From combat to campus young Minnesota National Guardsmen

Photo by Mark Luinenburg
Ross Hedlund and other war veterans struggle to fit in.

U OF M ALUMNI ASSOCIATION'S MINNESOTA MAGAZINE


From combat to campus
By J. Trout Lowen

University of Minnesota student Steve Biorn spent a year in Iraq with the Minnesota National Guard, serving as a gunner on a Humvee patrolling "Route Irish," the notorious artery between the Green Zone and the airport in Baghdad, and patrolling the city's suburbs on foot. When he returned to Minnesota, Biorn wanted to talk about anything but Iraq.

After 18 months away from home, Biorn says, "I wanted to wear jeans and drive my car and grow my hair out and not shave forever.

University student Ross Hedlund served in Iraq nearly a year in 2004. When he returned home, he found that most people weren't that interested in where he'd been or what he done. "I don't think very many people care," he says.

Hedlund admits he also had a hard time talking about the work he did, directing counterfire from mortars, artillery, and aircraft and tracking the result. "I had a real hard time adjusting when I got back, I guess because I didn't talk about anything very much."

These days Biorn and Hedlund have been talking more about their experiences in Iraq and what it's like to come home. Both were interviewed as part of a new oral history project conducted by the U's Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs in cooperation with the Minnesota National Guard.

The oral history project is just one part of a larger effort called the Warrior to Citizen Campaign. Begun in May 2007, the campaign is a grassroots effort to help veterans reintegrate into their home communities and help those communities tap into the skills returning veterans acquired during their military service.

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