Veterans: How hard is it to move on from war?

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Filed by KOSU News in Public Insight Network.
February 23, 2013

A little girl holds a welcome home sign at a homecoming ceremony for members of the Indiana Army National Guard. (Photo by Scott Olson | Getty Images)

Roughly 2 million American service members have been deployed to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. A 2008 survey of returning service members found that about one-third of respondents said they had experienced some type of mental health issue since getting home. As these conflicts wind down, do we fully understand what the experience of combat can do to a person?

Reporters here at American Public Media have reported on veterans’ issues for the past several months. Now we’re teaming up with public radio station WBUR in Boston to focus on the emotional and psychological transition back to civilian life.

If you’re a veteran, you can help us tell that story by sharing your experience: How hard is it to move on from war?

Your insight will help inform our upcoming stories — and we might contact you to find out more. But your information and responses will remain completely confidential unless you explicitly give us permission to share your insights. If you’d prefer to communicate with one of our reporters directly, please email Jeff Severns Guntzel at jsguntzel@americanpublicmedia.org.