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Mar 28, 2008 10:48 am US/Eastern
O'Malley, Mikulski Discuss Services For Vets
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
The Maryland National Guard saw one of the largest overseas deployments during this war on terror, and now those soldiers are coming home.
Peggy Lee reports Maryland's government has committed thousands to help them reintegrate back to regular life.
Deployed overseas for months, our Maryland National Guardsmen are finally home.
Earlier this month at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, they landed to a hero's welcome.
"This is what it's all about, right here. Coming home and seeing the appreciation and the gratitude of the people at home for what we do," said Sgt.Marcais Johnson.
But after serving in combat for roughly a year, returning to reality isn't easy.
"My first incident was basically, I'm driving to work in the morning down 270 and I see a car burning on the side of road, and I just get off the exit and go the other way. My wife actually noticed, there's something wrong here," said Guardsman Staff Sgt.Gamaliel Burgos.
According to the Department of Defense, within the first year home 10 to 25 percent of guardsmen suffer from post traumatic stress disorder. Twenty percent end up in divorce or separation.
"I think my biggest adjustment was my two-year-old. I left her when she was a year, and when I came back, she's a two-year-old. She's set in her ways," said Staff Sgt. Iris Cruz-Story.
On Thursday, Governor O'Malley and Senator Barbara Mikulski met with guardsmen to discuss improving reintegration by making benefits available to combat veterans indefinitely.
"We've got to help these guardsmen and we can't do it only with volunteers, we got to do with real services and real financial backup," said Mikulski.
Senator Mikulski says the federal government failed to earmark funds for the National Guard. She's fighting for $45 million for guardsmen across the country.
Governor O'Malley has committed $800,000 for their reintegration.
Under the program Partners In Care, 48 Maryland churches offer assistance to returning guardsmen.
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