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thedrifter
03-01-09, 06:36 AM
Okla. Iraq veterans transition to life at home
By Mick Hinton - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Feb 28, 2009 17:02:47 EST

NORMAN, Okla. — Soldiers from Oklahoma’s 45th Infantry Brigade who returned from Iraq in October congregated by the hundreds Saturday to participate in the state’s first reintegration program for servicemen impacted by war.

Many heard a touching story from Cyndi Collins-Clark, who works as a counselor but said she found it impossible to discover what was happening to her son. Joe Collins of Edmond eventually was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, something that can inflict one in five servicemen in combat.

At age 19, Joe Collins had been in the Army Reserve nearly two years when he signed up for duty in Iraq and arrived in March 2003.

After 366 days — Collins-Clark has those days memorized — he returned looking healthy as ever, she said.

She described her son in a booklet the family has put together as “strong, muscular and walking with confidence as people stopped to shake his hand and thank him for his duty to our country.”

In November, Collins-Clark said, “I noticed he did not look well. He had always been on time for everything. His grandmother noticed at Thanksgiving that Joe was just staring off into space when everyone else was talking.”

Collins-Clark said did not know where to turn because it was nothing like she had encountered in her counseling.

Finally, she showed up at a veteran’s administration office and asked for help. She said it was difficult to figure out the system, which is why she is now sharing her story about how finally Collins received help. He is still undergoing intense therapy and is unable to work.

Collins said he is not eager to share stories about his combat encounters in Iraq, but mentioned Saturday that one haunting memory he has is when he witnessed a truck running over a small child.

The weekend program, known as Oklahoma Project Yellow Ribbon Reintegration, was set up to make personal, onsite communication with servicemen 90 days after their deployment back, because that is when symptoms, both mental and physical, can surface.

Myles Deering, Oklahoma’s new adjutant general who commanded the 45th Infantry in Iraq, said since last fall, there has been a tremendous effort by the military, the veterans administration and community groups to get these soldiers into the services they need.

On Saturday, the Veterans’ Administration had a representative with a computer connected to service records all over the country. Some records remain at bases where soldiers started their services, others are in Muskogee or St. Louis. But this new VA network can locate the records and get help started much sooner.

“Every soldier coming back is greeted with someone from a veteran’s organization,” Deering said.

Often it is men who served in Vietnam when people sometimes turned their backs on these soldiers when they came home, he said.

Several Vietnam-era veterans were on hand Saturday to support the returned troops.

Ellie