Seven Years After Returning from Iraq, I’m Finally Home
U.S. Army veteran Chris Miller finds new purpose in community service
It was September of 2000 when I joined the Army Reserve. There were no wars going on. I thought it was a good choice to get some money and set up my future. After 9/11, that all changed.
I was mobilized twice to train units that were deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan, and later deployed myself. Those four years changed my perspective on everything.
During that time, I became increasingly motivated to serve my country and my fellow soldiers by going overseas. I volunteered to join a route clearance company and a couple months later I deployed to Ramadi, Iraq. I served with some of the bravest men and best soldiers I’ve ever met. Our three platoons ended our tour with over 500 IED encounters and 35 Purple Hearts.
Those men taught me more about service and sacrifice and what it meant to be a soldier than I ever thought possible. It was an honor to be counted among them.
When I got home in late 2007, it was very surreal. I was so excited to leave the desert and get home to my wife, eat normal food, and not have to worry if all of our guys would come back from each mission. I thought that life would be easy again and that I could pick up where I had left everything.
But after the welcome home parties and sleeping in for a couple weeks, I realized that nothing was the same — that I wasn’t the same.
I started to realize that I was alone.
Even with my family there, I was separated from the guys that I had just gone to war with. They were across the country and I was living in my mom’s basement. I would call the guys and we would talk about what we were doing. But eventually, we would talk about how nothing seemed important anymore and how nothing we were ever going to do in life would be as important as what we had just experienced.
It only took a few months before my wife started telling me that I was a completely different person. She was noticing problems that I was having with easy things. She finally told me that I needed to seek help at VA.
So, I started the long process of figuring out what my life would be from that point forward, and learning about the injuries that I was going to live with. Talk about tough. I was a 25-year-old combat vet in the best shape of my life, being told that I was wounded.
I didn’t know very many vets in my hometown. Even worse, I thought the guys from my unit would think I was weak or faking my problems, so I just didn’t talk to anyone. But I eventually realized that what I needed most was to reestablish a sense of purpose.
An ad for Wounded Warrior Project caught my eye, and I looked into the organization. Not long after that I began to get involved and meet other veterans at events. I built new friendships and started to open my eyes to a new identity.
As I got more and more involved with other veterans in the St. Louis area and around the country, I began to feel better about my life and my future. I met so many people that inspired me to pursue my passions and who reminded me that there are vets out there that are hurting.
Then, at a WWP event in 2013, I met some veterans involved in The Mission Continues. They talked to me about one of their programs that would allow me to pursue my passions, gain experience, serve my community, and be a member of a unit again. They encouraged me to apply for a Fellowship. A few months later I was in Washington, D.C. being welcomed into a new family.
With the living stipend they provided, I was able to gain experience that helped me start my own non-profit organization.
My fellowship host organization, Crisis Aid International, provides humanitarian aid and disaster relief around the world. I was able to work in their inner city food pantry, assist with aid to residents of Ferguson during the protests, and support overseas medical, feeding, and human trafficking rescue projects.
At this point in my life, being a veteran is one of the proudest of all the many hats that I wear. Every time I am able to help another veteran get through that hard transition, it makes me feel good. Every time I help one veteran not become a suicide statistic, I am serving my purpose. For every veteran that doesn’t have to go through this alone, it makes me smile.
Veterans Day should be more than parades and free meals. It’s about a commitment to serve long after leaving the military, and improving the communities we have rejoined. I spent a lot of time thinking about home during my deployments. Now I’m finally here, ready to report for duty again. So let’s get to work.
Visit www.missioncontinues.org and find a new mission in your community.
