{"id":5079,"date":"2011-01-10T08:18:34","date_gmt":"2011-01-10T13:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raleighpublicrecord.org\/?p=5079"},"modified":"2011-01-12T11:29:30","modified_gmt":"2011-01-12T16:29:30","slug":"returning-to-raleigh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/news\/2011\/01\/10\/returning-to-raleigh\/","title":{"rendered":"Returning to Raleigh"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nPhoto courtesy Chris Creasy.<\/center><\/p>\n

Divorce, unemployment, substance abuse and suicide are the most common problems associated with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, the most common mental ailments of war.<\/p>\n

Even for those who don\u2019t come home with such injuries, the transition back into civilian life is rarely easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a little bit different,\u201d said former Army Captain Chris Creasy of Raleigh, with more than a little irony in his voice. Creasy graduated from NC State University in 2006 and in 2009 was Executive Officer of the 664 Ordinance Company tasked with ammunition distribution in Iraq.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to miss the Army,\u201d Creasy said. \u201cThe Army provided. It told you where to be. It told you when to be there. The Army told you everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\nCaptain Chris Creasy poses with some members of his unit. Photo courtesy Chris Creasy.<\/center><\/p>\n

The military tries to smooth the transition for vets by providing a host of services–counseling, help finding jobs, career classes, health care, and money to go to school. With the enormous increase in active duty suicides over the past decade, the military has even introduced mandatory screening for PTSD and brain injury, at the urging of groups such as Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.<\/p>\n

Still, as IAVA notes, follow-up appointments\u00a0 are not currently mandated for all service members who screen positive for possible combat stress injuries.<\/p>\n

\u201cI drank a little at first,\u201d said Chris Ruder, another NC State graduate and Army Captain, who is still active in the National Guard.<\/p>\n

Ruder, who has been deployed twice and served during the initial push to clear Baghdad of insurgents, said that his drinking calmed down after the first couple months back home but that some servicemen are never able to make a full transition back into civilian life.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the first time I came home I was still working at Bragg,\u201d said Ruder. \u201cThere were a lot of other guys in the same situation as me who I could talk to. That was helpful. Me and a couple buddies who were also platoon leaders did everything together.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to a 2010 Defense Department report (PDF)<\/a>, more than 1,100 active service men and women committed suicide between 2005 and 2009. Divorced service members had the second highest rate of suicide, just less than members with a GED, according to the report.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of guys overseas are experiencing troubles back home,\u201d said Creasy. As an officer in a foreign war, \u201cYou become a parental figure for a lot of these kids. Some of them aren\u2019t making enough money to support their families back home or they\u2019re going through a divorce and they\u2019re having a really hard time.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\nCaptain Chris Creasy, right, riding on a helicopter. Photo courtesy Chris Creasy.<\/center><\/p>\n

Ruder said, \u201cIt was much harder for me the second time. The first time I deployed\u00a0 it was just me and my wife and we\u2019d been married for ten years. The second time we\u2019d just had a daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main difference is that nobody is shooting at you anymore\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Transitioning back and forth between a combat environment, with its high levels of stress and reward, and a civilian environment is also very difficult, said Creasy.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a lot more responsibility and it can be very rewarding,\u201d he said of being in Iraq. \u201cYou know that if you don\u2019t play your part, somewhere down the line the operation will fail. Some people thrive because of that environment and some crack and crumble.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creasy knows a Marine who he said has been deployed three times and diagnosed with a brain injury. \u201cHe seems lost,\u201d said Creasy. \u201cHe\u2019s lost a lot of his friends back home and he\u2019s in the process of getting discharged. He can\u2019t flip the switch.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\nCaptain Chris Creasy in Iraq. Photo courtesy Chris Creasy.<\/center><\/p>\n

Being able to change that mindset when you\u2019re back home and when you\u2019re overseas is crucial, explained Creasy. \u201cA lot of it\u2019s maturity level. I didn\u2019t get deployed til I was 30 years old and a lot of people get sent over when they\u2019re 18. Sometimes they don\u2019t know how to cut the switch off.\u201d<\/p>\n

One difference is that \u201cover there you have more control,\u201d says Ruder. \u201cYou give an order and people follow it. But it doesn\u2019t work like that when you\u2019re back home with your wife and kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since coming home Ruder sometimes \u201cjust want[s] to be left alone,\u201d he said. \u201cLittle things can annoy you. You lose your temper. People around you want to know what happened over there and you don\u2019t want to talk about it or sometimes you want to talk about it, but you feel like they won\u2019t understand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruder thinks that five or ten years ago the military stigma against getting psychological treatment was much more of a reality. \u201cWith the things people have seen and done over there, people don\u2019t hold it against them anymore. If I thought somebody needed [treatment], I would tell them to go for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

One source of transitional assistance for service members and their families is the Yellow Ribbon Reintegration Program, which Ruder participated in. Much of the course revolves around explaining to veterans the various emotions that can be experienced upon returning home and, if necessary, the resources and doctors that are available to them, Ruder said. Still, it doesn\u2019t ensure that everyone will seek treatment.<\/p>\n

A 2009 article by Paul Rieckhoff, Executive Officer of the IAVA, noted, \u201cAlmost 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are suffering from mental health injuries like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and less than half are receiving the help they need.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was lucky,\u201d said Creasy. \u201cA recruitment company called O\u2019Ryan found me.\u201d O\u2019Ryan headhunts former military officers for civilian companies and offered Creasy a job heading up a distribution center, work similar to his former post in Iraq.<\/p>\n

Ruder is still looking for work. \u201cI play hockey,\u201d he said. \u201cI do some refereeing for hockey. I go to the gym. That\u2019s about all I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruder has requested to go back on active service. The reason, he said: \u201cI have eight and a half years active service. You only need 12 to retire.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if he would do it again, Creasy said, \u201cAbsolutely.\u201d He has no doubts about his growth from the experience. \u201cYou mature. Things that used to be important to me- going out, motorcycles, jet skis, trying to be cool, don\u2019t really matter anymore. Now it\u2019s my family and close friends that are important.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the ability to adapt socially can be linked to education, then perhaps so can veterans\u2019 ability to handle the transition of coming back home from war, where, Ruder explained, \u201cThe main difference is that nobody is shooting at you anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two local Army veterans who served in Iraq reflect on coming home to Raleigh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24024,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5079"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24024"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5079\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theraleighcommons.org\/raleighpublicrecord\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}