Freedom for veterans
By Andrew Cannarsa
The nightmares haven't gone away, says Angel Fernandez.
Fernandez, 37, is a U.S. Navy veteran who served four tours of active duty, dating back to Operation Desert Storm. His final tour lasted a year in northern Iraq, ending in December 2005.
While the fighting has ended for Fernandez, the sudden mood swings, the ongoing depression and the recurring nightmares haven’t.
“It’s just a deep mental scar from what you saw over there,” Fernandez said by telephone from his Connecticut home on Wednesday.
After they retire from active duty, Fernandez and thousands of other war veterans continue their fight against an entirely different enemy: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
PTSD affects the many men and women who have experienced firsthand the trauma of fighting in wars, risking their lives while sometimes, sadly, watching their comrades and others fall during battle.
But a new program, developed by military veterans and therapists, has been designed to help veterans like Fernandez cope with PTSD. The program, “Return to Honor: Recognition, Reunion, Reintegration,” aims to help veterans appreciate their service and transition from life on the front line to life back home.
The program was devel
oped about a year and a half ago and held its first three-day workshop at the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge last fall. Two other workshops have been scheduled to happen later this month and in April.
Nancy McGrory, the program’s director and course coordinator, said there is a clear need for counseling for veterans coping with PTSD.
“Since Vietnam, there have been a lot of problems with post-traumatic stress disorder,” McGrory said at the Freedoms Foundation on Wednesday. “With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we’re seeing the same thing.”
There are several symptoms of PTSD, McGrory said, including re-experiencing the trauma through flashbacks or dreams, feeling depressed, moody, overwhelmed or guilty, isolating oneself and feeling a sense of doom about the future.
McGrory said Rich Barham, an 18-year military veteran and an expert on PTSD, along with Turpin Mott, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, realized that a program needed to be developed from the veterans’ perspective that addressed the veterans’ needs.
“These men and woman are returning home during a difficult political climate, a lot more Guards and Reserves are being used, and the tours are longer and longer,” McGrory said. “There was just a need, and we felt we could be a supplement to what was offered.”
Martin Richardson, another program curriculum designer and facilitator, is a registered counselor who understands the mental effects of violent trauma. He said Return to Honor helps veterans decompress and relieve the stresses of ongoing battle.
“Combat stress comes in many forms,” Richardson said. “The trauma can really get trapped in your body.”
McGrory added that certain sights and smells can trigger PTSD, reminding the veterans of what they left behind when their tours ended.
“Just being there heightens their stress level, and there’s a constant stress on their senses,” McGrory said. “Think about it as if you were at a rock concert for five straight months.
“What we say here is that post-traumatic stress disorder is a natural reaction to an unnatural situation,” she added.
The program was designed to ease those stresses and help veterans return to as normal a lifestyle as possible. The program allows the veterans to talk about what they experienced, to sift through their wide range of emotions and to look toward the future.
“We give them an opportunity to honor and remember the people they have lost during combat,” Richardson said. “We give them time to grieve.”
The workshop also recognizes the veterans for their achievements, instilling in the veterans a sense of pride for their service while getting past the guilt veterans might feel for leaving their comrades.
Finally, the program works to educate the families of the veterans so they know what to expect from the veterans and how they can help them adjust to their new lives. Other veterans are brought in to mentor the men and women in the program.
“It’s veterans helping veterans,” Richardson said.
Fernandez was one of the six veterans who participated in the program’s first workshop last fall. Since the workshop, Fernandez said he’s felt much better about himself, depending less and less on anti-depressants.
“If veterans want to go to a place where they don’t have to worry about feeling guilty, this is the place,” he said. “I learned that I need to leave that part of my past behind and move forward.”
Fernandez, who is married with three sons, is moving forward. He’s retired from active duty and preparing for a job in police consulting.
“My wife’s been very supportive from the beginning,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing that helps — having support from a family that cares.”
Fernandez says he’s taking it a day at time, and hopefully, the mood swings, the depression and the nightmares will be gone for good.
“This program helps you with coping skills and how to deal with being back,” the veteran said. “It makes you realize you’re pretty lucky to have made it back home.”
McGrory said the program continues to grow and develop as veterans like Fernandez find success.
“I think this whole aspect of reintegration is going to be with us for some time. This is a big issue,” McGrory said.
“They get training, intense training, on the way to war,” she added. “We believe they should also get training on the way out.”