A cold dead limb lay on the ground outside of the gates of the demolished 249th general hospital in Afghanistan. The limb belonged to an Afghani man who had been shot in the crook of his arm in the middle of a firefight. He bent down, picked up his arm, and began walking away from the hospital gates. Medical personnel then tackled the man and dragged him into the hospital for immediate treatment. They were not going to allow this man to bleed to death.
“I saw things that most people in the United States would not have survived,” Fred Williams said, senior Pre-Law student at WT and former Communication Sergeant for the 249th general hospital.
According to the president of WT’s Veterans Club and Air Force veteran Gary Bingman, there are roughly 400 veterans who roam the halls at WT. From California to Afghanistan and Taiwan, veterans from WT have experience military life all over the world. Now, they return home to insert themselves back into civilian life by going back to school.“It’s like freshmen year all over again,” Williams said. “You don’t really know anybody.”
The adjustment to life after the service can be a daunting transition for veterans and one that is not always easy to accomplish.
“It’s harder for me because in the military you’re told each regiment of your day,” Williams said. “So when you get out and you have all this freedom, you’re like ‘I don’t know what to do.’”
Even though a newfound freedom outside the military can seem overwhelming, some veterans choose to start job searching immediately.
“A year after the military, I was working at a shipping company and I wasn’t happy,” Williams said. “I was just throwing around boxes all day and I was like, ‘wait a minute? I have my G.I. bill. I have the focus now to go through college. I might as well go back to school.”
Mark Stapleton, a sophomore majoring in Computer Information Systems and veteran of the Marine Corps. and the Army National Guard, became a small business owner after his time in service. But the decision to run a small business was soon challenged by limited opportunities.
“I went out on the workforce for years and there were lots of opportunities presented,” Stapleton said. “But they had to pass on me because I didn’t have a college degree.”
The missed opportunities were a wakeup call, according to Stapleton.
“So I went home, looked at my wife and said ‘we’re shutting the business down and I’m going back to school.’”
Other veterans decided to dip their feet into both pools of possibilities including junior Byron Hoover, veteran of the United States Air Force.
