Toledo Vet Center addresses increase in stress disorders

“As human beings, we’re not born to experience the things that we experience in war. When you experience it, it changes you,” he said. “My main focus since I’ve returned home is to help other individuals like myself to ensure they’re getting the things they need, from someone who understands what they’re going through.”

Article published Sunday, August 17, 2008
Toledo Vet Center addresses increase in stress disorders
Army major selected to oversee area’s 1st VA counseling facility



By GABE NELSON
BLADE STAFF WRITER

When Maj. Dorian LeBeau returned from active duty four years ago, he was angry — angry about the horrors he saw in Iraq and Afghanistan, angry that his friends and family wanted to talk about them, and, above all, angry at himself for having changed.

Major LeBeau, a soft-spoken New Orleans native, came home in early 2004 after more than two years in the Middle East. As a commissioned Army mortuary affairs officer based at Camp Doha, Kuwait, Major LeBeau was deployed into the combat zones of Iraq and Afghanistan to recover remains, sometimes the bodies of U.S. soldiers killed in combat.

He struggled to readjust to life in New Orleans, where helicopters weren’t carrying dead bodies back to base and a siren didn’t signify an incoming missile. He didn’t like the same things he had liked before going to war. At first, he preferred to be alone.

Major LeBeau said his difficulties readjusting to civilian life drove him to become a social worker for the Department of Veterans Affairs, so he could help soldiers hurting the way he once did.
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