2014 Distinguished Faculty Lecture - Dr. David Rohall, Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology 
Um
Thank you very much for this opportunity to be here today.
I its it's a great honor and as many people I could thank
um tonight and I'm not gonna be able to do all of them justice
up before I start. But the first thing
um I gotta get this going if you don't mind.
The slide show that we had um I started,
that I had started earlier um had a
Billy Joel song it's called "We didn't start the fire"
I want to say two things about it and it's related to some of the thanks that I wanted to
give tonight to some people
First the slides you saw came from some people, a lot of student veterans on campus
when they heard about the talk they shared a lot about the different stories
and so I wanted to I bring that into the talk
so there's two ways and bring those I one was the video clips that i showed
you earlier
the pictures but also you'll see them throughout the slideshow so there's a
lot of veterans and I'm thinking for
II giving me those things here tonight. Also I
I wanna thank Sue Scott at the Western Illinois Museum because some other pictures
you saw here tonight
came from a series of projects I worked on with them
interviewing doing qualitative interviews with veterans in the region
and student veterans as well and we're gonna bring some others findings in
tonight's talk.
and there's some other miscellaneous pictures there, you might seen Bob Hope
as a peach blossom for instance in a few other things so
visual productions was very good about sharing some photos
with us tonight. Of course I thank the Provost and the  committee for
allowing me
this opportunity. In the vets club because they let me come in and share a
very lengthy
version of this. Guys it's going to be much shorter I guarantee.
I didn't realize how long it wasn't all share it with them.
Finally of course, my wife Molly. She's heard one or two renditions it this talk
and thanks to her we've cut this down dramatically as well. So thanks to all of
you for that.
Now I one thing I want to clear up right away,
I did title this Peach Blossoms but we're not gonna be, this is not gonna be a
history the Peach Blossoms.
It's not, we will talk about that a little bit on campus.
But the peach blossoms really represent student veterans on campus, there sort of
the
organization that represents them but there are many more veterans on
campus that are not members the Peach Blossoms
and what's important about that is,john mentioned there are a million
service members who are coming back from different places in the world
and they're coming to college campuses that a lot of people so only a small
percentage are represented by the Peach Blossoms but they're the voice in many
cases
for those veterans. We are going to talk about this more broadly.
I also want to say I use this concept of post military war. Let me make it very
clear what I mean by that.
what i'm saying is that we have fewer people
that have exposure to military life the military council than ever before.
and this, this has changed at the relationship of military society.
I could go on about this a lot because there's been,
I can't tell you the number of conferences that government and the
military have sponsored
to figure out if that's going to be a problem. In 1973 and a conscription
in the end a conscription the concern was that we were going to get two worlds
one military one civilian and they were going to get along. Conscription was that
that bond between society and the military.
Now we don't have that bond and the question is
is there and issue? now before I start every class
I always ask my students one question. I asked them this:
why should we care?
Now sometimes I teach a class and and the answer to that question is
what we're learning in that class will help them get a job and that's important
to them.
In other cases, the answer to that question, why should we care, is it might
be important for their own personal development. but I ask you this question
tonight why should we care about this issue of
military in society on a college campus. Well
the short answers is ,well we have to, we have to care about this
we have to because these veterans are coming back here today. Student veterans.
You can't separate veteran from students. Veterans are student veterans.
young people after WWII in other places, they did go to college campuses
but for the most part
they went back into the workforce that's what they did after they went
to war or for that matter just were in service somewhere.
But now, just like every other young person, over sixty percent
american youth after high school going to college. They don't all finish.
We're doing a lot of programs to try to get them to finish but they don't all
finish.
Well veterans are doing the same thing they're going off they're serving and
they're coming back but they're not going to the workforce are coming here.
So the short answer, why should we care, is that we have to care.
Now I i've done so many different projects
and to keep track of all them would be very difficult. Tonight I'm just going to
focus on findings from a couple different ones.
Most of  what we're going to talk about.
first is a a quantitative survey I have over seven thousand students including
civilian
and veteran students and some cadets as well. We're not going to focus on the
results from the cadets.
I so we have a lot of information about what's a civilian students think of
the military and what student veterans think both the military and the rest of
society.
But also as I said before I done a lot a qualitative interviews
you probably can't see it here very well with over 40 veterans in the region with
some of our undergraduate and graduate students here
with the Western Illinois museum. At least have of them are veteran students and
they ashare a lot about what their military experiences are like
and how they're bringing that on to college campuses. We're going to talk
about that as well.
And finally are some findings from a survey, veterans from
WWII, Korea, Vietnam and modern era veterans
from a large-scale survey of those people
that was conducted in 2011. So this is for that baseline
a center projects I'm going to bring to bear here
tonight. The other thing I like to do when I'm teaching a class
is I like to give an overview of what we're looking at before we get started.
My students probably don't like this site you may not be familiar with this in
sociology,
demography is not one of the more popular topics when I teach
introductions. One,
one chapter, I don't know if other sociologist experience this
but it's an important one because demography is where you can count people and
use get a sense of things.
And so we go over the population of the world we cover the population the United
States we go over
other things like that on but I want to give you an overview what the military
looks like in the world today if you're not familiar with that.
Overall the military there's about 1.4 million people in the military.
When I was at the University of Maryland and graduate school we used to kinda joke
I don't know that it's
is really funny but we used to joke that it was the single largest employer in
the United States.
So how can we be in a post military world and have the military be the
single largest,
um, be a million people
and and be the single largest employer. How can those two things going on at the
same time?
Well let me give you some context in this if you don't know this
at the three most popular Nations, here's my quiz for you, I know
our geographers know this. I the three most populous nations in the world
China India and the United States
also had three largest militaries in the world with each with over a million
our soldiers sailors airmen and women
in the forces today. So these are large nations have large military they don't
always stay connected.
There are other countries with small size populations are very large military.
North Korea for instance has about 25 million people in their population
but they have over a million soldiers. Canada on the other hand
has about 35 million people but they'll have less than 100,000 soldiers.
So that sorta gives you a picture what at the military looks like today.
But the reason I'm still arguing that we live in a post military world is that fewer
Americans than ever in our history have ever experienced military service in any way.
just fewer then than in the past. With conscription
as many as 20 percent at one time at least has some
brush with military experience and conscription brought in rich people
and I know there's story of rich people getting out but still a lot of them
still served.
Poor people and everybody in between I'll were forced to mix at the same time.
With the all-volunteer force we can't rely on that
to bring military in society together.
Another thing you may not be aware of is the breakdown.
There's a lot of controversy, especially after Vietnam about the
number people who died in service and so forth. 
In today's military, and many counts were very much,
the military is very much like the rest to society. 
In terms of race for instance, the military is about as diverse as the
general public.
In some cases more than others. The army is over represented by African-americans.
They represent about 14 percent of the American population but they're about
thirty percent in the army.
There are underrepresented or equally represented in the Marines.
So it depends on the service, but obviously gender is a major factor in
the differences between the general public and the military.
Eighty-five percent of the military is um
male and about 15 percent female.
To give you some comparisons are prior to vietnam the number was closer to two
percent so we made major strides in that area.
But also compared to almost every other western nation we have a higher
proportion of women in our services
than most to those nations. One of the nation's that has the greatest
proportion of males and females is probably
Israel I think it's like 60 40 or something like that.
But if you don't know they have universal conscription there for both
males and females.
So that's sort of like an overview of what the military looks like in general
society but specifically
how it's setup. My final thing again for those people who have no experience
in the military
are you should also know that the military is made up of what they call
officers and enlisted personnel.
The vast majority of people in service are enlisted about eighty-five percent of
them are enlisted
and what that means is they're coming in at eighteen years old with no education
or very little education outside
elementary and secondary education.
So they're they're joining the military like that in about 15 percent are
officers
and a I have most to them not all but most of them have a college degree.
The only reason I point that out is you have to be aware that the average
american about 25 to 30 percent of Americans have a college degree today.
So we have a smaller number of those in the armed services.
And finally the young men tend to be younger and they're more likely to be married
than the average american. So there's some similarities and overlap with the
general society but in other ways
they're different. You should know that going into this.
There is no shortage of pride in the military. I'm not here to complaint that
the military doesn't get respect.
In fact, they are literally the most respected institution in society today.
Now that wasn't always the case. Coming back from after Korea
after Vietnam that would not have been the case. But in today's world the last
several years gallup polls
has shown they've asked people about 15 different institutions including
medicine
religion and business and other as institutions in society.
It's been rated number one for several years in a row now.
So is getting a lot of respect from the general public. We have no problem with
respect
and our own surveys, over ninety percent of our students,
civilian students as well as veteran students
also say that they're proud the service that men and women
are doing in society. There's no shortage of pride
in today's world for the institution of the
military today. So they are,
people the military, are getting a lot of respect from people in society.
The one thing that clear as come clear from our research over the last
decade
is that the average civilian has no intention is never even consider joining
the military it's just not an avenue
they've put on the agenda. Specifically
34 percent of our civilians students
 considered joining the military which obviously if you do the math you
can see the material
just never cross their mind. 
People know about the military they're very respectful of the military
but it's just not a lifestyle that a lot of them have ever considered
in the modern world. Another interesting finding
as a well first I'll just jump ahead and say that
I conscription has lost it's popularity and it's probably never gonna come back.
After nineteen, um about the early nineteen eighties
there was a time in there eighties that the majority of americans supported the
institution of a conscription
but that's gone away and and it's never come back so these findings are actually very
similar to the general public
and that is twenty one percent of our civilian students
believe that conscription is a good thing. But I wanna point out that 61
percent of our veteran students to you
and that's really what I want to get out here. Now the general public we know
that there's no support for it and we know the obviously then, the civilian students
but our veterans are seen something in their service and they believe it might
be something good
for the rest society. More important for me is
is a a bit of a surprise that we ran into and we simply ask them,
asked our respondents to tell us do
do you think it's appropriate for the average american to give life for their
country,
and most of them the answer is No. And I'm
this is what I'm gonna talk about a little bit, why, why is that the case?
Well the short answer I believe is that I don't think
that they see a need for an
to be quite frank they have a lot of respect for the military,
the military is doing a fine job and um the standard line that you're going to
hear
a lot of veterans have heard from a lot of people in society
when they say they're a veteran is the simple line, thank you for your service.
And and that sort of encapsulatus this idea, this understanding.
There is this service, they see it as a need in the country,
but they don't see it as something for themselves.
It's almost like setting up a world in which you've got a group doing the
service
and those appreciating them. Now this is coming at a time where our 
political scientist are trying to understand its large decline and civic
engagement in our country
and the last 20 years. On as much as a 30 percent decrease in the amount
of civic engagement, voting as well as a service to the country in the forms
ofthe military and other things. In their pondering why
why is this happening? Well I'm not gonna be able to answer this and our political
scientists
may be can field those questions later but at least one a research suggests at
least a third of that explanation
simply comes from a change in generation. And and if you understand how that works
is you have to give her a 20-year-old today
to a 20-year-old twenty years ago to a twenty-year-old twenty years before that.
And there's a market decline in the amount of engagement in each of those
respective groups.
And at the same time I also mentioned three years ago we had Gene Twengate come the
campus, did anybody see
her come to campus is several years ago. She's also arguing that we have a
narcissist epidemic in our country at the same time.
I so up so while it doesn't seem like a  big deal in a lot of aspects,
I do think it's important to recognize that there are groups of people
that are doing this type of service and in all fairness,
society is recognizing them as such.
Now in addition to service I would argue that is another way that
are young veterans our little bit different than the general public as
well.
Now in in a class sometimes I have to instill, I'm not going to do this to you
tonight, but if you want to do what you can.
Okay close your eyes a little bit and ponder for a moment
what comes to mind. Now here's the key to social psychology, you have to do the
first thing that comes to mind. You can't
ponder it because then you're gonna trick yourself. Okay what is the first
image of a veteran that you have?
Now think about some of the movies you see. I, was it Saving Private Ryan
and people in that one. Perhaps it was the movie
"A few good men" and the veterans in that one.
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00:16:25,160 --> 00:16:29,240"
Or maybe even, okay some of you might know this one, "Full Metal Jacket"
very different image of a veteran in that movie. There are many other portrayals out
there as well.
But one other most common stereotypes is a conservative white male fundamentalist
from the deep south.
That's a very common image we have in a lot of movies.
Now sometimes they make that person into a hero but you'll find that the
hero
becomes a hero the further removed from the deep south.
They lose their accent quite a bit. Well in some ways this stereotype like all
stereotypes have some
truth to them. I've already shown eighty-five percent of the people in the
military are male so that part if it's true.
The conservative part, I'm going to talk about that one a little bit.
But and fundamentalists as well but the deep
South, I'm not gonna show you but I just tell you and that is
I a lot of veterans do come from the deep south. I'm not gonna get into the details
involved
why that's the case but I want you to be aware and this is how stereotypes
typically work in society.
And that is the deep south is a a large percentage
people enlist from the deep south than say
California or New England. But I wanna make it clear there are more people from
California serving in the military
than the deep south, I'm talking proportion to the population.
So if you have that southern draw in there you're partly right but it's still
a little bit off.
But in terms of the conservativeness let me to address that briefly.
It is partly true and here 
we asked the a civilian students to put themselves in a political
positions scale -would you consider yourself really conservative, very liberal.
The two extremes are very conservative obviously and very liberal.
As many as 9 percent of our civilians students defined themselves as extremely
liberal
compares only four percent of our veteran students. Both groups clearly the
lion's share
is somewhere in the middle. They consider themselves what they in political
science
moderates. Political moderates. But that's kinda fooling us a little bit
The average American, at least it has been this way for many years,
would be defined if there's a center now I'm gonna do it my way I think the
opposite for you what I do so bear with me
would be center right. They're not
extremely conservative we might see them that way but the average American is a
little bit to the right at the center.
Why is that important because in our data the average civilian student is
center
left. Now I know a lot of faculty don't see that in their classrooms.
This has been true for many many years studying undergraduates politics
now as they get older they change their politics over time but
in that in this category 18 to 22 they tend to be center-left
and a lot of their values and beliefs. But the average veteran is still
center, but probably center-right.
So again it meets the standards of some of the stereotype
veterans but not as clear as some other movies would have us
believe. We know that there's a difference in culture.
We know it's there and I've touched the iceberg, I don't know if that's the
right expression, but
I had I've come close to a little bit trying to get this idea of
attitudes toward service at least it with regard to
the military and that also are other politics.
But i wanna point out that umm whenever this thing is the subculture this
difference
that umm we know it's there even if we can't put a name
to it and measure precisely. Here's an example of what I'm talking about.
When we ask our civilian students, should
civilians adopt military values, now implicit in that
is that there is a military value. Now they weren't given a
list of military values
but inherently they knew this is true. A third of our students
agreed that yes we can learn something from military values
and other words a minority but seventy, a full 72 percent of our student veteran said
yes we've got some values in our culture
that I think the average civilian might learn something from.
But very interestingly, when asked do you think
on they can live separately and other words separate-but-equal the short
answer for both groups is yes.
We recognize there is a difference here but we're okay with that difference.
And again thank you for your service. So there's a bit of oil and water here,
I don't think it's a a huge thing but if you know
oil in water I was just looking at some of our, I was gonna bring it but
just I wasn't sure, so I didn't do it. If you saw, those who are a dinner tonight,
had
maybe a vinaigrette thing right you know, your you got oil and vinegar and
shaken together you put him on a salad and it works out pretty well.
They taste good together but if you put the bottle together what happens, right.
They separate and that's what happens whenever you bring two subcultures
together.
They can come together for a while but in the separate again
and I think that's what happens quite often on campuses around the country
today.
So I go to the same question I started out with, why should we care why is this
is
even an issue. To be quite honest I think WIU has done a phenomenal job here
of trying to integrate these groups. We have a very active
ROTC program and very well accepted and respected.
But i wanna make it clear that's not the case all over this country.
I think somebody you know Stanford continues to deny the presence
ROTC on campus and they clearly do it for
ideological reasons. Harvard and Columbia just
in the last year said that they're open to it. I don't think they've done it
yet,
they're just now saying they're open to having ROTC come
to the campus so again I think we're doing great here but it's not
necessarily the case everywhere.
There are also suttle things that you just need to think about to be
careful about,
when you bring two different subgroups together that you may not be aware of if
you're not a member of the other one.
I've taken a lot of pictures I've been to a lot of different protests,
on campus, off campus and so forth,
but they're subtle messages that can go across to people
that you may not even be aware of when you're doing these things that we 
all need to be
aware of. So I'm gonna stop for a moment and pause
and I work together out with a number people
here on campus to produce this video.
It's a video that highlights the long history veterans on campus here at WIU
umm
This is again a collaborative effort with television productions.
WIU archives and visual productions and the Provost's Office on campus.
So let's take a moment and look at some other ways the WIU you has dealt with
issues of veterans on campus today.
In 2009 GI jobs magazine
first recognized Western Illinois University as a military friendly school,
a special honor bestowed
on the top 15 percent of American colleges
universities and trade schools doing the most
to assist veteran students. While this honor was most certainly earned,
due to the hard work and dedication westerns
faculty staff and administration it was not the result
the new institutional focus on Veteran students.
On the contrary westerns commitment to serving the unique needs
the United States Armed Forces in our veteran students
has the rich history spanning nearly century. When World War one broke out
Western was still a small Teachers College
but our institution played a large role in aiding the war 
both on Europe's battlefields and here on the home front.
By 1918 almost all male students
had left school for the war. Female students
and training school pupils led an impressive array of war effort
activities
including buying war bonds, sewing, and Red Cross training.
Professor Herbert Bassett was called to Washington
to serve on the war trade board. Seven Western students died in World War I.
Many returned after the war to complete their studies.
As during WWI the second world war
saw almost all male students postpone their studies
in favor of military service around the globe. Sadly
53 Western students died in the war.
Several faculty members and administrators,
many of them veterans of World War I also saw service
in World War II. Health professor Henry Stubblefield 
became a major in the Army's chemical warfare service.
Coach Ralph Barkley tought naval pre-flight course.
Dean of students Moses Tuested tought
in the Army School for Special Forces. And most famously
football coach Ray Hansen served as a Marine morale
and recreational officer. Back home Western adapted its curriculum
to aid the war effort. Students could take courses
in civil piloting as a prerequisite for enlisting in the Army Air Corps.
Western also offered the so-called
war curriculum which consisted of one
and two year training courses in high-demand fields
including chemical engineering, map drafting,
and medical careers. Female students
supported the war effort by working with the USO and Red Cross
making clothing for soldiers and taking classes in
nursing. Following the war
Westerns veteran student population soared and students took advantage
of the newly created GI Bill tuition benefits.
In 1946, two-thirds of all male students were veterans
and many of them were married with small children. This caused a housing crunch on
campus
and to help the eleviate that Western housed
students in gyms, locker rooms, private residences,
and even brought in former barracks buildings from nearby Camp Ellis.
These older veterans brought a more mature perspective back to campus
and they contributed positively to our institutions great
post-war growth and development. Though sometimes referred to as the forgotten
war,
Korean War veterans have also influenced our campus.
Perhaps none was more impactful in the late Professor Emeritus
Dr. Won Moo Hurh, the 1999 distinguished faculty lecture award recipient served as an
artillery officer
in the South Korean army before becoming a 29-year faculty member in
Westerns Department of Sociology and Anthropology.
The Vietnam War era was associated with an explosive growth
in student population at Western. Baby boom era students
reached college age, veterans return to campus,
to find both support and protest among its students and faculty.
In 1973 the U.S. government ended military conscription,
making military service voluntary. In 1968
Western's new Military Science department began enrolling students
in the Reserve Officer Training Corps or ROTC program. To date
the program has commissioned over 1,000 students who have gone on to successful
careers as officers in the US Armed Forces.
Perhaps no fighting Leathernecks Italian student has gone on to greater success
however,
in Major General David Kratzer, a member of Western's first
ROTC commissioning class.
Current WIU veterans have experienced 
peacetime military service as well as wartime deployments
to Afghanistan and Iraq. Like their predecessors
these new veterans are utilizing their GI Bill and other benefits to obtain
college degrees.
To help service this new cohort of veterans, the veterans Resource Center
located on North word Street coordinates many services for veteran students,
including filling out forms, assistance with housing accommodations,
community information, and health benefits. Student organizations
like the Veterans Club also known as the Peach Blossoms
promote camaraderie and military pride among campus vetrans.
Western Illinois University has a long
distinguished history working with veteran students and partnering
with the United States Armed Forces. Westerns
faculty, staff, any administration work hard make our institution open and
accessible to veterans,
to let them know that we are truly grateful for their service and
commitment
to our nation's and our world's security.
umm
thank you, let's take a moment I want to thank
Ryan Savers,  from television productions and his staff and I also
want to thank
Jeff Hanks and the staff in University Archives.
So I think we have made strides here on campus.
And let me get rid of that.
But I wanna talk about some sort of things that may not be as clear.
the GI bill is not small by the way, I've already explained that
veterans do bring back that tuition income to our university. That's not a
small thing.
In our interview show, they're very much appreciated about that
opportunity,
most to them because like I said they're coming from working-class backgrounds.
Their their families umm I would normally never be able to go to college
as a result of their family backgrounds but the military is giving
them this opportunity and hence
the universities are taking that opportunity as well. But I want to spend
a little bit of time on right now
is the experience is that they're bringing back to us that some others may
be aware of but others
may not. I like this image right here. This is, a veteran shared this with me.
One of our veterans over there with
a an Iraqi but not only just aposes the age
but also the cultural differences between these two.
Not to mention the civilian and military coming together in one place.
How many people in the united states can finish high school
and experience these cultures coming together. It's a very unique thing.
This cultural capital comes from military experience and this cannot
be understated.
It's a sort of a collectivist service-oriented
mentality  but these other things are also important
These are other images that I may be showing you tonight from overseas that
veterans brought brought back with them.
If you have ever I spend time in the Middle East for instance you know that their
alarms to go off on a regular basis to remind people that it's a call to prayer.
This is something obviously very different from what people from Western
countries are from,
and I guarantee the average high school, the student is not experiencing this
in any way. So this is umm these experiences
help them understand a little bit more but this is occurring at a time when
their peers are less engaged in public life
and are expected to less than their peers even twenty years ago.
Some scholars even tell us that the average, another surprise me when I
hear these numbers, but some scholars tell us that the average american
doesn't become an adult and two other 25 years old.
And yet what is the average age of entering the military - 18.
So we're giving a lot of responsibility to people
and putting them and very umm unique situations
in a way that their peers
just don't experience. In our own research we found what
some scholars call social turning points
and their lives as a result of the service. I i don't have the time to go
into all of 
their research, there's a lot of quantitative research and if you want to go into it
later I can talk to you about it.
About whether or not military services at negative or positive toward, for
instance career development,
or health or other things like that. I don't have time to speak to all that
research.
The short answer is there's mixed findings. But one thing that seems to be
coming up again and again
from the qualitative research of military experience
is that people are changing their lives in a profound way but they can't necessarily be
captured in quantitative research.
Very common words that came out of our interviews
with veterans included as student veterans specifically included
drive, discipline, moral, success,
understanding, leadership, humility, and appreciation.
It appears that veterans do have an appreciation of
the fact the most it appears that never had this level of commitment and
responsibility.
So let me out give you a quote from a veteran. He talks about the
responsibility that he had in service,
in the importance of that responsibility in his life.
You know being 17 and going into that
instead of collage, it's a whole different world being on that side.
So I really matured a lot, seen a lot,
been a lot of places and almost
you get almost the power to to give-and-take life at
17. I I think the propriety that statement is is the age
not so much the responsibility  at which this is occurring.
And it is a lot of responsibility. There are some theorists out there that argue
that
one of the issues with PTSD is that we've been trained
not to hurt each other at such a young age and yet you go into the military and
what are you trying to do, to hurt somebody.
And when you're faced with that situation it's a very hard
decision to make and they're having to do that again I wanna remind you,
at a  time when their peers are not doing the same thing. It's a different time and
place
then even twenty or forty years ago. So responsibility also includes not just
life giving and taking and also is that you're responsible for other people's
lives,
you're expected to manage other people, as a result their lives
are in your hands. And I want to stress most people are not gonna be put in
combat situations. I'm talking about
simply running an organization at the age of 17 and 18.
Is a heavy responsibility and also I want to mention that there's a lot of
equipment that young people are in charge of, very expensive equipment
out there that they're in charge of at a very very young age.
Now I'm I'm also going to  show you another quote that helps us understand
the concept of discipline. Most of us think of discipline in the military
doing these long hikes carrying heavy packs and that does happen as well,
but there are other types of discipline that are better and shared about and
here's an example
from one.
Just going through the basic training alone, having the deprivation of almost
everything.
I mean try to go on without drinking soda, having dessert,
having a candy bar, no free time, no TV,
no video games, just a simple task of taking
everything away from you. It changes your perspective on what is important.
So I, I joke that this is
the Iraq veteran dorm room over here. Umm
it's more than doubling up. I know we're moving in the direction of single person
dorms.
But this is a a very common kinda living conditions that you'll find,
not just when you're deployed. I wanna mentioned that I
any time you go out on a  training exercise and so forth you're expected to
sleep in some very interesting environments and make do with what you
have. I don't know if anybody's been camping in the last few years.
Floors are not easy to sleep on but theese cots are not much easier on your
back.
After one or two days, I have experienced that myself.
And by the way not just in the military experience, I've experiences thatthrough Boy Scouts and
Cub Scouts,
there's lotsa sleeping on floors and and other such things.
Another thing that I consider,important especially on a college campus,
is a interacting with other cultures. I don't know the exact Mark Twain quote, I
think some
of our English people professors might be able to help us with that one.
But something like, umm to the effect interacting with other cultures you can't,
you can't be racist, you can't be bigoted when you keep interacting with people
from other places.
Travel does that to you and that's what a lot of these veterans are.
And here's a quote that sort of encapsules a lot of what our veterans
shared in their interviews with us.
I would definitely say that I'm a lot more humble than I thought I could be
after seeing all those people's living conditions.
Some of them got houses blown up, bulletss going through the windows.
People who had nothing to do with the war,
just the civilians over there. Just to see the trash all over the place,
the dirt on them a lot of them looking dirty and unhealthy.
And they long for what we have. I talked to one translator
and he wanted to come over here with his  family just so bad
and I could see it in him and it made me appreciate
what we had over here and that was the best thing that changed me.
So we have people who are put in scenarios like that
that they really can't imagine. Now we've all probably been told at some point in
life and I know as a parent I told my children
a hundred times, you should appreciate the food you have, you should appreciate the life
you had.
And what are the children doing when they here that? They go yeah yeah and they move on.
But these people profoundly changed by this, it's one thing to talk about, it's
another thing to interact with them.
And they are changing. I bet some people in this room today
have probably sent food or money or something to people overseas
and what do those veterans tend to do? They give it away.
That's what they tend to do. Well why are they doing it - because they see poverty
in front of them,
not just in Iraq and Afghanistan, lotsa places in the world.
And they wanna help as best they can they, literally give up their food
for these people, their clothing but they ask their friends to send things to do
what - to give them things.
They just didn't realize even though they've been lectured and told,
they've never realize what the world really looks like until they've had to
experience.
So here's a obviously they're helping out with medicine and the local
community.
Here's a local shopping mall,
overseas, not quite as nice as
some of our own. I don't think that would surprise anybody here. And these are
tangible life-changing events for these people.
To actually see it for the first time. And they're bringing this the college
campuses.
And they may not share it. A lot of veterans, a lot don't openly just walk around and
say hey let me tell you all the things that I experienced.
You have to pull it out of them. But its there and it's like a jewel
that that if we can only get to, we can get a lot from.
Unfortunately there's also other things that come along with that.
All universities need to be ready for. I know
a lot of people talk about post-traumatic stress disorder.
TBI, traumatic brain injuries and
brain injury quite a bit. These are sometimes called signature wounds of
Afghanistan and Iraq for reasons I'm gonna talk about tonight.
Others that,  I don't know what it's like today, but when I was in
training
I was told the first thing you do in a medical situation is restore the
breathing
and I'm gonna mention some guidelines and in the future well this is the
restore the breeding here.
Those great things that those veterans bring back with them are good
but we gotta make sure we're dealing with the
the major issues that they might be dealing with now.
Another thing that I do in class is very often when I come in the classes
I
tell them be very very careful  with anybody who tells you anything
about a social science study because it's very hard to predict people's
thoughts, feelings, and behavior with a lot of precision.
And this is especially true with PTSD. Now I bet you a lot of you were
listening to NPR on the way into work today or wherever you were going, it's like
a
a Bible for us academics. We love NPR, there's always some story like once a
week to some story about veterans and their experience and PTSD is one the
most common things they talk about.
We have to be on warning here was one saying be careful about anything you
hear
because whether somebody has PTSD or not is not easy to detect.
There are people walking around with PTSD but they don't know they have it.
There are people who are diagnosed with PTSD that probably don't have it.
And it's because our measures are not always precise. The
studies out there today shows as little as 2 percent of veterans have PTSD to as
many as 60 percent.
The answers is,  I mean the question is - who is right. Well
they could all be right and it's because they're using different measures for
PTSD.
For that matter traumatic brain injury and also could be
on that they're asking different people. Different groups are going to have more than
others for reasons I'm gonna talk about here.
Let me give you a little bit of background so what a we call hidden injuries.
They're often called hidden injuries because a lot of people don't know that
they have them.
It's hidden to them and then of course the people around them
don't know and if you come back from war and you've got a missing limb
everybody's gonna know that you've got that injury.
But if you've got an injury in your head and you and your
say a psychology is going to be a little bit less clear.
And their signature because some people believe
that  modern veterans are suffering from PTSD
more than others in the past and I've got reasons to believe that's true but
like given my warning before
I'm gonna caution you to say that is true.
But in addition I might add that we don't have as many
physical injuries in this war compared to previous wars even though we've been
at war longer than most others.
While we do have a lot PTSD.
So let's talk about this a little bit more. UMM
some of the things that you should know about PTSD because this is a topic that
people really do wanna know about, in must most my early research dealt with
the mental health effects of being a military service. I was kinda near and dear to my
heart.
First I think most of you won't be surprised at the number one most
consistent predictor of PTSD,
I'm gonna bring traumatic brain injury in here in a minute, its exposure to
combat.
Now exposure to combat is a consistent predictor of PTSD
but like a lot of things in the social sciences that doesn't mean the majority
of people who go into combat come back with PTSD. In fact that's not the case
but it's a consistent predictor over time. Whereas
experiencing the death of a loved one or other traumatic events is not always
consistent,
does not always consistently predict PTSD.
More important for me, and this is something you may not be aware of,
there's a concept called being outside the wire and that means being outside of
a safe zone
and we know that's a fairly good and consistent predictor of PTSD.
Even if you've never experienced injury yourself, to other people,
or combat. And finally related to those areas
is number of deployments and this is going to be important in a minute.
Number of deployments,  people who deploy more often are going to probably
be experience PTSD but they're probably gonna experience all injuries more right
if you put yourself in harm's way more what's going to happen you're gonna
way hurt more and so of course PTSD
is one of those injuries as well. But what you may not know as people that go
in the war or in the any kind of conflict of any
kind with lower morale or more likely to end up with PTSD than people
who enter that same scenario
with higher morale. People who enter the sonario with family problems
are more likely to get PTSD as a result of their time in service.
People with childhood adversity and people with lower education levels are more
likely
to experience it. Why is that important because I showed you earlier with my
little
review demography we've got a higher proportion of people
are coming from the working classes filling the ranks at the enlisted
hence they're bringing in with them those things that might make them more
susceptible
to those problems. So to the people who say,
these signature wounds, are the real, I believe they might be and I'll tell you
some reasons why.
Why PTSD might be greater in this generation than in the past.
Not as, has nothing to do with the resiliency of the group
but we are now, I used the expression
Manning, forgive the expression, the modern forces
with fewer people than we've had access to. Why do we have fewer people than
before?
We have this huge force, 1.4 million people, what could be the problem right?
Well we don't have conscription anymore. If we need to rotate people and give
them a break which is going to help them with their PTSD and other injuries, right.
We can't just bring people back in and it's not like we can
open the door to the floodgates right and let people enlist
right cause what I want to show your earlier. Are they gonna come in that door? No,
they have no interest, they don't even think about it so we have no
venue um to help people who are in service today.
So one reason we might see more PTSD in this generation compared to past
is we're expecting them to do more than some other previous generations and
they're doing a fine job.
Modern service members are also more exposed to I E Ds
I think you've all heard that expression. Umm
these are improvised explosive devices. Now what is the point, is that,
why is that important? Well one, that is considered a combat situation and people who
were exposed to combat are more likely have PTSD.
But secondly what does that produce? TBI. One of the pictures I had in the slideshow
at the beginning
had a helmet with a large chunk taken out. I guarantee that person didn't die
but there had probably ended up with a concussion which produces
TBI. And also if you don't know it TBI is associated with what?
more PTSD. So for having more explosive devices
more TBI, you're going to have more PTSD and probably for me the most profound
thing
is actually part of a good problem, with every problem I suppose is a bad
problem that comes with it,
When fewer people die and why is that important - that sounds like a good thing.
To give you a a some a comparison in Vietnam
one umm assessment came back
reviewing losses in Vietnam. One in three people in
Vietnam who were injured died. Right that's it that's a significant number but it's
better than WWII,
I think was one of two in WWII. Seriously injured, I mean.
Do you know what it is now? Iraq, Afghanistan -
one in nine, one in nine that is a wonderful thing I want to do a round of
applause for medics and the  medical field for
for for producing that but why is that important - think about this for a second.
What is one of the best predictors for PTSD? Being in combat, was does that mean,
being exposed to danger, other people dying in front of you,
and you getting injured, so guess what. We have many more people being injured
but living, so their physical injuries are being fixed,
but the chances of mental injury go way, way up.
I can't say for sure that we're having more PTSD today than in the past, like I
said, it depends on how you measure it.
In these data umm the Pew Research Center simply ask
whether you think, whether you've been diagnosed with PTSD, do you think you
have it
and 31 percent of the post-9/11 Afghan Iraq War veterans said yes I think I might
have it.
But compared only 21 percent of the Vietnam veterans and only 11 percent the
WWI, Korea
veterans, now there's a demographic reasons why not gonna go into why that
might be the case
but also note they're more likely to report being in a combat situation than
previous generations
and other more likely to report being injured than in previous generations.
So there simply could be a correlation with those factors that have already
talked about and why they reported.
My last point that I wanna make about PTSD is right now
we say for instance umm this one says 31 percent think they might have PTSD.
Other, better research suggests closer to 14 percent but here's why I
wanna go with this and I'll
move on. That is are 14 percent, about my best estimate,
have PTSD but here's the important thing on to get across - another 14
percent
have clinical depression. Separate. Another 14 percent
TBI. You put that together and say well of 
any one of those three and then you know what the number comes up
with -
about 30 percent. About 30 percent.
So these people are self diagnosing and they're pretty darn accurate I would say.
I give them what I've just said. The clinical reviews if you put those three
categories - depression, PTSD, and TBI and again
and up to 30 percent of them saying that they have some form,
a problem, one of those problems at least.
So what do we do with this? We I think we got thess great things these great
experiences, these veterans are bringing back to campus that we have to pull it out a
little bit.
We also have a somewhat different subculture there that's a little bit hard to
interact with as well.
And then we also have these it mental health issues that might be be thrown
into the mix.
Well there's a lot of different things we can do I think that at WIU  we're
doing a wonderful job.
We are amilitary friendly institution and I don't think it's just about
helping students get in their classes and and
find work and do other things like that. I think we are integrating them on
campus pretty well.
Some of the suggestions I'm going to finish with are suggestions
that just remind us to continue what we're already doing well here at WIU
but also to serve as a model to other universities across the country.
First and foremost I said restore the breathing - you gotta focus on the medical
more than anything else. In this case I think the University
counseling services need to continue to help veterans and the way that they
already are
but the key is to always keep updated on the most current
treatments for all sorts of issues but especially
things related to TBI and PTSD.
More importantly I think, I think we need to increase policies to encourage
students
and other veterans to seek needed care.
That's a huge gap there guys cuz you can have the greatest
counseling services on the planet but if you can't get people in there it's not
going to help you.
I also think we need to find ways and and this is important as an academic
to incorporate student veterans on and on a dialogue with social issues.
One thing we can do for instance is archive experience as a WIU students,
now there are already, if you google search, there are any web sites out there that
will collect war stories
but I think we should focus on our, and this is I would argue every campus should do
this,
focuses on our students here and now.
We have to find ways to bring these experiences also I believe,
into the classroom. We really encourage our students to do study abroad,
to encourage them to do internships and so forth.
Well I believe a lot of our veterans kinda have done a little bit of both.
Many of them have studied abroad and they've also
done work experience at the same time. We've gotta find a way to bring that
into the classroom.
And I might add that some, a lot of our veterans never go overseas at all,
but they're still veterans and why is it important because they're going outside
their comfort zone when they join the military.
At 17and 18 they're having parents have never been to college
and they're being sent and some cases from the east coast to the west coast to
work
or train and then they're moving on zig-zagging all over the continental US.
That's quite an experience for these people.
And finally, community support. People are already positive about the military not
only here on campus
around the country not only at other universities but
the general public as well. We don't have an issue with that
but I do think we have to consider some things that help us
help the veterans become more resilient especially if they're bringing back
the hidden injuries of war. First we must recognize that we are in a unique period
of history and here's the key.
Support the troops may not be enough.
I think we need to continue groupd like the Peach Blossoms
but we have to recognize the Peach Blossoms were the first ones to
make note of this, not every veteran's gonna feel comfortable in that
environment.
We had to find other venues for them to share their experiences
and their problems. And finally in for me the most important we need to invest in
research
to assess campus level conditions for this returning veterans and i think
thats
utterly essential to all of us.
So let me end by as saying that I think were placed in
some ways like as social area where two sets of people are
put together.
It's kinda like that oil and water kind of analogy,
but if you know anything about estuaries and so my biology friends here please
don't judge me too harshly on this,
is a place for saltwater and freshwater meet.
So they come together but if you know anything about fishing and so forth
saltwater fish can't live in freshwater and vice versa. Right - they
they can't live in each other and other places
but estuaries are a  place where new things thrive in that environment where
that what those two different sets the water meet. Something new that wasn't there
before.
But I'm saying that unlike organisms we must decide
to evolve together. It will not come naturally.
But I think we should take this time in history this unique time and place in
history
here on campus in 2014 today
and find a way to make it a better place for both veterans and students,
for faculty and staff everyone on campus here
and around the country. I thank you for your time and attention.
