Gulf War Illness

Robert

Gender: Male
Background: Birthday: October 1971

Racial or Ethnic Identification: Asian/Pacific Islander

Branch of Military:Army

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Robert was a military child, moving around a lot, and later joined at the age of 18, deploying within the same year. He has three brothers that were in other branches, his father served in Vietnam, and grandfather in WWII. Robert served on active Army duty and was deployed to the Gulf War as tank crewman. During his deployment he began to experience gastric symptoms with intermittent flares that continued after the war. He also felt bloating, fatigue, and insomnia while in the Gulf, he believes due to stressors put on the body. But after returning home, his symptoms did not subside. He began having panic attacks, flashbacks, and nightmares. He also became diagnosed with diabetes in 2006.

After returning home from the war, he took a couple years to himself and then returned to school. He was a probation officer for the juvenile system and then a trucker for 10 years. He never married but has one daughter. When his daughter’s mother died from alcoholism when his daughter was 13, he stopped trucking and focused on raising her, accepting a position at a Vet Center to continue helping other Veterans find resources and assistance. When it was time for her to go to college, Robert decided to join her and lived in the dorms, completing a four-year college with the assistance from the Vocational Rehabilitation program provided from the VA.

Robert had many struggles with substance abuse and has a hard time connecting with other people. He has attempted to utilize Veteran resources such as the vocational rehabilitation program and counseling and describes having positive VA experiences. He said his daughter has been the biggest help of all. He has attempted to feel better by following diets (such as Paleo), spiritual meditation, yoga, and watersports.

He would like his fellow Veterans to understand that they are not alone, and it is never too late to reflect and think about your time in service. He feels that there should be more outreach programs as people exit the service and requests that the political hurdles are removed so people do not feel discouraged and can find the VA, advocate for it, and utilize their services.

 

Robert recommends using VSOs and Vet Centers

Robert recommends using VSOs and Vet Centers

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I tell some of the guys that, gosh I wish I would have known about what a Veteran center was before, when I got out. But I mean at the time, I mean there are 300 across the country right now, but now I mean I don't know what it was like ’93, ’94 how many. But had I had a place to kind of, besides going to a county Veteran service office and just getting benefits and everything, I probably really needed to talk to somebody to kind of debrief and readjust and everything. And, I tell guys, you know it’s a place where you can talk, come in and talk about things that may be of concern to you, you know difficulties you may face and everything. Not just about receiving benefit information, but about maybe some of the challenges you might experience, and that you may not realize that you need something until you do it, you know. And that’s what I tell them, like you probably don’t realize that you need something until you actually try it or do it. So, you know. But, you know, it’s still a challenge but yeah it’s like we’re out at the community colleges and other places too, to, and sometimes we have successes, and sometimes it takes a lot longer. And you may not see them until ten years down the line, but eventually you’ll probably see them, though. But it’s, the earlier the better, I think, yeah. Yeah I wish I would have had, I honestly wish, based upon what I’m going through here that I had this place exiting the service. That I was directed to this place before exiting the service.

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