Members from the 36-43rd company from the New Hampshire National Guard returned from Iraq earlier this month.
But before troops were released to family, friends and vacation, General Kenneth Clark reminded them of their one final duty.
"We take soldiers from mobilization to reintegration. And reintegration means back to being a citizen with your family. I say to you...the mission is not over...I can’t wait to see you in the middle of the week. We’ll talk some more."
New Hampshire Public Radio’s Dan Gorenstein reports on the struggles troops have readjusting to life at home and the program that helps them do it.
Dan Gorenstein (DG): When Sergeant Susan Reynolds got home after a year in Iraq, she realized almost immediately that life had changed.
Sfx: armory (sneak up)
She had sort of put her husband and two kids on pause, but when she came back and pressed play, things were different.
Especially her 15 year old son, her baby.
T.83
Susan Reynolds: 10:26 ... now he’s this kid who is taller than me...and he’s shaving...And I am looking at him going, ‘oh my god, he grew up. Does he need me?’
DG: Reynolds was one of the dozens of soldiers gathered in the New Hampshire National Guard’s armory in Concord.
The scene looks a lot like a college fair- folding tables set up in this cavernous room, people visiting different stations.
Soldiers carry hot pink plastic bags bulging with brochures, packets briefing materials and business cards.
The bags stand out against the muted grays, yellows and browns of the soldier’s camouflage uniforms.
When I ask whether the three day reintegration program is helpful- most troops say no- at least not for them.
Sergeant Jeff Garand knows right now a lot of the soldiers are feeling a little...invincible.
Thoughts like, ‘I just got back from a war zone,’ are running in their heads.
Garand says during what’s called the honeymoon phase, the farthest thing from their minds is mental health.
T.89
Jeff Garand: 2:47 ...they are thinking about home, they are thinking about beer. They are thinking about the mall. They are thinking about pizza...
DG: Colonel Debbie Carter- the architect behind the New Hampshire guard’s program understands that soldiers are distracted right now.
She says she just wants to make sure troops at least know about the galaxy of social services out there.
T.94
Debbie Carter: 2:47...What we don’t want to have happen is people not know what to do or where to go.
DG: And problems do crop up.
Carter says she’s seen returning soldiers experience higher rates of divorce, alcohol and substance abuse, domestic violence and child abuse.
What she says may be the most important component of the program is that each soldier must do something they really don’t want to....sit down with a counselor.
T.87
Debbie Carter: 18:15 now we are talking a culture that is a military culture, predominantly male...Then you add the fact that we are from New England, it’s no wonder anybody is getting any counseling...(laughter)
DG: Carter knows the troops’ patience for power points, textbook excerpts, psychologists and psychiatrists is low.
So she asked a number of Iraq and Afghan war veterans like Sergeant Ken Kensella to go in front of new arrivals and talk about the problems they had when they got home.
T.82?
:35 I led off with a dramatic one. Just for the sake of drama. I walk into a Dunkin Donuts. I’ve been home a few weeks. I am in jeans and a sweatshirt.
DG: But on his way in, a guy Kensella describes as big and burly doesn’t hold the door, nearly hitting the Sergeant in the face.
Annoyed, Kensella lets it slide.
Big and burly puts in his order.
Then the cashier asks Kensella for his.
T.82
KK: 3:08 and I say, I would like a large...and the kid steps in my way. So now he is in front of me between me and the cashier....so in about .2 seconds, I decided that he needed to die. And I figured out how I was going to do it. I was going to grab him by the ankles I was going to step back real hard, so he hit his face. I was going to kick him between the legs. I was going to drop my knee on the base of his spine which would stun him. and then I could get at his head, and I would twist it. and then I would get a large with milk only. And get in my car. And I processed it. took my hands out of my pocket. I took a step back to get ready. And tehn I realized what I had done.
DG: Kensella says what he’s trying to get across to soldiers is that they shouldn’t underestimate the difficulties coming back.
While military life in Iraq isn’t easy- ducking mortars, avoiding IEDs- it is simple.
Conversely, civilian life in the U.S. is easy but complex.
Sergeant Jeff Garand also talks to returning troops about his transition home.
T.93
Jeff Garand: 6:38 we talk about the complexity of family life. I just didn’t have that for a year and a half. In the morning I ate, went on the road. I might get hit by an IED. I came in got lunch and fuel. Went on the road. Came back. Ate again, went to bed...So to get home and have someone say to you, take out the trash, pay the bills. It’s like, ‘ok, I’ll get to that.’ And next day comes, and my wife says, ‘did you do the bills?’ and I say, ‘no.’ ‘well, why not?’ ‘B/c it’s not really that important to me right now.’ ‘Well our credit is important.’
DG: They wound up in couple’s counseling for eight months.
T.90
Jeff Garand: 4:31 I made excuses to my wife for the way I behaved- flying off the handle. ‘Why did you do that?’ ‘Just b/c I could...that’s what I did in Iraq.’ ‘Well, you need to get out of that mode.’ ‘Yeah, well there is no...Iraq-USA switch. No war-peace switch.’ It takes time. I know myself personally and other guys are still going through that transition.
DG: Garand’s decision to seek counseling with his wife encourages the New Hampshire National Guard.
Rather than soldiers either bottling up problems, or trying to solve them on their own, they’ve learned to look for help...and they’re getting it.
Tim Beebe of the Vet Center, a program within the VA, says the program works because after the mandatory meeting with a counselor, soldiers realize it’s not so scary.
Tim Beebe: 1:56 we use the analogy that if a person is physically wounded in war that there is a recovery process...some folks can be emotionally wounded by war also, and there is some recovery there too. And that makes sense to them to put it on both a physical and an emotional level.
DG: Compared to the national average, New Hampshire National Guardsmen are three times more likely to get individual or family counseling.
It’s a troubling statistic Beebe says, because it suggests a lot of soldiers aren’t getting the help they need.
But some states across the country are adopting New Hampshire’s model.
Congress has passed legislation that requires states to provide some re-entry program for the Guard and Reserve.
Change can’t come fast enough.
These citizen soldiers make up 22% of the American military presence in Iraq.
And according to National Guard statistics, the suicide rate for Guard soldiers is 50 percent higher than last year.
For NPR News, I’m DG in Concord, NH.
