Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Leaving battle, returning to class
By Sharon Leff
The Towerlight (Towson U.)
11/26/2007

(U-WIRE) TOWSON, Md. — When graduating from high school, many seniors are ready to pack up their lives, move out of their houses, and start their college careers. But some take a different route, enlisting in the military.

Some current Towson students are just now returning from the war. By credits some are considered freshmen, but these veterans are a little older and they view their time at Towson a little differently.

Andrew Munn, a 24-year-old history education major, enlisted in the army after Sept. 11.

"I was still in high school when that happened. I was a senior. I just saw the first building go down and I knew I had to do something," Munn said.

He served two year-long deployments: one in Iraq and another in Afghanistan. The Army sergeant served five years of active duty and is still in the Army Reserves.

Patrick Hunt, a senior sociology major who was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan twice, enlisted in the army in 1999 when he was 19 years old. He said he doesn't hide that he fought, but he also doesn't make a point to mention it.

"It's not something I keep private, but it's not something I make known either. If it comes up in a conversation and if it pertains to a discussion, I might bring it up in a class. Otherwise no," Hunt said. "I'm in school to pretty much learn and get my degree. If any of the knowledge I have from the military is relevant to anything I'm learning than I use it."

Hunt said his day-to-day work overseas was always different. At times he would be going after bomb makers, terrorists, or insurgent leaders.

"You get a tip some informant or some detainee that had already been picked up has information, then the information gets processed and [it's] decided we're going to make a mission of this," he said.

Patrick Young, a sergeant in United States Marine Corps, who served two tours overseas, also makes little mention of his time overseas.

"I never really went out there and put it out on my chest. I try to blend in," Young said. "If they ask [about it], I have no problem. [But] I don't go out of my way to explain my experiences to them."

Young said everyday during his service was different. For the first five months he said there wasn't a lot going on. Then a battle in Fallujah broke out in 2004 and his unit was one of the main units involved.

Young said when he does tell people about his experiences he typically encounters respectful reactions.

"Regardless of how people feel about the situation, they respect the fact that I served willingly," he said.

While in Afghanistan Munn worked to counter IEDs. He said for about a year he went around trying to find bombs and disarm them. His platoon found 27 in a year.

He said he felt frustrated when he came back home and the media was criticizing the progress of the war.

"I understand that the war is terrible. Yes, we don't want to be over there as much as everyone here doesn't want us to be over there. But it's something we have to do and we need the full support of everyone over here to get through this," he said. "It's just heartbreaking to come home from all that you've done, and all that you see is people saying how bad we're doing over there. We're trying our best to keep civilian casualties down and keep our own casualties down. When you're dealing with people that use children and other civilians as shields, or blow themselves up in front of crowds, it's hard to combat that."

Greg Pedrick, a corporal in the Marine Corps who is originally from Catonsville, served for four years and went on two tours.

"I joined as soon as the war started up. My buddy was being sent over and I wanted to be part of it," he said. "I decided to join up. I was slacking off in school, so I figured I'd take the military route and see what I could with a military background when I finished up school. My ultimate goal was to work for the government."

Pedrick, who is 25 years old, said his view on college and education has changed since returning from war.

"Before, I'd be like 'Yeah I'll go class today or maybe I won't. Maybe I'll go out and get drunk.' [Now] I see it more as a job. I can't be fooling around anymore. I take it very seriously," he said.

He said his unit helped ground troops if they got into trouble and was also used to patrol areas that had suspected targets as well as keeping an eye out for IEDs. Pedrick took two rounds across the shoulder and one across the arm during Easter 2004. He said the injuries were bandaged up and he continued to fight for a couple of hours.

Munn said his reason for being at Towson is to graduate.

"I'm a lot more focused [and] driven. The fact is that if I had gone [to college] straight out of high school I would have had a rougher time because I would have tried to enjoy the college experience instead of keeping up with my work and studies. I'm only here for my degree and that's really it," Munn said.

For Young, enrolling in college comes with a different level of respect than if he's enrolled right out of high school.

"When you come back, your parents aren't paying for this. You've done your time, and you've done your part, and now you're being rewarded for it," he said. "A lot of my friends aren't able to do [that] because they aren't here. I respect it a lot more ... carrying on for the ones who can't."

Munn said he doesn't regret his service.

"I loved it so much. And as many tragedies and heartbreak that I had to experience while I was over there, I still feel that everything that I've done overseas was worthwhile and eventually all this will settle and people will see how well we accomplished our goals," Munn said.

Young said military experiences always stay with a veteran and his time overseas is something he always thinks about.

"When you're back, all you remember is the good stuff. You don't remember the bad stuff. You remember the boys, not all the shooting and the sun," he said.

When asked whether he'd enlist again, Young responded: "without a doubt."

APPLYING TO TOWSON AFTER WAR

Louise Shulack, director of admissions, said there is no way to know exactly how many veterans are enrolled at Towson.

"There are probably many veterans that are here that we've admitted on their own academic record as meeting freshman or transfer requirements," Shulack said.

When applying to Towson, veterans are coded as having served in the military if they apply for educational benefits or if they need to take diagnostic tests because they've been out of school for a certain amount of time. Sometimes when applying to Towson, veterans need to meet different requirements than a senior in high school would need to meet.

"We do have an admissions policy to review them under other credentials," Shulack said.

She said SAT scores are only valid for a certain period of time, so reading, writing and math tests may be required.

"These folks are older and more mature. [The admissions policy] forgives test scores or high school grades from their past," Lonnie McNew, senior associate vice president of enrollment management in academic affairs, said.

Marne Leuthold, associate registrar, said she knows of 230 veterans enrolled at Towson this year. Last year there were 278.

"My function is for the veterans. A lot of these guys are eligible for educational benefits, and I do the certifications for the benefits," she said.

Sometimes she certifies the benefits for military spouses or relatives. Sometimes the Army will pay for a veteran's tuition.

"Through the VA (Veterans Affairs), if they make a determination a veteran has been damaged to a certain [degree] medically, they can assign a veteran to VA vocation rehabilitation," she said.

If they do that then the government will pay a stipend in addition to the cost of tuition, books and fees, and parking.

Leuthold said she has noticed that the education of veterans has been more interrupted than it was in the past.

"People would get out of the service and they would come to school, and if they were going to leave school it was because of normal things," she said. "With these guys, a lot of them are coming back from Iraq or Afghanistan and going for a semester or so and then being called back. It's broken up more so than it ever has been in the past."

She said soldiers are also being called back mid-semester.

"It has to do with the fact that there aren't enough folks and they're cycling people back fairly rapidly," Leuthold said.

Shulack said Towson hosted a college fair on campus last year for students in the military.

"We've gone to some of the local institutions like Fort Meade and Aberdeen Proving Ground, but other than that we haven't done anything special at this point," she said.

SERVICES AND SUPPORT

Deb Moriarty, vice president of student affairs, said the University is looking into the kinds of programs veteran students may need when they return from service.

"We have just begun to have conversations about what programs, service, and support the students might need," Moriarty said. "Clearly a lot of these students are people who went over when they would have been going to college. They have had a significantly different experience [than] if they had entered college right away."

James Spivack, director of the counseling center, said the Center can counsel students returning from war.

"We don't have anything specific for veterans, but we have students that have post traumatic stress disorder and we certainly can council students who have that kind of PTSD and anxiety," Spivack said.

Tracy Miller, director of the National Student Exchange, is part of a county workgroup for returning veterans. Miller's son, Nicholas Ziolkowski a Marine corporal, died while fighting in Iraq in 2004.

She said she thinks there should be a coordinating office in charge of programming for veterans that would include student services, counseling and academic advising.

She said most veterans are at a different point in their life than incoming high school seniors. They don't tend to hang out on campus as much and are sometimes married or close to getting married.

"I think that definitely the University owes them something and it's not just financial. I think that these are people who in most cases sort of cut their lives off when they were 18 ... they put their lives on the line and came back after having experiences no human being should have to encounter. And they're freshmen, but they're not 18 anymore."

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