Not How it Works
Not long after I got home from Afghanistan, I was sitting on my neighbor’s porch talking about how I was getting along. I told him about the difficulties of readjusting to life at home, about trying to be normal after living in such an abnormal place. Near the end of the conversation, I told my neighbor I was embarrassed that I had such trouble readjusting because my experience was no where near his.
My neighbor was Theodore W. “Ted” Gostas who was the highest ranking intelligence officer to be captured in the Vietnam War. He was held in solitary confinement as a POW for more 1,871 days. That is more than five years, and much longer than my 180 day deployment to Kabul.
When I told Ted I was embarrassed, he said that isn’t how it works. We don’t sign up for the bad things we’ll experience. When we join the military, we sign a blank check to Uncle Sam. Some of us do 180 days in Kabul and Iraq and come home without physical injury. Others spend 1,871 days as a POW. And still others do not come home. What he have in common is we signed a blank check to Uncle Sam and waited to see what came next.
What Comes Next
When we take our oath, we know we can go to war. We know we can get hurt. We know it won’t be easy. But few of us think about what life will be like afterwards, when it’s all over. When we come home. And very few, if any of us, are even expecting it. This can make the post-military adjustment very messy. Interactions with the police and the courts are common even if no crime was committed. But because the police are trained to find crimes – it’s what they do – they often find them in situations where only help was wanted.
Someone Else with a Blank Check
When veterans struggle, we often want to be with someone who gets it; someone who gave Uncle Sam a blank check. This is why veterans join organizations like the Veterans of Foreign Wars or the American Legion. And it’s also why it can be a good idea for a veteran who is charged with a crime to hire a defense attorney who is also a veteran.
Veteran Defense Attorney
A veteran defense attorney can often help the prosecution and the courts understand what actually happened and why it happened. They can often advocate better for their clients because they understand. And more importantly, a veteran defense attorney can better understand his client. Sometimes, it’s helpful to know the person you’re with took that same oath. Someone who wrote that same blank check.