A soldier shares his story: starting over

SHANNON KEOUGH ASST COPY EDITOR SEK723@CABRINI EDU

Matthew sits with his friends, chewing tobacco, wearing jeans and a t-shirt, making jokes and laughing as if he had never left. He looks his age but it’s obvious through his stories that he has been through more than many 22-year-olds have.

For the past 15 months, Matthew Dixon, 22, has spent his time deployed in Iraq risking his life to ensure he completes his missions. His missions ranged from clearing routes of improvised explosive devices to delivering medical supplies to schools. He was also sometimes in charge of gathering all available troops in the area to raid a certain village.

Clearing routes is the most dangerous job, he said, because he is a “walking target,” never knowing if an IED will go off be- low his feet. “You never feel good. You’re always saying, ‘Please Jesus, I have family, please don’t let me die,” Dixon said.

Since he’s been back he has struggled, like many soldiers do, to adjust to the various transformations of going from soldier to civilian. He admits that it was harder to adjust coming home than it was when he landed in Iraq. “Over there you kind of get used to authority, ‘don’t say no to me or be rude to me or terrible things could happen,” Dixon said. When he came home he said, “It’s like a shock when someone says no or snaps at you.”

About one out of three war veterans are having difficulties when returning home from Iraq, according to a Nov. 14, 2007 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Soldiers are forced to undergo reintegrationtraining sessions to prepare them for life beyond battleground but