Soldiers get "processed" before coming home

We’ve seen several receptions held recently for returning soldiers who served on active duty. It’s a different story from the days of the Vietnam war, when draftees told of having weeks of training before active duty but sometimes only hours’ notice before they found themselves shipped home. Iowa National Guard spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Greg Hapgood says now the soldiers go through a process as they leave active duty. When they leave the “theatre” of operations, Iraq, Afghanistan or wherever they’ve served, they return to the U.S. and the “mobilization station” at which they’d prepared to go, and reverse the process, what Hapgood calls an “out-process.” That includes paperwork, and administrative procedures…and also some medical procedures. To make sure that they’re doing well physically and mentally, and if they have any health issues Hapgood says the Army takes responsibility for those, makes sure they are documented and that treatment is in place. He confirms that process will help military veterans get the proper treatment from the Veterans Administration in the future. Stories about the Vietnam vets returning disoriented and unappreciated have set the stage for a better welcome, Hapgood says. The obvious part is to say “Thank you,” he says — from soldiers thanking neighbors who mowed a lawn while they were gone, to the community thanking a soldier for keeping us free, to the government thanking them for their sacrifice. Hapgood says they take many different forms, but show we learned an important lesson from the Vietnam war. The Vietnam vets didn’t have this, and they’ve had problems ever since with issue from being refused care, to feeling “abandoned” by the government. When the Guard started doing welcome-ceremonies, Hapgood says ‘Nam vets came up to say it was the right thing, and soldiers shouldn’t come home any other way. The military has it down to a science, he says, with teams who swing into action to get a ceremony ready to go when they learn a unit’s set to come home. Today we have about 750 soldiers in Afghanistan, mostly from western and southwestern Iowa, and 750 to 800 Iowa soldiers in Iraq. So there will be homecoming “parties” for them as they return, starting in late May and continuing for a year. Hapgood says the support Iowa gives to its solders and airmen is unparalleled.”There is nothing more important that we do than to tell those soldiers and their families who’ve given so much, ‘Thank you very much’.”