California nursing students talk to veterans about coming home after war

Chico State nursing students talk to veterans about coming home after war
By HEATHER HACKING
Staff Writer POSTED: 10/25/2013

CHICO — Stories of war are timeless, said John Crosby, a veteran and instructor at Chico State University. Young people go to exotic places and meet exotic people, and some of those people try to kill them.

"And then they have to come back and try to be a part of their family."

Most people have watched films about homecoming or have known someone who struggles after returning. The people who love these veterans have a tough road as well, members of a panel said at Chico State Wednesday.

The program was organized by nursing students at the campus, as part of the Book In Common, which this year centers on the experience of a fictional veteran from the war in Iraq. The book is "The Yellow Birds," www.csuchico.edu/bic.

The Department of Defense has dropped the D in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, because post traumatic stress is "a natural reaction to trauma," said Anne Demers, a researcher at San Jose State University and the mother of a son who has struggled after returning from war.

Dick Coughlin of Oroville spent 8 1/2 years in the military during Vietnam, and it took him 15 years to "reintegrate," he said.

He "ate a machine gun for breakfast" in 1966 and spent several months in a Massachusetts hospital.

When he got sober 33 years ago, "eight of us instantly got well," Coughlin said, referring to family and others who were harmed.

Now Coughlin works with others who struggle with addiction, and said he is glad there are more veteran programs than when he left the military.

In his day, "We faked it. We lived with that stuff and we kept it in us."
read more here