classes and then leave. The parking situation often hinders this desire.

“The commuters get the short end of the deal no matter how you look at it. Why can’t York Hill students be required to take a shuttle just like other resident students from Whitney Village and other satellite parking lots?,” said Jaclyn Hirsch, a senior print journalism major.

Students from Whitney Village, according to Quinnipiac regulations, are not allowed to drive their cars onto campus until after 4 p.m., and before that are forced to take a shuttle that runs every half hour from Whitney Village to the Mt Carmel campus. The York Hill residents will also have an option of the shuttle, but will be allowed to park on campus whenever they like, as per an open forum with Ron Colavolpe that took place in April to discuss the changes at York Hill. The shuttles from York Hill will only run until 8 p.m. on weekdays and not at all on weekends. This means that in addition to commuters and students living off campus, students living at York Hill will also be placed in the North Lot parking lot next semester.

For some students the issue of number of spots is really not the issue at all, it’s safety.  Genna Kornweiser, a senior public relations major, feels that situation is really “not bad if only students would drive a little slower and adhere to directional signals.”

All in all these are kinks which will have to be worked out as the University continues to grow and expand in the coming year and in the future, and students will simply have to continue working their schedules around the ever expanding University.