"Battling a different kind of war; Military college students document the struggles veterans face when they return home" by Peter Schworm, Globe Staff | May 2, 2009
NORTHFIELD, Vt. - James Robbins, an Iraq war veteran now training prospective Marine Corps officers at Norwich University, recalled how difficult it was to come home after his deployment, how home seemed like an altogether different place.
The 23-year-old said in a deep, gravelly voice: "There were times I felt like an alien."
Robbins's story was a cautionary tale. In a few weeks, Amanda Plachek will join the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, and expects to serve in Iraq or Afghanistan. "They just want their old life back," she said, shaking her head in sympathy. "But I don't know if they even know how to come back."
Plachek is one of 30 Norwich students producing "The War at Home," painstakingly chronicling the struggles veterans face when they return stateside. Over the past six months, they have interviewed 17 veterans in lengthy, emotional sessions that trace their journeys from enlistment to the present.
Related: Surprise!: Boston Globe Discovers Anti-War Protests
Many interviews resemble confessionals, students say, and draw tears on both sides of the camera. For many veterans, remembering their experiences - the noise, the fear, the death - is almost like reliving them.
In a grim symmetry, many students who are conducting the interviews, hearing first-hand accounts of the horrors of combat and the struggle to leave it behind, are likely headed to war themselves. The veterans' stories, students say, has opened a bleak window into their likely futures....
ALL over a bunch of LIES, folks!
Before the documentary, Steve Weber, a senior from New Jersey who will join the Marine Corps next month, had planned to join the Marines active duty. Now, he is leaning toward the reserves, and interviewing for jobs in media production.
In recent interviews at the central Vermont college, which some 200 veterans attend, students recounted heart-rending details from the 70 hours of footage they have assembled. One soldier described the last few seconds of his friend's life. Another detailed the first time she shot someone. Many spoke of their inability to calm or slow down when they got home after months of combat vigilance. Some told students things they hadn't told anyone before.
Bill Estill, a Norwich communications professor overseeing the project, said some veterans admit to some form of post-traumatic stress, but are adamant about not seeking counseling, he said. "They are used to life-and-death decisions, where things are black and white," he said. "When they get back, everything is gray. And they keep everything within."
The goals of the documentary, Estill and students said, are to show the difficulty of readjustment, and to let struggling veterans know they aren't alone. Students take a relaxed approach to the interviews, asking broad and sympathetic questions about veterans' background and reasons for enlisting in an effort to make them feel comfortable.
"You have to earn their trust," said Virginia Wong, a senior who served a year in Iraq before attending Norwich. Wong, who served in Iraq as an Army specialist in 2004 and 2005, joined the project after some initial interviews went poorly, Estill said. Unaware how reluctant veterans would be to admit problems, students asked questions that were sometimes taken as overly blunt and prying, leading to some uncomfortable exchanges. Wong, a 24-year-old from Hawaii, plans to be a military intelligence officer after graduation....
Joseph Burleigh, a 22-year-old senior from Kingston, N.H., had planned to join the Air Force. But after interviewing veterans, as well as relatives of slain Vermont servicemen for a previous student documentary, he is abandoning his military dreams....
Finally, a smart kid who isn't contributing to the empire.
Under the glare of camera lights, Robbins recounted how he signed up for military when he was just 17, wanting to be a Marine because they were "the toughest and the strongest." He wanted to fight in Iraq, and felt guilty and bitter when he was sent to Japan. "We didn't join to not go," he said. "We wanted to suffer as well. If you joined for the right reasons, you want to be on the front lines."
Upon returning home, he recalled how he felt out of touch with his oldest friends. While they all swapped stories about college parties and weddings, all his were military. But he never considered his struggles severe enough to warrant counseling. "No one wants to feel like they are a problem," he said. "Or that they have a disease."
Aren't you glad we did this, America?
Aren't you glad you bought George W. Bush's bullshit?
Aren't you glad we are staying?
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And that is hardly the worst of it:
"Veterans open up in documentary; They talk of war, injuries, changes" by Emily Canal, Globe Correspondent | May 4, 2009
Four retired servicemen sat at separate tables at the University of Massachusetts at Boston last night. They shared a common denominator: All were injured in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Jamil Brown, 35, of Dorchester, a retired Marine staff sergeant, said he lost his right foot and suffered injuries to his arms and elbow in Iraq after his Humvee was hit by an improvised explosive device during a supply delivery.
"The Marines train you to adapt and overcome anything, but they don't prepare you for that," Brown said. "You thought you would get killed or nothing would happen to you. I didn't expect to come home missing a body part."
Brown and the other young veterans were on hand last night for the advanced and private screening of the NECN documentary about their shared experiences.
"Aftermath" tells the stories of Brown, Jeff Zaleski, 24, of West Springfield, Peter Damon, 36, of Middleborough, and James Crosby, 24, of Winthrop, and how they coped with their injuries when they return home. Interviews began last summer and they depict the men at work, with their families and with their changed bodies....
Yeah, did I mention how grateful I was that you enabled those same lies, MSM?!!
I view you as just as big a war criminal as Bush, MSM!
In fact, you are worse. He's gone and you are still lying and covering up.
Senator John F. Kerry, who attended the event, said before last night's presentation that the subjects made "enormous" sacrifices. "Everyone now gets to know about the lives of these folks coming home."
Related: How Do You Ask a Man to Be the Last to Die For a Lie, Senator?
Kerry Turns Deaf Ear Toward Veterans
Damon said his injuries were a little different than the other servicemen featured. He worked as a mechanic for the Massachusetts National Guard and lost both arms in October 2003 while inflating the tire of a Blackhawk helicopter in Balad, Iraq. The wheel assembly exploded, injuring Damon and killing his partner, Paul Bueche of the Alabama Army National Guard.
"I hope this raises awareness and inspires someone to give someone else a hand who sacrificed for the freedoms we enjoy today," Damon said....
Oh, that's what you think this thing was all about, huh?
Brown said the hardest part was coming back and dealing with difficulties at home, such as going up and down stairs and adjusting to how people looked at him.
"I kept thinking, 'Why was it me?' " Brown said, adding that he hopes the film helps people understand the individuals who went overseas and came back with difficulties.Because of Bush and the MSM and their lies that put you there?
"Unless you've been through it, it's hard to understand," he said.
Imagine if you are an Iraqi, readers!
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