As President Barack Obama announced the milestone decision Aug. 31 to withdraw combat troops from Iraq, Austin Stukins watched the situation with a mixed opinion.
Stukins, an interior design sophomore, served as a Marine in Iraq, often entering dangerous situations to provide security for several villages. He said withdrawing troops in August was not a good idea because the country put out deadlines and guidelines “for the entire world out there to know.”
“You’re letting the enemy know what you have,” Stukins said. “Because all they’re going to do is wait you out until you leave.”
Stukins is one of several student veterans tasked with readjusting to life as a college student while watching Operation Iraqi Freedom come to an end.
Stukins said Iraq will be much like Japan, Germany and Italy after World War II, where U.S. forces still have bases.
“We helped them to get their freedom, and we still have bases there,” Stukins said. “We will have a presence in the Middle East for a very long time, and thank God we do. Do you want some nut job launching a nuke at the United States?”
Business graduate student Dustin Englehart served two terms in Iraq from 2005 to 2008 and said he saw steady improvement in the years he was there.
“I wasn’t there during the last two years, so I can’t really tell if it got to the point where it was necessary and feasible [to withdraw],” Englehart said. “There was a constant improvement in security conditions and work ethics and Iraqi people standing up for their own country.”
Englehart worked with the Iraqi people on security infrastructure, but he said “the ball is in their court now.”
“There are people there trying to better themselves,” Englehart said. “There wasn’t a whole lot of reward for them. They earned my respect for what they were going through.”
While U.S. troops have ended combative roles in Iraq, soldiers are still there to uphold the security infrastructure and provide support to the government.
Marketing sophomore Eric Fernandez, who has served in Hawaii and Japan, operated a howitzer cannon in Iraq. He said if the Iraqi infrastructure falls apart, then the troops pulled out too quickly.
“We’ve given them our blood and sweat,” Fernandez said. “Are they going to make democracy over there, or are they going to have a civil war?”
Fernandez is currently living in Baton Rouge with two Marines with whom he served in Iraq.
“We’re all pretty competitive now about whoever is making the best grades or getting fat,” Fernandez joked.
Fernandez attended the University of New Orleans in 2003 after he graduated high school, so he said the transition from the military back to school life wasn’t difficult.
“There really isn’t much if I focus on I can’t get accomplished,” Fernandez said. “School is way easier than I remember because I’ve focused.”
Capt. William Conger, assistant military science professor and public affairs officer for Student Veterans of LSU, said there are about 400 student veterans attending the University.
Conger said SVLSU helps veterans with their GI Bills, tuition assistance and mentoring programs.
Stukins and Englehart are both members of SVLSU, which helps soldiers returning to student life cope with post-traumatic stress disorder and adjust to a civilian setting.
Both students are now adjusting to student life, but Stukins said if he could go back to Iraq and do his mission again, he would do it in a heartbeat.
“Every single day I was there I made a difference in people’s lives,” Stukins said. “You see it in how they express their gratitude. They’re thankful for every little thing they have in life.”
As soldiers adjust to life at the University, they go from a routine, regimented life to a life of classrooms and tests.
“It’s one of the most difficult transitions I’ve ever done because you have to get used to a completely different way of life,” Stukins said. “Nothing is what you’d consider the norm. You can’t allow yourself to get angry and upset because a civilian does not move with the same speed a Marine does.”
But some reciprocations from battle still linger, including heightened senses and nerves.
“I may have lost 60 percent of my hearing, but I’m still aware of everything that goes on around me,” Stukins said. “I’m very on edge.”
 
 
 
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Contact Catherine Threlkeld at [email protected]