Two decades after her Army deployment ended in Iraq, Debra Rodriguez still is haunted by the pain and gore she witnessed as a radiologist in a combat support hospital there. The troubling memories are often triggered by viewing military movies, said Rodriguez, noting, “I'm too close to it.”Rodriguez said she never sought professional help for the crying jags and feelings of isolation that punctuated her transition back to civilian life in 1992.
“I was stuck in my own little world,” said the 46 year-old San Antonian. But she jumped at the opportunity to attend a retreat this weekend organized by Grace After Fire, a Texas-based nonprofit that helps military women transition from active duty back to civilian life. Beyond providing a forum where female vets can bond, the event that began Friday at Inn of the Hills includes seminars on topics such as military sexual trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder, healthy living and faith-based meditation.
“I've never before seen anything offered to military women to help us with what we went through,” said Rodriguez. “I want to see if I can put some closure on it,”Building awareness among America's 1.8 million women veterans about resources available from the Department of Veterans Affairs is a major goal of Grace After Fire, which began operations last year. Women constitute about 8 percent of the nearly 23 million veterans nationwide, said Lil Serafine, operations director of the group, and Texas is home to more than 155,000 of them.
“There is not an organization that is targeted specifically to meet the needs of women veterans except ours,” Serafine said. “Our mission is to provide outreach to veterans through confidential peer support and direct access to care for trauma, addiction and other support services.”About 45 vets from the Hill Country and their families are slated to participate in the kickoff event for the group, which functions nationally via its website. Even though she saw no combat, Boerne resident Tammi Jean Franklin knows how difficult returning from overseas can be.
A Navy air traffic controller stationed in Iceland from 1973-77, she felt intimidated upon rejoining the crowded, fast-moving traffic on U.S. roads, and overwhelmed by the plentiful choices of products available in stores here.
“From an isolated deployment in Iceland, my transition back to life in the United States was quite a shock,” said Franklin, 56, an outreach coordinator for Grace After Fire. Women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan face much bigger challenges in reconnecting with family, re-establishing careers and resuming normal routines.
One in five screened reported being the victim of military sexual trauma, Serafine said, and one in three reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Women vets from those conflicts are three times more likely than male counterparts to commit suicide, she said, and four times more likely to be homeless. By comparison, retreat attendee Martha Green said she easily resumed her civilian routine upon leaving the Womens Army Corps in 1953. “We didn't know we were supposed to have problems,” joked Green, 78, of Kerrville, as she arrived at the retreat.