Veterans regroup after life interrupted

Veterans regroup after life interrupted
By Bill Torpy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Manse Towery, 33, a veteran of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars who received purple hearts after being wounded in both conflicts, holding his "campaign cover" reflecting on his service in the office of his Woodstock home.

It’s better than it used be, but Woodstock resident Manse Towery, a twice-wounded Marine, still gets angry and sometimes finds it hard to suffer civilians and what he considers their insipid griping.

Sean Newman holds an interesting hospital job in Augusta. But he has yet to find anything in civilian life that affords him the same rush he felt when his combat hospital was suddenly inundated with wounded.

And Decatur native Rafael Bryan, despite a college degree, experience as a legal specialist and a strong sense of duty instilled by the Marine Corps, is struggling to find a job.

The three Georgia men are among America’s newest war vets, part of the 2.3 million servicemen and women who have served in the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. With the rest of the country watching, but not really paying attention, they have become their own generation, 10 years at war, among the longest periods of conflict that the nation has ever gone through.
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