Student Soldiers Readjust To Home

From the Clarion Ledger

After duty in Iraq, some find surprising challenges in U.S.
By Rachel Leifer Hattiesburg American

HATTIESBURG — Joshua Blakeney had plenty to get used to when he returned home from fighting in Iraq last Christmas - family life, homework and meals consumed someplace other than a chow hall.
But getting into a car was among Blakeney's strangest readjustments.
"You'll catch yourself kind of looking for things along the side of the road," said Blakeney, 23, of Taylorsville.
The Jones County Junior College student spent a year with the Mississippi National Guard's 155th Brigade Combat Team in Iraq, where his regular duties included manning convoys traveling dangerous roads lined with the hidden explosives that have taken so many soldiers' lives.
"It's weird for me to be back driving again," Blakeney said. In Iraq, "we used to drive down the center of the road to stay off the sides."
Battle stress, violence and living with only basic comforts leave deep impressions on servicemen and women - and reintegration into "real life" can be a shock.
For some, the home front can present challenges more nerve-wracking than war.
University of Southern Mississippi Army ROTC cadet and history major Wesley Ward, who served as an active-duty Army infantry sergeant in Iraq from September 2004 to October 2005, felt more trepidation about hitting the books upon his return than he had about entering the urban battlefields of Mosul and Fallujah.
For him, the Army offered the clear boundaries, responsibilities and benchmarks for success he said he had not been able to find at school. "When I got back, classes were more stressful for me than combat had been," he said. "I hadn't seen myself do really well (in a classroom) before."
But success in the military helped Ward, 25, take a new approach to his studies. "Now, if I have a deadline a week away, my papers are sent off for proofreading days in advance so I don't screw up or drop the ball," he said.
Marine Cpl. Limon Stepney embraced his studies at Pearl River Community College with discipline learned from tough missions during the opening salvos of the Iraq war in 2003. But images still haunt him.
"I've seen for myself how the people are living over there - the children alone on the side of the road," said Stepney, 25, of Columbia. "Back home, of course, you see poor people, but not people on the side of the road begging for water and crackers. That hurt."
Southern Miss Army ROTC cadet Gabriel Dearman said the fear he experienced during his year with the Army in Iraq is still palpable. His base, next to the city of Abu Ghraib was under regular mortar fire.
"Bumping my elbow in the shower, sometimes I would scare myself," Dearman, 22, said. "The incoming noise was constant."
Getting acclimated to the luxuries of American life after the harrowing Iraq experience has given him profound perspective.
"I'm so glad I went to Iraq," Dearman said. "A lot of people talk about all we take for granted," he said. "When you go over there and the amenities are limited, you realize it's really true. You come home and have a real appreciation."