U. New Jersey, Jersey VA Help Fort Hood Troops in Texas

After returning home from Iraq in 1992, John Lurker struggled to restart a normal life.

By Seth Augenstein/The Star-Ledger

The Desert Storm Army veteran changed jobs frequently. He had marriage troubles and eventually divorced. He especially had problems dealing with conflict, he said, refusing to yield to other people even when he knew he was on the wrong side of an argument.

“There was no empathy. No sympathy. It was only ‘preservation mode,’” he said.

At his lowest point last year, feeling distressed and out of sorts, he called the “Vet2Vet” helpline, run by UMDNJ, where he was directed to seek to professional help and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome.

With the benefit of professional help, the Hackettstown man’s life started to improve, he said.

But it all began with the helpline.

Soldiers on active duty will now have the the chance to get the same type of help.

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, which runs the 5-year-old Vet2Vet program with the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, is offering a new “Vets4Warriors” helpline to the soldiers of Fort Hood in Texas, the most populous Army base in the nation.

As of Tuesday, the Vets4Warriors program is now providing 24-hour help to the roughly 50,000 soldiers who are stationed at Fort Hood. Whether it’s depression, thoughts of suicide, alcohol problems or just advice about how to navigate the military echelons, the veterans staffing the phone lines are listening and offering advice.

The helpline becomes available after a spate of suicides at Fort Hood. The number of soldiers who committed suicide doubled to 22 in 2010, according to the Army. It was the most suicides on an Army base since at least 2003, despite the fact that there are about 150 behavioral health workers on staff at the base, according to Army officials. On one September weekend alone last year, there were four suicides, according to Christopher Kosseff, the president and CEO of UMDNJ’s University Behavioral HealthCare, which administers the call center.

“Fort Hood has a particular problem with suicide. We don’t know why that is,” said Kosseff.

Kosseff said he went to a Department of Defense suicide prevention task force meeting last year, and spoke to several military officials about expanding the helpline outside of New Jersey.

After the four suicides on the last weekend in September, Kosseff said, he thought the helpline could be of service at Fort Hood. In addition to their firsthand experience with the military, all of the veterans have training in counseling servicemen.

The Vet2Vet helpline has fielded nearly 18,000 calls since 2005, and the call operators say they feel their work has been successful.

Veteran Chuck Arnold fielded Lurker’s first call to the hotline. Arnold served in Vietnam and returned from war in 1969 about 50 pounds lighter. He said he soon developed a drinking problem and had to pick up the pieces of his life after coming home.

“When I came back from Vietnam, we had nothing,” Arnold said. “When you’re in the military, time doesn’t stop — but it stops for you.”

Tuesday morning, the center received its first call from a distressed soldier at Ft. Hood.

Arnold and the other UMDNJ staffers at Piscataway call center said they have “no idea” what to expect from from Fort Hood, either in terms of number of calls, or what problems they may confront.

Workers speculate that soldiers who are still active might not want to call, but the anonymity of the calls could also encourage some to reach out for help.

Jonathan Mendoza, a 28-year-old former Marine from Piscataway, is one of the call operators who will be fielding calls from Fort Hood. He served two tours in Iraq, fought for several months in Afghanistan, and upon coming home sought immediate help for what he calls a “minor” case of PTSD. His experiences will help out those who come after him, he said.

“I’ve seen my share of war,” he said. “I’ve found having someone to talk to is the best medication. What better way to help out people who are going through what I’ve gone through?”

Lurker, who came home from battle two decades ago, said his life is steadily improving.

“I’m dealing with a lot of the issues that were on the back shelf for 20 years,” he said.