The day after Sept. 11, 2001, Eliot Davis joined the Army.
Over the course of more than four years as an infantryman, Davis deployed to both Afghanistan and Iraq. Multiple deployments aren’t uncommon for the newest generation of veterans.
But on Friday, 14 years after 9/11, Davis and his family were much closer to home, as they joined a group at the Hilo Vet Center for a lunch and open house.
The event started a few years ago, Vet Center team leader Felipe Sales said, and is part of the National Day of Service and Remembrance.
In 2009, Congress gave Sept. 11 this designation as a means of honoring the lives lost during 2001’s terror attacks and to celebrate the volunteers who came together afterwards. It is, according to the Corporation for National and Community Service, “an annual and forward-looking tribute.”
At the Vet Center, the day is an opportunity to let more veterans know about the counseling services available to them as they transition to civilian life, and to encourage them to tell their stories.
One of Sales’ goals is helping veterans become more engaged with the community so people don’t forget about the toll of war.
“I don’t like the idea that people are growing a little apathetic,” he said, adding that turnout for this year’s Memorial Day ceremonies was particularly low. Getting veterans — and their stories — out and about is a way to stem this.
“But that’s hard, because a lot don’t want to tell them,” Sales said.
To date, more than 2.5 million Americans, about 1 percent of the country’s adult population, have fought in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. A poll conducted last year by The Washington Post and Kaiser Family Foundation found that more than half of the veterans had a difficult time reintegrating into their communities after they returned.
The same poll found that 41 percent of veterans felt uncomfortable talking about their experiences with strangers or casual acquaintances.
Davis’ father and uncle both fought in the Vietnam War, and he had heard about their own adjustment struggles when they returned. He said there’s more community awareness now about veteran needs and more acceptance of the challenges faced, such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
Sales, a sergeant in the Marine Corps who served in Vietnam beteween 1966 and 1967, agreed.
“I struggled for decades to get to where I’m at,” he said. “Readjustment counseling wasn’t there.”
He reminds the younger generation that “we can circumvent that.”
“Struggle for these few years, and then you can get on with your life,” he said.
Davis and his family are active in Vet Center activities: Davis attends potluck meetings regularly, and his wife handles group meetings for caretakers.
“There should be more (veterans) here,” he said. “I go to school with a lot of them, and I don’t see them here.”
“This is not an easy group to access,” Sales said.
The Readjustment Counseling Service, though part of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, is its own separate agency and receives separate funding.
Since the agency was created in the 1980s, funding has typically been “at or a little better than what we need,” Sales said. That’s what keeps the outreach programs and infrastructure going. These include not only counseling for individual veterans, but for their families as well.
Events like the open house are vital to readjusting because returnees often do feel comfortable talking to fellow veterans.
“The number one thing I care about is building a relationship,” said Job Leialoha, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq in 2008 and is now a full-time Vet Center employee.
When veterans return from deployment, he said, they tend to stay home, making the adjustment even more difficult. Isolation is also a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder.
“They feel comfortable here,” Leialoha said. “It’s as normal as possible for them.”
Leialoha suffered debilitating anxiety attacks after returning from deployment, but didn’t realize he had a problem until a counselor at the center took him aside and pointed out that something was wrong. Leialoha was a work-study student at the time.
As a regular employee, he’s made it his mission to reach out to as many fellow veterans as possible, to let them know what services are available to them, and to let them know that they are not alone. The pay-it-forward attitude is typical of veterans, he said.
Readjusting takes constant work, Leialoha said. He pointed to the recent example of three American servicemen who last month thwarted a possible terrorist attack on a French train.
“They were vigilant,” Leialoha said. “That’s what vets are like 24/7. It’s not a switch you can turn off.”
Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.