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The country is ill-prepared provide assistance to the large number of Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans currently returning to the United States, according to PCC student veterans.

The veterans, who had served in Afghanistan, were part of a panel discussion with a mostly civilian audience, following a screening of the award-winning documentary “Restrepo” in the Creveling Lounge.

United States Army Sgt. Aaron Hervol, the oldest of the panel members, expressed concern about the future prospects of all incoming veterans.

Only 40,000 troops will be returning due to Iraq drawdown, Hervol said, so the greater concern is the 2 million troops from both wars who will be retiring over the next 10 to 15 years.

“With the high unemployment [rate],” he said, “America is in no way ready for the deluge of veterans getting out.”

Hervol, who signed up in 1996, said he began his service during peacetime.

“[However,] a lot of these guys have only been in a war zone,” he said. “How are they going to adapt when they get out of the military?”

Sgt. Matthew Sanders, United States Army, who was deployed twice to Afghanistan, four times to Iraq, said: “Over the next four to six years, we’re going to have a lot of pissed of veterans [returning].”

In addition to the high unemployment rate, Sanders said, veterans will find they have to fight government bureaucracy to get the benefits they earned.

Sanders predicted that veterans would join the American “99 percent” movement to “reclaim the middle class.”

Hervol said a lot depends on whether the Department of Veterans Affairs will be prepared for the return of the large number of veterans.

“[The VA is going to] be unleashed with a group of people that are smart, sophisticated and have a lot of training,” he said. Some, from their long period of combat service, may not come back “right in the head.”

In regards to religious organizations eager to offer help to veterans, Sanders recommended a cautious approach. Organizations should not make assumptions about a veteran’s religious views.

He said there is a mix of religious backgrounds and beliefs amongst veterans, so it’s better to take a “center line” approach to veterans, he said.

The best assistance, said combat medic Sgt. David Old, nursing, who served in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley where the documentary “Restrepo” was filmed, came from fellow veterans.

“The best medicine is having the company of other veterans,” Old said. He said communication amongst veterans allowed them to “work things out together.”

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