When most people think of soldiers, former Navy corpsman Maggie Kwok said their minds usually turn to images of “killing, killing, killing.”
But as the final string of combat troops come home from Iraq this week, Kwok — a Penn State senior who now serves as President of the Penn State Veterans Organization (PSUVO) — said it’s important for citizens to avoid projecting “combat-oriented” stereotypes on veterans who are transitioning back to civilian life.
About 70 to 80 percent of PSUVO’s current members have been to Iraq or Afghanistan, Kwok said, and she anticipates that the latest withdrawal of troops will increase the number of student veterans on campus even more.
Since fall 2001, Penn State students have accounted for 878 military deployments — according to the Office of the Registrar, 37 occurred in 2010 alone.
Those figures include students who have been called to military service multiple times, which might distort the number of individuals who have been deployed, said Kaye Keith, administrative support coordinator with the Office of the Registrar.
College Democrats President Rob Ghormoz and College Republicans Vice Chairman Anthony Christina praised the government’s decision to withdraw combat troops, saying it marks an important point where the Iraqi citizens can attempt to achieve stability without U.S. assistance for the first time since the war began in 2003.
John Hench, an Iraq War veteran, Class of 2010, said he hopes President Obama’s decision to withdraw troops was made for the right reasons, and not to avoid tarnishing his political image.
Still, Hench said there’s been much improvement made throughout the United States’ occupation of the country.
By the time he finished his tour in Iraq, which lasted from 2004 to 2006, Hench saw a “huge difference” between the country he first laid eyes on and the country he left.
Part of Hench’s responsibilities included providing Iraqi citizens with basic utilities, like water and electricity — no easy feat for a country with such a limited infrastructure.
“Consider when America became a country how long it took to become organized,” he said. “In Iraq, we did it in a couple of years.”
When veterans return to civilian life, Kwok said it’s important for the public to keep an open mind and refrain from pre-judging the soldiers who served overseas.
The process of adjusting to life on campus varies from student to student, Kwok said — some are able to assimilate effortlessly, while others find it difficult to relate to their often-younger peers or face more serious issues like posttraumatic stress disorder.
When Kevin Geisel came to Penn State in 2008 after serving two tours in Iraq, he said he was more mature and responsible as a result of his service.
But Geisel said the military experience and age difference he held over many of his peers made it difficult to connect with a majority of the students on campus.
“All of my friends I went to high school with have ‘real person jobs,’ nine to five,” Geisel said. “It’s more difficult to connect with the average college student. They can’t always relate to what I’ve been through.”
Hench said he also experienced a similar disconnect when he came to Penn State after his tour in Iraq.
“You go from building a nation and relying on the guy beside you to college,” Hench said. “Being able to find a veterans’ group on campus and link up with other vets was a major benefit and probably kept me from going nuts.”
Part of these misconceptions stem from depictions of Iraq in the media, Hench said, which often neglect to report the less violent aspects of the war — such as building homes and schools for Iraqi citizens, working with local officials or establishing infrastructure.
“The media is looking for something blowing up and they want to put another number up that some guy died,” Hench said. read it on paper, and it’s only a very, very small part of it.”