Welcome Home Vets

They come from varied backgrounds and have different academic interests, but McMicken is welcoming them all back with enthusiasm and support. Veterans returning from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Gulf Coast relief duty have learned that putting personal lives on hold can be rewarding but not easy.

For that reason, says assistant dean Barbara Schooley, the university formulated a system “to assure any of our students called to active duty a seamless departure and re-entry.” Schooley knows of 13 who have returned from military leave and another 12 who are still on active duty. But she explains that there are no sound estimates of the number who have been activated because some had to report within a matter of hours and others were called to duty during summer or term breaks and did not register for classes or went on-line and dropped them without providing explanations.

In any case, only a faxed or mailed copy of a student’s orders is necessary for withdrawal and a complete refund, and veterans are not required to go through a formal readmission process. Schooley notes that “by their very nature and training, these are very self-sufficient and organized individuals, and our entire focus is to assure that none of them will suffer from any monetary or academic issue due to a call to duty for their country.”

Biology major Wayne Adkins knows how unpredictable military life can be. Not long after he returned from 14 months in Iraq, he was deployed in support of hurricane Katrina relief efforts. The single father of two returned the day before fall classes started but says it was a “privilege” to handle the media embed program for his division task force in Iraq, where he met people like Peter Jennings, Geraldo Rivera, Christianne Amanpour, and Jane Arraf.

He describes his experiences with the military as “bittersweet.” “On the one hand, I’ve seen so much and had an opportunity to make a very real difference in other people’s lives. On the other hand, the experience came at the cost of time lost with my family and friends and serious delays in academic progress.”

Junior communication major Brett Taylor, who spent a year in Tikrit as a member of the 216th Engineer Battalion, stresses the positive and makes an observation all of his fellow vets can identify with: “I’d have to say that I don’t get stressed out as much anymore because I know things can be a lot worse, and it has been a pleasant surprise returning to UC and seeing most of the construction complete.”