Former Marine adjusts to college life

Every time Valencia College has a speaker come out to talk about students going to college after combat, there are professors asking how they can help them. It is easy to hear the concern in their voices. These professors understand their students need help but most of the time they have no clue how to help.

If the DOD and the VA really want to help veterans move onto the next part of their lives, they need to go out to the colleges and hold some kind of information sessions for professors so they will know how to help instead of left wondering.

I did this project for Motion Class with a friend that was in the Gulf War. We talked about how the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are getting more attention than they did but we also talked about how much more needs to be done.

Here's a story of a Marine going college after combat. If you think college is rough, maybe you can understand how hard it is on them after they have been sent into combat.

Former Marine adjusts to college life
By Elif Yekani

Published: Monday, November 7, 2011

Joshua Forrester, a Point Park University student, learned the value of life when he watched two Marine friends die right before his eyes in Iraq.

"Life changes quickly, so don't waste your time" Forrester, a senior double majoring in accounting and sport, arts, and entertainment management said in the University Center on Oct. 10.

He has lived by that mantra since then, even in the face of the worst things life can offer.

An underground bomb flipped a Hummer a short distance away from the vehicle of Forrester and companies and it caught on fire. Forrester helplessly watched Capt. John W. Maloney burn to death from the blast. The captain's gunner, Lance Cpl. Erick R. Heldt, died after being thrown from the vehicle.

"Horrible, really horrible because Maloney was a really good guy and I think the smartest person that was in our unit. He was our company commander… and one of our good friends also died that day," Forrester said.

Forrester grew up in South Bend, Ind. and attended James Whitcomb Riley High School, where his competitive and ambitious edge began to peak. Being 6-foot-2-inches and 195 pounds, he dominated his high school's football team as the quarterback and linebacker, but also made good grades and was the whole student body president his freshman year. In June 2002, Forrester graduated from high school and was ready to embark on the next chapter of his life.

Forrester worked as a welder for a few years after graduation, but knew his only chance for college was through the military. Forrester joined the Marine Corps at the age of 21 and became Lance Cpl. After attending boot camp in San Diego, he was stationed in Camp Pendleton, Calif. before he was sent to Iraq.

The Marine Corps deploys infantry units into combat on seven month cycles, and Forrester's battalion was in Iraq from March to October in 2005 looking for weapons of mass destruction. His company, which was called the Charlie Company, took over an apartment complex in the middle of the city of Ar Ramadi. They built a wall and fence around an area the size of a football field, which became their home in Iraq.

Forrester's job in Iraq as a gunner included standing on top of a Hummer and shooting an Mk 19, a fully automatic grenade launcher that was mounted on top of the vehicle.
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