LATHAM - When Capt. Brian Rockwell returned from Iraq last fall, like most soldiers he just wanted to be home. Four months later, though, he was starting to think he might like another mission.
“It wears on you when you're over there,” Rockwell said. But there's another set of stresses back here. “It's an adjustment.”
Unlike the regular Army, whose soldiers usually return from combat zones to the steady rhythms of military bases after a couple weeks' leave, National Guard troops have been leaving their comrades at the airport and go straight back into civilian life.
Now, with almost half its troop strength having gone to Iraq, the New York Army National Guard is changing the way they come back. Instead of cutting them loose for the first 90 days, Guardsmen will be required - and families invited - to attend weekend retreats at upscale hotels after 30 days and 60 days.
The full program starts with the 104th Military Police Battalion in mid-April. New York needed the recent change in Defense Department policy to do it, following Minnesota's lead. Now 14 states are doing it. But officers said Maj. Gen. Joseph Taluto, now adjutant general for New York following his own Iraq tour, and his wife, Susan, provided a push to get the program running here.
At a congressional hearing this month, several people testified about the sometimes unresponsive - but improving - mental health system for military personnel with problems from prolonged warfare and lengthy deployments. The increase in military suicides has dramatized the issue. The Army said recently that as many as 121 soldiers committed suicide last year, more than double the number reported in 2001.
In New York, part-time soldiers will be put back in touch with people who shared and understand their experience, at about the time the “honeymoon phase” of their homecoming starts fading. Second, with attentive spouses along, they hear about benefits and programs that were outlined at frequently ignored briefings just before demobilization.
At two months, there are briefings on anger management, substance abuse, gambling, financial management and other topics, “some of things that seem to be statistically manifesting within that 60-day range. Some soldiers have trouble connecting,” said Lt. Col. Pat Center who, with Col. Curtis Williamson, organized the program.
“Some of the best reintegration happens in the bar, in the lobby,” said Eric Durr, spokesman for the state Division of Military and Naval Affairs.
The New York Army National Guard has a force of almost 9,900. So far 4,715 soldiers have gone to Iraq, said Durr, who spent a year in Tikrit. Now 1,700 soldiers are mobilized for Afghanistan and 250 are already there. About 600 of them, all volunteers, are heading to a combat zone for the second time.
So far 23 have been killed in Iraq and 125 have received Purple Hearts for combat wounds and injuries, Durr said. Two members have committed suicide: One in Iraq and one back home in upstate New York.
Maj. Michael Murphy, after a six-month deployment to Iraq two years ago, said at first he didn't ever want to go back but now he can't wait. He and Rockwell described it as high-intensity, where decisions are important, sometimes life-and-death, and they were helping people in a time of great need.
“That's not really a comment on like any of the political issues that surround it,” Murphy said. “At our level you're just going over there and accomplishing things you can see.”
Rockwell was an officer for the 466th Medical Company based at Nasiriyah that operated four medical stations that treated and stabilized military and sometimes civilian casualties. Murphy, an operations officer with the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry, was responsible for the barrier plan to reduce bombing and casualties along “Route Irish,” the deadly road to the Baghdad airport.
The New York Army National Guard's attrition rate was 21 percent in fiscal 2007 and it's about 400 people short of its authorized strength.
“You get back and you have to deal with a lot of things like shopping, laundry, cooking, all the little things you never have to even deal with when you're over there,” said Rockwell, 35, who's single. “All that's taken care of. All you have to worry about is your mission and your soldiers, really.”
“You get home and you kind of adjust a little bit to your life here,” said Rockwell, of Schenectady, a full-time state employee of the DMNA. “But you always think about how things were over in Iraq, and maybe I'd like to do another mission. A lot of people think that way.”
He said it may even be more difficult for families at home, especially single mothers running families. Both he and Murphy, 38, a full-time federal employee of the Guard, noted another frustration.
“It's very hard to work in a bureaucracy of any kind where your job is essentially to move paper from one pile to another,” said Murphy, a Schodack resident, who is married and has two children. “Which is what most of us do.”
Returning soldiers also tend to drive aggressively and make abrupt decisions.
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On the Net:
National Guard: http://www.dmna.state.ny.us/arng/nyarng.php
AP-ES-03-28-08 1303EDT
Guardsmen Return
The New York National Guard will now require soldiers returning from combat zones to attend programs at 30, 60 and 90 days after demobilization to help their readjustment, with families invited to the first two. Here's how the program is organized:
30 days: Talks and information on family dynamics, benefit programs, legal services, health insurance, education, veterans groups and jobs.
60 days: Briefings on anger management, substance abuse, gambling, financial management, law enforcement, availability of counseling.
90 days: Health assessments before returning to regular drill and training schedules, with other activities likely for at least a year after mobilization, and ongoing transition assistance within the Guard's families program.
Unlike the regular Army, whose soldiers usually return from combat zones to the steady rhythms of military bases after a couple weeks' leave, National Guard troops have been leaving their comrades at the airport and go straight back into civilian life.
Now, with almost half its troop strength having gone to Iraq, the New York Army National Guard is changing the way they come back. Instead of cutting them loose for the first 90 days, Guardsmen will be required - and families invited - to attend weekend retreats at upscale hotels after 30 days and 60 days.
The full program starts with the 104th Military Police Battalion in mid-April. New York needed the recent change in Defense Department policy to do it, following Minnesota's lead. Now 14 states are doing it. But officers said Maj. Gen. Joseph Taluto, now adjutant general for New York following his own Iraq tour, and his wife, Susan, provided a push to get the program running here.
At a congressional hearing this month, several people testified about the sometimes unresponsive - but improving - mental health system for military personnel with problems from prolonged warfare and lengthy deployments. The increase in military suicides has dramatized the issue. The Army said recently that as many as 121 soldiers committed suicide last year, more than double the number reported in 2001.
In New York, part-time soldiers will be put back in touch with people who shared and understand their experience, at about the time the “honeymoon phase” of their homecoming starts fading. Second, with attentive spouses along, they hear about benefits and programs that were outlined at frequently ignored briefings just before demobilization.
At two months, there are briefings on anger management, substance abuse, gambling, financial management and other topics, “some of things that seem to be statistically manifesting within that 60-day range. Some soldiers have trouble connecting,” said Lt. Col. Pat Center who, with Col. Curtis Williamson, organized the program.
“Some of the best reintegration happens in the bar, in the lobby,” said Eric Durr, spokesman for the state Division of Military and Naval Affairs.
The New York Army National Guard has a force of almost 9,900. So far 4,715 soldiers have gone to Iraq, said Durr, who spent a year in Tikrit. Now 1,700 soldiers are mobilized for Afghanistan and 250 are already there. About 600 of them, all volunteers, are heading to a combat zone for the second time.
So far 23 have been killed in Iraq and 125 have received Purple Hearts for combat wounds and injuries, Durr said. Two members have committed suicide: One in Iraq and one back home in upstate New York.
Maj. Michael Murphy, after a six-month deployment to Iraq two years ago, said at first he didn't ever want to go back but now he can't wait. He and Rockwell described it as high-intensity, where decisions are important, sometimes life-and-death, and they were helping people in a time of great need.
“That's not really a comment on like any of the political issues that surround it,” Murphy said. “At our level you're just going over there and accomplishing things you can see.”
Rockwell was an officer for the 466th Medical Company based at Nasiriyah that operated four medical stations that treated and stabilized military and sometimes civilian casualties. Murphy, an operations officer with the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry, was responsible for the barrier plan to reduce bombing and casualties along “Route Irish,” the deadly road to the Baghdad airport.
The New York Army National Guard's attrition rate was 21 percent in fiscal 2007 and it's about 400 people short of its authorized strength.
“You get back and you have to deal with a lot of things like shopping, laundry, cooking, all the little things you never have to even deal with when you're over there,” said Rockwell, 35, who's single. “All that's taken care of. All you have to worry about is your mission and your soldiers, really.”
“You get home and you kind of adjust a little bit to your life here,” said Rockwell, of Schenectady, a full-time state employee of the DMNA. “But you always think about how things were over in Iraq, and maybe I'd like to do another mission. A lot of people think that way.”
He said it may even be more difficult for families at home, especially single mothers running families. Both he and Murphy, 38, a full-time federal employee of the Guard, noted another frustration.
“It's very hard to work in a bureaucracy of any kind where your job is essentially to move paper from one pile to another,” said Murphy, a Schodack resident, who is married and has two children. “Which is what most of us do.”
Returning soldiers also tend to drive aggressively and make abrupt decisions.
---
On the Net:
National Guard: http://www.dmna.state.ny.us/arng/nyarng.php
AP-ES-03-28-08 1303EDT
Guardsmen Return
The New York National Guard will now require soldiers returning from combat zones to attend programs at 30, 60 and 90 days after demobilization to help their readjustment, with families invited to the first two. Here's how the program is organized:
30 days: Talks and information on family dynamics, benefit programs, legal services, health insurance, education, veterans groups and jobs.
60 days: Briefings on anger management, substance abuse, gambling, financial management, law enforcement, availability of counseling.
90 days: Health assessments before returning to regular drill and training schedules, with other activities likely for at least a year after mobilization, and ongoing transition assistance within the Guard's families program.
