ABC News has a great story today about the National Guard in Cloquet, Minnesota, and the efforts there to make sure that returning veterans are as acclimated and supported as can be, in their transition back to civilian life. Seems that the effort is spearheaded by leaders intent on seeing that these veterans are as "set up for success" as they can be, and don't experience anything like the reception that met veterans returning from Vietnam. The article is called "Soldiers Describe 'Emotional Roller Coaster' Upon Return From War," and tellingly subtitled, "Psychological Toll on Battle-Hardened Vets Complicates Switch to Civilian Life." It's well worth reading, so try the link here while it lasts.
Some of the better comments in the article would be these:
Maj. Gen. Larry Shellito is the father of the program, which works hard to address the emotional toll of returning from a war zone but also covers how to obtain federal benefits.
"We owe them," he said of the Guardsmen. "This country owes them to make sure that we can give them that box of tools to help them reintegrate and be successful." Leaving soldiers to their own devices for the first three months of their return, he believes, courts disaster.
"The ones that we just turn loose on society to fend for themselves," said Shellito, "those are the ones that I'm worried about because I don't know what support mechanisms they have."
Also,
"I don't know that the public understands," [a vet] said in an interview during a break in his presentation. "How can they? And I don't know that they want to know." ... Referring to the public, Morris said, "They don't understand that for most of us, the war is just starting [when we return]."
Similarly,
"If we do a good job reintegrating our combat vets and helping their families," Morris said in an interview, "we're going to have a tremendous citizen here.
"But if we don't. If we repeat what we did in Vietnam and shun or, at worst, shame these veterans, we're going to drive people underground. They're going to manifest terrible problems."
Bruce Ahlgren, the mayor of Cloquet, attended the community briefing a few days ago and said it was an eye-opener.
"We just kind of think they come back and they're in a comfort zone again and everything's hunky-dory." That's clearly not the case, Ahlgren acknowledged. And the words of Chaplain Morris still rang in his ears.
"Please be respectful and welcome us and show hospitality," he told the Cloquet city leaders, "until we get our feet on the ground."
