News From the Cause
Former Marine adjusts to life at Virginia Tech (Newrivervalley.com)
September 07, 2011
BLACKSBURG -- The dun-colored pack that Grayson Chretien now uses to tote his aerospace engineering textbooks across the Virginia Tech campus had a different purpose in 2005.
It carried his gear across the sandy deserts of Iraq.
A veteran of two combat tours, the former active-duty Marine from Orange County, Va., has operated heavy equipment in the United States and overseas. A tattoo on his right wrist pays tribute to a buddy who died in Iraq.
Despite that loss and the sleep disruptions and other symptoms of trauma recovery that have sometimes hindered his studies, Chretien credits the Marines with saving him from "running with a dead-end crowd" after high school, and for giving him a direction.
Now a part-time, on-campus security guard and the president of the Tech chapter of the Washington, D.C.-based Student Veterans of America, Chretien is one of about 240 former soldiers enrolled at Tech, most of them under the federal GI Bill.
But for Chretien, as for the hundreds of thousands of other student veterans across the country, college has been one of his toughest tours.
As a veteran, "your perspective is just completely different," the 28-year-old undergraduate said.
He described a classmate complaining about a really bad day that included missing the bus to campus, having to walk a half-mile to class and then taking a really hard quiz.
Chretien shook his head.
"Nobody's shooting at you," he said. "You've got it made."
The challenges for veterans vary. They are social, academic and financial, and sometimes medical and psychological.
But Tech officials are working to make that transition easier for this fast-growing minority, the numbers of which are expected to double over the next five years, according to the Student Veterans of America.
'Complete the mission'
In his first class at the University of Virginia, Eric Hodges, then 23, was known among his 18-year-old classmates as the "guy who could kill you with his little finger."
"There are a lot of stereotypes about veterans," he said.
Given the attention to problems experienced by veterans returning from war zones, fellow students can think they are unstable, or even dangerous, said Brian Hawthorne of the Student Veterans of America.
"Veterans are prone to some types of disabilities. But don't assume they are broken and crazy," he said. "Our population is very strong. They are almost always leaders on their campuses. They are used to getting up early, staying late, working hard and getting results with few resources."
Even those who have suffered injuries, he said.
Despite that discipline and professionalism, many veterans tell Hawthorne they don't list their military service on resumes or applications for fear of stereotypes.
Now a doctoral student in philosophy at Tech, Hodges joined the Marines out of high school to travel and find out what he wanted to do in life.
"How do you know what you want to do if you've never done anything?" Hodges said.
As an embassy guard, he spent most of his eight-year stint in the Marines overseas.
He spent his 21st birthday on the Great Wall of China, while a guard at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
He earned a top-secret military clearance, and said he met President Bill Clinton.
But after the discipline of the Marines, Hodges said seeing students come to class in their pajamas was a shock. Watching them sleep or chat during a lecture seemed surreal.
In the Marines, instructors would slap sleepy or inattentive students on the head, or throw water bottles at them. To avoid that, Marines learn to face forward and pay attention, he said. Click here to view
