Coming back home can be hard for veterans

McALLEN — U.S. Army Cpl. Paul Cuellar came back home in June after two tours in Iraq.

“It was a culture shock,” he said. “In the Army, everything is on a time schedule. Once I got out, I had freedom to do what I want and when I want.”

He spent a little time doing what he wanted, but by July, the 23-year-old had enrolled at South Texas College.

“Coming out of the military, you still want that camaraderie,” he said.

He found that camaraderie in the college’s Veterans Association, a club of about 100 members, which he says really helped as he transitioned from soldier to student.

It’s a transition that some veterans stumble through.

“The armed services are very good at training them for the battle mind,” said Lise Blankenship, director of the University of Texas-Pan American’s Counseling and Psychological Services. “It’s more difficult to untrain them.”

In addition, some veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury, which make that transition even more difficult.

“Most people reintegrate pretty well,” said Felix Vasquez, team leader at the McAllen Veterans Center, which has helped thousands of veterans adjust to being back in society since it opened in 1982.

The college and university also are doing more work to help veterans resume normal lives as service members take advantage of the GI Bill, which pays tuition and many college fees. The benefits — and the number of participants — expanded with the post-9/11 GI Bill, which also offers some housing assistance.

“We try to reintegrate them into the community,” said Javier Arredondo, STC’s coordinator for veterans affairs.

Arredondo’s office and its counterpart at UTPA try to be one-stop shops for veterans, helping them with everything from enrollment, financial aid and GI bill paperwork to offering counseling services or helping them find those services.

In August, UTPA started a Veterans Service Center to try to help more service members get into college and stay in college — something veterans gave the university low marks for, Blankenship said.

“We want to be the place where vets come if they have problems,” said Blankenship, who is overseeing the center until a manager can be named in the coming weeks.

STC’s Veterans Affairs Office has two computers available for veterans to use to do their work, Arredondo said.

UTPA is trying to get a couple of computers for its center as well, Blankenship said.

The Edinburg university hopes to have its center fully operational by Aug. 1, two months before the 500 members of the Texas Army National Guard unit in Weslaco are scheduled to return home from a tour of duty in Iraq.

STC has also started partnering with the McAllen Veterans Center to work more closely with counselors there, Arredondo said.

And while institutions of higher learning begin helping veterans cope with life after war, the work actually begins before they’re ever deployed, said Vasquez, the McAllen Veterans Center team leader.

“We meet with them before they leave, then talk to them again when they get back,” he said. Staff at his center, which offers services to veterans from all four Rio Grande Valley counties and beyond, also talk with families to help them help their loved ones get back into the community, he said.

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Dave Gragg is the metro editor for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4435.

RESOURCES FOR VETERANS

• South Texas College’s Veterans Affairs Office: (956) 872-6723, Pecan Campus Student Activities Center, Room 235

• University of Texas-Pan American Veterans Service Center: (956) 381-2574, University Center building, second floor

• McAllen Veterans Center: (956) 631-2147, 801 W. Nolana, Suite 140