Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Radford U. student soldiers making transition from battlefield to classroom
By Ashlee Cossaboon
The Tartan (Radford U.)
12/21/2006

(U-WIRE) RADFORD, Va. — For most Radford University students, the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is far removed from the daily routine of class, clubs and time with friends. However, for a select few, the transition from mortar shells to final exams and projects is essential to academic success.

"I had to make a transition from being over there, running around and getting shot at, stuff like that, and then coming back here and not having to worry about protecting myself all the time," said RU senior and Army National Guardsman Ben Shumate, who left for Afghanistan in July 2004 and returned 10 days before fall classes began in 2005.

RU sophomore Yanil Escobar, who was a member of the Multi-National Security Transition Command in Baghdad, said, "Coming back was a big culture shock. You realize that life doesn't stop just because you leave."

Escobar, a member of the Army Reserves, was deactivated Aug. 4. He said that he has been struggling to get back into his classes after being involved in training Iraqi military and police officers. Escobar was also among soldiers who provided security for the first free election after the invasion of Iraq and was stationed in Tajy in the Sunni Triangle area.

"It's just really hard to go from being over there and then to come back here and sit in a religion class," Escobar said. "I do have some post traumatic symptoms. I've been trying to start a veteran support group on campus for students who have gone there and come back."

"I had no structure when I got back to the States. There are no bills there in Iraq and food and Gatorade are free," said former RU studentand Army Reservist Joe Schroepfer, who spent eight months in Balad, Iraq. "You're going from a ridiculously structured life back to helter skelter, and just trying to put your life back together."

As soldiers talked about life back home and college at Army training, Escobar realized that one of his fellow Army reservists, Ryan Cameron, was also a fellow RU student. Cameron, a RU senior and criminal justice major, ran convoys in the Baghdad international zone, near the presidential palace. Cameron drove convoys to Escobar's and others' units, a particularly dangerous job.

"Ryan is my hero, cause I know what they were doing," Escobar said.

"I got used to driving down the road and not knowing what would happen," Cameron said. "I think the hardest part was the fact of not knowing."

Cameron said that he was driving down Interstate 81 and when his passenger yelled something out the window he jumped and grabbed the wheel.

Cameron lost a friend in Iraq when coming back from a particularly dangerous area.

"In training, you get first aid, but it was different to be there," Cameron said. "I was one of the people who dragged out his body."

Although he said his transition back to civilian life was not particularly easy, he feels he has grown because of his experience as a soldier.

"I mean, you have a lot of counseling sessions before you come back, but I still had a lot of problems transitioning back to college," Cameron said. "I had read one book in a year, and it was hard to get back into the swing of studying. I do feel like I'm a lot more mature in school now, though."

Based in Baghdad a year before Escobar and Cameron, RU sophomore Richard Agosta had similar problems adjusting.

"The pace of life is just so different when you come back. There for a while I was thinking about volunteering to go back," Agosta said, receiving nods from Cameron and Escobar.

"I think I actually gained more structure and it made classes a little bit better," Schroepfer said.

Agosta, Cameron and Escobar also said that they had problems with the tuition assistance program when trying to re-enroll in classes at RU.

"RU needs specialists to understand Army financial assistance and who know veterans' affairs," Cameron said. "It would really help a lot of soldiers. The whole time you're gone, you have that in the back of your mind — coming back to school, and if they tell you that you can't, you just want to cry."

"When I first came back, they told me they didn't have any more money and that they ran out," Agosta said.

RU junior and Army Reserves soldier Katie Gill, who spent December 2004-'05 in Balad, Iraq, also said that she felt the process of withdrawal was detrimental to military students.

"When I left, I had to withdraw for military leave of absence, and coming back I had the last pick of classes, even below the freshmen," Gill said.

The veterans agreed that it made a difference in mental preparation for war whether they had signed up before of after the attacks of Sept. 11.

Justin Dillon, an RU senior who plans to graduate Dec. 16, spent 10 months of his four years of active duty in the Marine Corps in Kuwait and Iraq and was involved in the initial invasion of Iraq. While in Iraq working field artillery, he was largely isolated from the reaction to the war back in the U.S.

"I was just blown away by what I saw in the media when I got back," Dillon said. "For the most part, in the photos I have the people are happy. When we would liberate a town the people would be crying and hugging us. The kids would want to play with us."

All of the student soldiers agreed that the media does not show enough of the positive impact U.S. military presence has had in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Students don't hear about a lot of the good that soldiers actually do. They hear about prison scandals in Iraq, but they don't hear about how we set up schools and hospitals," Shumate said. "I don't think the students at RU have any idea what's going on over there. They seem too wrapped up in going to BT's."

One way that the students suggested of learning more was to get in touch with soldiers currently deployed in war zones.

"I really would like to see an Adopt-a-Soldier program at RU as a way to open communication and maybe send gifts," Escobar said. "My unit received so many care packages it was overwhelming. I still have a picture that a little boy drew me."

"Especially around the holidays, even not a care package, but just a nice note makes a difference," Cameron said.

"It was hard facing death every day and being away from family and everything," Gill said. "I would just really like for students to pray for people that are still over there and remember them over the holidays."

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