Boots On Campus: A different kind of student

Veterans are a group within our society that is often misunderstood or misrepresented by our media. We often look like ordinary members of society; however, we behave and think quite differently. Veterans struggle with reintegration into normal daily life. No two things work the same for each veteran. For me, I struggled with the reality of my deployment to Afghanistan in 2012.

Afghanistan was a particularly terrible place, which somehow I have come to miss. The expanse of desert in the southern provinces of Afghanistan had brutal heat and sand that found its way into every place imaginable and a stench, unlike anything I have ever smelled before. In Helmand province, improvised explosive devices were the predominant threat to all coalition forces. My job as a combat engineer required that my unit search for these elusive devices made of homemade explosives.

The difficulty of “route clearance” is that you never know what is beneath you. The brutal reality is, sometimes you have to find IEDs the hard way – setting them off accidentally. Litter, potholes, lines in the sand, and virtually any other disturbance in the ground was an indicator to us. The rush of adrenaline when you find one is high, which does not compare to anything else. We lived on the edge, knowing full well that at any time we could be hit.

For your typical college student, these experiences are unfathomable. Since we have experienced the world in such a dramatically different way, our thought process is alien to that of the typical student. We have seen the worst that humanity can do to itself, the purest forms of hatred and disregard for human life.

Nearly every veteran has, to some degree, post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD is not what defines us, though; we do not see ourselves as victims but rather participants in the harsh reality of war. War, since its inception, has been and will remain the worst part of humanity. However, war serves a very real purpose. War requires young men and women to answer the call, set aside their personal lives, and potentially make the sacrifice for each other.

We are a different breed of Americans; we answered when the call came, and we did it not for recognition but for the sake of those who could not or would not. We did it for the American people, for the people of Iraq and Afghanistan, and for each other.

In the future, I wish to address questions of the community, fellow veterans, and the student body. By using this medium as a place to connect, understand and explain important issues within society from not only my point of view but the viewpoints of many of my fellow veterans here on campus.

Peter Bronner is a junior studying war and peace studies. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. What questions do you have for veterans on Ohio University's campus? Let Peter know by tweeting him pb124614@ohio.edu.