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I'm Steven.
United States Air Force, roughly 23 and 1/2 years.
My daughter and two sons, they're all in to some
capacity now, with the exception my youngest son.
He just separated from the military after six years.
As my career was ending, 9/11 came about.
They were all called to duty.
And I've noticed that since all three of them have
returned, my children as they left did not come back as the
same children that we saw them off each time.
And each time they deployed and each time they returned,
there was a little difference, a little bit more of a
resiliency to them.
A little bit more of a seriousness about their
attitude about life in general.
Dealing with the civilian sector and coming back, was
completely different.
What we were trying to do is when you come back, try to
make it normal.
But normal doesn't exist. Normal for that had been
peeled back.
Now we were having a new normal, trying to address, how
do we do this?
How do we allow you to blend back in and give you your time
and your space, and then allow you to speak
when you want to speak?
It's a challenge.
When you meet Shante, you find that she's a
very easy, very happy.
She's attracted to people.
She loves all people.
Very approachable.
I think she had a big challenge in knowing that the
realities of what was downrange in the desert, so to
speak, and then you come back here and it's individuals are
kind of lighthearted, about whether it be shopping or
doing lunch.
But I did notice that there were times when she was maybe
withdrawn, or maybe insecure about dealing--
not her own insecurity, but in perhaps what she may say and
people may take it wrong.
I think she lost a little bit of the innocence that her
friends still carried.
Suffering and pain is an equal opportunity employer.
War brings all that to full color.
To say it is one thing.
To pay lip service is another.
And then, but to see it bear itself out in the lives of
these young adults--
my children, or someone else's children, that's tough.
To be competitive, a good deal of the time these individuals
get out of the military and they're in society competing
and have nothing to show for it.
They've slayed a lot of dragons.
They have a lot of medals and a lot of awards, and yet at
some point in time on the bottom of a resume, nothing to
do with education.
Nothing to show how they invested in themselves to gain
their education.
My 23-plus years of experience told me that as many accolades
that I may have acquired, if I didn't have a bachelor's,
master's, or something to account for that, all the rest
of the awards didn't really matter to the civilian world.
Typically when you retire, you go to a
VA and have a briefing.
There's a lot of transition assistance that the military
tries to present to you.
A good deal of the time, I think military don't take
advantage of it.
You're busy transitioning out and it's just
one additional step.
I've actually utilized my 9/11 GI Bill as well, and I promote
any of the VA programs. When you go to Yellow Ribbon
events, or any of the other programs that they have out
here, you'll see that there are easily 20, 30 agencies, VA
representatives, Yellow Ribbon, One Source.
There's a myriad of programs out there to deal with
counseling, or self help, family.
The military is really moving forward and trying to position
these types of programs in place, knowing that
individuals are coming back.
I think one of the toughest things is to actually
acknowledge that you might just to talk to somebody.
And that just then begins the process for you.
And if it at the end of the day you realize that hey,
you're OK, you know it didn't hurt you at all.
But to not pursue it, to deny yourself that access to at
least be a sounding board, have someone be a sounding
board, diminishes your ability.
I think that everybody should pursue that type of program
that allows you to at least have a voice.