From sailor to student, setting new bearings

Christopher Curry

The Signal Staff

This Veterans Day marks the fourth year I celebrate it as a veteran. I joined the Navy in 2002 and was honorably discharged in 2006.

The Navy was a decent job. Boot camp was a walk in the park compared to the other branches of military life. I got used to the constant yelling and was issued a thick enough jacket to fend off the bitter cold of Great Lakes, Ill.

After boot camp, I was sent directly across the street for three months of Information Systems Technician “A” school. Others went off to train in Florida or California, but I was already accustomed to the weather so I figured why change now? Military training was fast paced and there was always room for improvement.

Today, I find myself in school again, but in a very different setting. I’m the assistant editor for The Signal, which brings with it authority and privileges that I am not used to having as a former enlisted military member.

In the Navy, I was careful not to make mistakes. When I did, a “superior” would be there to let me know about it. “Good job, Curry,” was high praise, and it only took one mistake for them to forget all the “good jobs” and focus on my inadequacies.

I have been out of the military for almost four years, yet memories of life in the Navy still resurface when I’m stressed. At times, I get on edge when I don’t get the grade I was anticipating on a paper. I expect to be called to the back for a lecture on how I need to improve myself. It’s a strange feeling to have a “superior” say encouraging things and compliment my work.

Most veterans have been through their fair share of tragic experiences including myself. While in the Persian Gulf a female crew member passed out during a drill and fell down three flights of vertical ladders; she survived but sustained a debilitating amount of brain damage.

A hull technician died after a pipe ruptured outside my workplace, flooding the hallway with fire fighting foam, which is used to stop combustion by removing oxygen from an out-of-control fire.  He went in the space to plug the pipe but was overcome and suffocated. At the end of my Persian Gulf tour, 48 Marines from the 31st MEU and two Navy corpsmen had given their lives in Fallujah.

These experiences have stayed with me and sometimes I wonder what my perspective on the world would be without a military background. Would I even be in school now; would I be working toward a degree while paying off student loans?

More new veterans with similar experiences are transitioning into student life, and they may carry with them the same burdens of dealing with the loss of friends and the trauma of war, which most other students have never experienced. We have different ways of dealing with problems or frustrations. Some hold them in and others express them outwardly.

I have found that I can become irritated by insignificant issues and may have to leave the room and go for a walk. My friends tell me my attitude has improved significantly since my first day back into civilian life, but I know I still have a lot of room for improvement.

My Navy experience has given me a renewed appreciation of the freedoms I have regained, which I had to give up while following the authoritarian regime of military life.

Learning to find a balance between veteran and student life can be disconcerting. The disorganized world of college clashes with the strict ideals I was instilled with in the military. Sometimes I wonder if I’m not as good at handling stress as other students.

The memories of the military can be difficult to overcome, but those memories, both good and bad, will always be with me and I am glad to have them.

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