VA visits make for interesting stories

SDSU veterans talk reading, writing

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BROOKINGS – “Grab some food and settle in for story time.”

With that nudge from instructor Amber Jensen, about a dozen students – veterans, service members or dependents – do just that, helping themselves to slices of pizza as several large-size boxes are passed around. There is also plenty of pop to wash it down.

It’s time for the fortnightly meeting of the Veterans Writing Workshop/Book Club, in the comfortable and homey setting of the newly constructed Veterans Affairs Resource Center, which opened in March on the campus of South Dakota State University. There is a hint of military setting: the insignias of America’s five armed forces are displayed on a wall.

The text for the class is “Red, White, & True: Stories from Veterans and Families, World War II to Present.” The story for this class session is “False Positive.” It’s one of 32. The author is Alejandro Mujica. In the first person, he talks about his return visit to a VA Medical Center. It’s five pages in length and Jensen reads it word for word, start to finish and no one interrupts.

When she’s done, there is a lengthy pause before discussion begins. It will be spirited, because several of the veterans have dealt with the same sort of VA medical facility that Mujica visited.

Mujica’s story ends on a less than positive, but not necessarily negative note, with Mujica thinking: “The only relief is that I am better off than most, it appears. Yet I’m leaving with so many unanswered questions about how to deal with what and who I am, and worse … now I don’t even know who to ask.”

Same questions year after year

With Mujica’s story behind them, it’s time for group discussion. First to weigh in is retired Sgt. 1st Class Roger Hansen, with 30-plus years of combined service in the regular Army and the South Dakota Army National Guard. He deployed a year to Kuwait and Iraq in 2003 and a year to Afghanistan in May 2011.

“It’s interesting how many of those same questions come up every time I go to the VA,” Hansen said, in reference to the questions Mujica was asked at the VA. “I’m headed down there (Sioux Falls) tomorrow, so I know I’m going to be asked these same questions. They ask me every year.”

Four of those questions that Mujica mentions in his story deal with drinks per month, thoughts about harming self or others, recurring dreams of a service-related experience, and fantasizing about suicide.

“You have to just take (the questions) head on,” said Russ Chavez, SDSU director for Veterans Affairs and himself a veteran.

Hansen wonders if there are any right or wrong answers, adding, “However it is, bore right in.” A response might be too much or two little.

The group now gets involved, with their thoughts about the drinking question driving discussion. “How many drinks per month … six or more seems to be a magic number … what is the size of the beer cans you’re drinking from,” elicits some laughter.

“You feel like an experiment, like a hamster,” one student noted, referencing 20 or so questions that may be asked during a VA visit.

“The one feeling that I had the first time I went into the VA, and I’m older than you guys, was that the VA has that old persona of only old guys using the VA,” Chavez said. “That was the hardest part.

“I’ve got some disabilities going on. When I first went there I thought this is for other people to use, not me.”

Pleased with VA services

While there was some lighthearted banter and joking about Mujica’s experiences, the group pretty much sees the VA in a positive light.

 “All my experiences with the VA have been fairly good,” one said. “The doctors that I’ve had have seemed to take pretty good care of me. But they do have their limitations.”

“They also will farm you out if you can’t get in to see your specialist,” another noted. “That’s a good thing. You can be seen locally. You don’t have the drive time.”

Hansen spoke approvingly about his ability to get some of his health care right here in Brookings via the Veterans Choice Program. The Veterans Health Administration explains that the VCP “is a benefit that allows eligible veterans to receive health care from a community provider rather than waiting for a VA appointment or traveling to a VA facility.” 

The group consensus was that the multiple benefits offered by the VA were earned by military service and there should be no reluctance to use them.

There is per se no theme for each meeting. The selected story drives discussion. Jensen explained that the students often look at “the family side of things and deployments. … Some that are a little more political; there are some that are more about family situations.”

Jensen, whose husband Blake is a veteran who served in Iraq, has no problem describing herself as a “dependent,” a term not as often used now as it used to be to describe a spouse, children or both of a service member or veteran. 

Her story, “Memory Sky,” at 11 pages one of the longest in the book, was discussed at a past session.

“It was looong,” said a smiling, kidding Chavez. “She wouldn’t let us eat until we listened to her whole story. We had nachos that night.”

Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com.