Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Download MP3
In the first of this two part series, Soldiering On, The World’s Katy Clark visits a pilot program in Jacksonville, Florida that helps disabled Veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan re-enter society with the help of education and work-training. (Pictured: Josh Fruen. Photo by Katy Clark)
Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.
MARCO WERMAN: I’m Marco Werman and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WBGH Boston. The U.S. economy appears to be rebounding, though the unemployment rate remains near double digits. It’s just not that easy right now to find a job. Veterans returning from the wars and Iraq and Afghanistan often face greater challenges when looking for work. Transitioning from military to civilian life, as well as coping with physical and psychological wounds. The World’s Katy Clark visited a Florida based program that’s helping wounded veterans move on with their lives, personally and professionally.
KATY CLARK: In a nondescript building in one of the many office parks off Interstate 95 in Jacksonville, Florida, sits an oasis for veteran injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. Its run by a non-profit organization called the Wounded Warrior Project. The lobby of its education and employment training program known as Track looks like something out of an architectural design magazine. The walls are bold red and there are chrome accents and sleek lighting throughout the facility. Everything and everyone at the Track program strives to be unerringly upbeat.
CHRIS RICK: This is our student wall which has a picture of every student that’s currently onboard.
CLARK: Chris Rick is Tracks Dean of Students.
RICK: We take a picture of them when they first arrive. We place of course their name, what service and what campaign they were injured in and we ask them to give us a little slogan or motto or something as you can see. It gives us a little insight into them.
CLARK: Chicks dig stumps.
RICK: Yeah, that’s Brian Wagner. He’s obviously an amputee that has a prosthetic.
CLARK: And a sense of humor.
RICK: And a sense of humor. Most of them are pretty comfortable with where they’re at in their stage of life.
CLARK: The Track program began life nearly two years ago as an acronym for Training Rehabilitation Advocacy Center. It’s a pilot project for disabled Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Students are recruited from medical centers and VA hospitals across the country to come to Jacksonville for a year. The program covers housing expenses and the wounded veterans take classes at a nearby state college. They also participate in internships at local Fortune 500 companies. One of the track program’s goals is to help as many vets as possible land a job at the end of the year. Chris Rick says that requires a lot of initiative on the part of the veterans themselves.
RICK: Especially with the economy, there are only so many positions out there. We can get your foot in the door, but if you don’t step into that job and show that you’re the right guy or gal for that position, then all the pushing in the world that we can do isn’t going to get you that position.
CLARK: Part of Track’s curriculum involves teaching students stress management skills. Student Christopher Horman says that’s been a big help for him. After serving eight years in the Marines, he’s suffering from post-traumatic stress and a possible traumatic brain injury.
CHRISTOPHER HORMAN: I have severe anxiety. It causes me to sweat, which I am right now, but I have problems when I go to grocery stores. It really freaks me out, it really scares me and sometimes here we are sitting in the middle of Wal-Mart and we’re getting our groceries and whatnot and I just have to tell my wife look, I got to leave. And she checks out and I’m sitting outside in the car. There are just some things I can’t do.
CLARK: Horman is learning through computer models and therapy how to create a mental blueprint of what a calm, composed state of mind looks and feels like. The hope is that he’ll be able to draw on that image when confronted with anxiety provoking experiences like shopping, taking a test, and interviewing. Horman says since retiring from the Marines four years ago, he’s bounced from job to job. One position forced him to leave his family behind while he lived out of his car.
HORMAN: It’s really difficult to explain that to your kids, what your father’s going through, that he was in combat, he saw bodies, or things like that. He saw people shoot at him every single day. They don’t understand that. They can’t visualize that, which is actually a good thing for them because you wouldn’t want your kids to visualize that.
CLARK: Fellow Track student Josh Fruen understands. He also suffers from a brain injury and PTSD as a result of his service in Iraq. He was riding along a canal in a humvee when the vehicle hit a soft spot and rolled into the water.
JOSH FRUEN: I was deceased when they pulled me from the truck. I was actually resuscitated in the water.
CLARK: One of the other guys in the vehicle didn’t make it. Fruen says he drifted quite a bit after being discharged from the Army. When he finally wound up at Track, he’d been unemployed for almost nine months.
FRUEN: And they gave me hope and help, as far as getting into the VA system and making sure that I had a little bit of the income to support my family and keep us in a home. And that’s been the biggest thing to me, just how supportive the Wounded Warrior Project is and what they stand for, as far as making sure that all the guys are taken care of regardless of what’s wrong with you or what issues you may have.
CLARK: But Track isn’t for everyone. Some wounded veterans who are admitted to the program fail to show up on the first day. Others, after getting a taste of Tracks intensity drop out. Some may be dealing with substance abuse issues. Others might simply not be ready to rejoin society. Track student Chris Horman says that’s okay. But he advises other wounded veterans who are ready for another challenge to definitely check out Track.
HORMAN: Because this one year will push you through what would take you years to get through. They just catapult you right up into the community and into corporate business. You know you’re not going to go and flip burgers after you’re done working here.
CLARK: It’s too soon to say how well Track graduates do over the long term. The program is still two new. Of the two classes of wounded veterans who graduate from Track so far, 80% of them have found jobs or gone on to further their education. The Wounded Warrior Project will soon expand Track to San Antonio, Texas; the first class there begins in January. For The World, this is Katy Clark, Jacksonville, Florida.
WERMAN: Tomorrow Katy introduces us to a Fortune 500 company that’s working with the Wounded Warrior Project. It’s considered one of the country’s most military friendly employers.
CLARK: What are they doing here? What would he be doing down there?
MALE VOICE 1: He’s servicing a locomotive that comes in, they look at the brake shoes, they put fuel in it, and they check the oil. It’s like a service station for locomotives.
WERMAN: Vets working on the railroad tomorrow on The World.
Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.
Discussion
No comments for “Soldiering On, Part I”