Veterans on PTSD, sexism, diversity
For four years, public radio station WYSO-FM (91.3) has run an unusual project in which military veterans interview one another about their experiences for broadcast. This season’s “Veterans’ Voices” project ran during the fall and was a collaboration between the Yellow Springs station and Wright State University’s Veteran and Military Center.
The project was originally part of Veterans Coming Home, a national public media initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and now receives funding from Ohio Humanities.
The series features stories of Miami Valley veterans who
Focusing on entrepreneurship to fight PTSD
Beavercreek Air Force veteran Jason Evatt is the founder of a web store called Airborne Outfitters, which makes and sells camping supplies. Evatt’s business grew out of his determination to overcome PTSD.
Evatt was interviewed by Navy veteran and fellow Wright State University student, Jeremy Tkach of Dayton.
Jason Evatt: One day, three of my NCOs (non-commissioned officers) grabbed me. We were monkeying around, but they ended up taping me and tying me to a big pushcart that we used to put parachutes on. So they wheel me outside and I figured they were just going to leave me out there and let me be cold for a minute.
But what they actually did was take turns waterboarding me. I had no idea what that was. I just knew it was the scariest thing I ever experienced in my life. It shook me. I tried to play it off afterwards, but I was a wreck.
I’m a year and a half in the military and I don’t know what’s right, what’s wrong. I know what feels right and wrong, and whatever. Anyway, fast forward to 2014 and I was struggling. I talked to my commander and said, “I need to go get some help.” I went and talked to a psychologist and two weeks and 200 questions later, she diagnosed me with PTSD. But there’s deployments to the Middle East and a lot of stuff that kind of added up.
Anyway, I’d get off work at the end of the day and I’d go home and I wouldn’t have something to occupy my time. I do not do well with idle hands, so I looked at what else can I do in addition to work so that I’m not going to have to think about things after work when I have down time.
The thing I always went back to was: Where’s my passion? My passion is in the outdoors. I said: You know what? I’m going to go to the library. And I went to the library every day and checked out an entrepreneurial book, and I read like 12 books in 22 days, or something like that. So I went and bought a sewing machine and got busy. And the things that I made were garbage, but it was something. And then I kept honing that craft and got better at it.
By the way, I went from being in a very horrible place mentally to having something to focus on. Then I continued with therapy and started taking the meds — and that’s when my world became normal again. It felt like a crane lifted me out of the ditch and put me back on the road, and I was great after that. So it gave me a light at the end of tunnel.
We all know that alcohol and self-medicating does not fix your problems. A
lot of us have been there. Neither does suicide. If I can do it, anybody else can do it. You don’t have to create a business. You can do whatever. You can learn to play music or you can start a non-profit, or whatever you’re passionate about. Had it not been for having something like that to focus on, the outcome could have obviously been different.
Gender stereotypes couldn’t keep these women out of their careers
The role of women is expanding in the military, yet gender stereotypes remain. Army veterans and Wright State students Loghan Young of Huber Heights and Ericka Carter of Dayton pursued career paths in the military that defied expectations.
Ericka Carter: So how I became a diesel mechanic is, on my ASVAB (the Army National Guard suitability test) I scored highest in administration, second highest in cooking, and third highest in mechanics. And I was so surprised, I don’t have a mechanic bone in my body. So I thought I already know how cook and I know how to file. I’m very good at those things, so I don’t want to do those because I know how. Oh, and they said I shouldn’t. That was a big one.
Loghan Young: The recruiter said that you shouldn’t?
Carter: Everybody said, “Don’t be a diesel mechanic. That’s not for you. That’s not for girls. No, don’t do it.” Sign me up! So I get a lot of “Oh?” “Uh-uh!” and “You lying.” But I still have a tool box just as big as me.
Young: That’s exactly ... I scored high in administration and cooking. And I was really good at mechanic stuff, so they were like, “Well, you can be a cook or you can be a truck driver, and you should probably be a cook.” And I said, “I’m good. I don’t want to be a cook. Sign me up for the truck driver thing.” And they said, “Well, you’re’ kind of small and won’t be able to see out the windows.” And everyone said you can’t be female and a truck driver in the Army and I said that’s exactly what I want to do.
Carter: So, in basic they take away all your stuff, right? So they took away my curling iron and took away all that other stuff and you got to be just your uniform and what they give you. When I finally got all my stuff back I was like, oh my gosh! Curling iron, we’re about to be doing it again. Make-up and so forth and so on. I kept my nails and would wear gloves. I would wear a hair net over my hair and still kept it done. I still would wear my make-up every day. I was still going to be me. I was still going to be fun. Because I like being the opposite of the stereotype. Like yes, me in my heels under trucks. If the auto part didn’t weigh more than 40 pounds, I wasn’t playing with it. I was a girl who got to play with the big-boy toys, and that was amazing.
Young: Definitely. Every time I see a woman, I wonder if she was in. I wonder which branch. I automatically assume someone was in, rather than not.
Carter: I’m sure you’ve had similar experiences where you walk in with your husband and they turn to him and ignore you.
Young: I used to have that problem a lot. My husband and I were dual military, so we were in at the same time. And they would call to make my appointments and they’d say they needed the sponsor’s Social. And I’d say, “No, I’m giving you the sponsor’s Social. I am the sponsor.” And they’d say, “No Ma’am, we need your husband’s information.” And I’d say, “No! I’m the veteran myself. I’m the active duty service member. This is my Social. I need to make an appointment for myself.” And served in a variety of conflicts and branches of service and focuses on the veterans’ stories of re-entry into civilian life. The stories are reported by student veterans attending Wright State who are trained in WYSO’s Community Voices model, in which local people learn the techniques of long-form radio reporting.
Veterans’ Voices is supported by Wright-Patt Credit Union and was produced by Will Davis. To hear the stories and others in the station’s Community Voices series, visit wyso.org. We published several of these interviews in recent weeks, and today we’re reprinting the last of them courtesy of WYSO. they’d say, “Oh, OK, I’m sorry.”
Carter: It’s crazy. Young: Describe what a veteran looks like to you.
Carter: A veteran to me is short, tall, thin, a little thick ... a woman.
American- and Russian-born veterans share similarities, differences
The American military is diverse, and it’s where many men and women first learn how to build relationships with people from different cultures. Army veteran and Wright State University student David Berry of Springfield was raised in the United States, and Navy veteran Pyotr Dobrotvorsky of Yellow Springs was raised in Russia. Here, they talk about the differences and similarities of their native countries, their cultures and themselves.
Pyotr Dobrotvorsky: In Russian culture, there’s a rite of passage, so to speak. There’s an expectation that you’re not a man until you have served in the military. Until then, you are a boy.
David Berry: So in Russia, there’s a conscription?
Dobrotvorsky: Russia has conscription. There’s a standing draft. It’s currently one year. It was recently lowered from two years.
Berry: And does that matter which country’s military, or just the military in general?
Dobrotvorsky: It actually doesn’t matter which country’s military as long as you serve. I considered the Russian military, of course. However, right around the time that I was joining, the Russian military had a very large hazing problem. The other thing, the Russian military does not get paid. You get cigarette ration money, which I think when I was looking at it added up to around $36 a month, or so, which is more than enough to smoke a pack a day in Russian prices. But at the end of the day, it was a financial decision to join the U.S. military.
Berry: What’s the biggest difference between U.S. culture and Russian culture?
Dobrotvorsky: When you land in Russia, forget everything you know from the United States. The power outlets look different. There are no BIC lighters. It’s an entirely different way of doing things. It’s like landing in a human system that has been evolving in a different direction from the United States for the last 1,000 years, which is exactly what it is. During my time in the U.S. military, I wasn’t allowed to visit because it would have been a huge problem for me as a dual citizen to go back and visit Russia. So the first thing I did when I got out of the military was I went back to visit Russia.
Berry: And what brought you to that decision?
Dobrotvorsky: First of all, I wanted to receive health care on a semi-permanent basis which was a lot easier to do as a simple Russian citizen than it was as a veteran at the VA here in the U.S. Yeah. It’s sad, but it’s true.
Berry: So when you went back to Russia, do you announce to people that you’re U.S. Navy, or is that something you avoid?
Dobrotvorsky: You know, I generally don’t. To be perfectly honest with you, I tried to blend in. I keep a low profile. To be honest with you, I do the same thing here in the United States. Most people in passing do not know I’m a Russian citizen. They don’t know I speak Russian . ... The moment you bring it up, you get asked a million political questions.
Berry: So what about the mindsets? You got a good idea of what the mindset of our society is. What can you tell us about the mindset of Russian culture?
Dobrotvorsky: Well, I don’t want to make any blanket statements. People from both countries run the wild gamut. But, in general, I’ve noticed that society in the United States values ownership of things and appearance, as opposed to survivability and happiness, if you will. Russians have a very grim survivalist outlook. They know the very, very fine difference between need and want. You need food, water, and warm shelter. Anything else is a want.
Berry: How was it being a dual citizen for you in the U.S. Navy?
Dobrotvorsky: One of the things I learned when I was in is that the struggles that a lot of soldiers, sailors, and Marines worldwide face are very, very similar. I’ve had discussions with Italian soldiers, and French soldiers, and Russian veterans, and we complain about the same things: inspections, the food, the uniforms are stuffy. It’s the same things. And it sort of reinforced my idea of military service as a rite of passage because I think joining the military, any military, has a positive effect on a man’s life.