Okla. Iraq veterans transition to life at home

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Okla. Iraq veterans transition to life at home
By Mick Hinton - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Feb 28, 2009 17:02:47 EST

NORMAN, Okla. — Soldiers from Oklahoma’s 45th Infantry Brigade who returned from Iraq in October congregated by the hundreds Saturday to participate in the state’s first reintegration program for servicemen impacted by war.

Many heard a touching story from Cyndi Collins-Clark, who works as a counselor but said she found it impossible to discover what was happening to her son. Joe Collins of Edmond eventually was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, something that can inflict one in five servicemen in combat.

At age 19, Joe Collins had been in the Army Reserve nearly two years when he signed up for duty in Iraq and arrived in March 2003.

After 366 days — Collins-Clark has those days memorized — he returned looking healthy as ever, she said.

She described her son in a booklet the family has put together as “strong, muscular and walking with confidence as people stopped to shake his hand and thank him for his duty to our country.”


Rest of article at: http://armytimes.com/news/2009/02/ap_okla_soldiers_reintegration_022809/%2e