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There are 300 and 400 veterans currently studying at MJC, and many students don't even know that these former servicemen and women are among them. They have been shot at, bombed, blown off buildings, and endured much mayhem. Sent half a world away, they have been through gut-wrenching experiences that are reminiscent of nightmares. This was their reality. This was their job. And they did it -- some are still doing it - they say, because their country asked them to do it.
Ricardo Osuna is a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq war. An MJC student before he enlisted, he is back at school and working in the campus veterans' office part-time. Ricardo is a quiet professional sort, who doesn't brag about his prowess or background as a Marine Corps machine gunner through the murderous streets of Fallujah that often erupted with death, a place where certain people hanged the burnt bodies of Blackwater contract workers on bridges; he just gets the job done. His purpose in life is service to others and to his country. You want him on your side. He doesn't seem the type to have been in war, but this is because he's just like each of you…normal. They all are.
This past summer, Manny Espinola, worked alongside Ricardo in the veteran's office. He is formerly a psychological operations specialist in the US Army. He's unassuming, yet confident. If you didn't know him, it'd be very easy to picture him taking part in top-secret operations, or busting out some James Bond moves. When 9/11 happened, there was Manny, soothing the fears of reservists as they contemplated the upcoming war. As stalwart as he seems, he's also had to face the same fears. Having served two combat tours in Afghanistan, he returned with a greater longing to help others. He wants to be a physician's assistant. He also likes wearing funny bumble-bee costumes for Halloween.
Denny Day, a National Guardsman -- and a mechanic when he's not at war -- is the kind of guy you would expect to play a part like Rambo in an action movie. He is your stereotypical soldier, a GI Joe. He has presence, and you're tempted to wonder how it's possible to have not won the war already with soldiers like him. You really want him on your side; you'd feel sorry for those who are not. Denny volunteered to go to this war twice. He saw it his duty to serve his country in the military when the war first began, and then saw it his duty to deploy a second time in order to ensure that his friends returned home safely. As a reservist, he's had his studies interrupted before when he got called up for Hurricane Katrina relief. After treating many traumatic and horrific wounds in the war as a combat lifesaver, he's back at MJC to pursue a career in nursing. He admits that when a friend first suggested he take up nursing, he laughed at the prospect. It is the opinion of "some" that he should instead be a politician. He's not afraid to take on the system, and he likes talking. He has integrity. He'd be perfect as a civic leader.
Sarah Iglesias is an Army reservist and a combat veteran of the Iraq war. She wants to be a forensic scientist, but in the meantime she loves wearing the uniform with pride. She is a natural born leader who you can count on when in a fight, whether it be in war, or in your personal life. Having gone through the fire, she's that much more of a bastion of strength. She loves her friends and would race through a hail of bullets if that's what it took. She was blown off a roof by a rocket-propelled-grenade as she went to the aid of a friend. She has had to fight twice as hard…just because she is a woman. She has had to work with chauvinistic Iraqi policemen who thought they were better than her. An Iraqi male going through a US checkpoint thought that he could get away with threatening to stab her. He wouldn't have dared say the same to a male soldier. He soon regretted it when he found himself slammed to the ground and thoroughly humiliated by this "infidel" woman. At an airport back in the United States, she has been called a baby-killer, yet she's never killed a baby. No one has said that to her that at MJC - yet.
"I'm fully prepared to answer them, if they do," Iglesias says.
"Instead of asking whether they've killed anyone or picked up any body parts," Day advises, "ask them how they're doing."
According to Carol McKenzie, who serves as the liaison between students and the Department of Veterans Affairs, 340 veterans who are using GI Bill benefits have enrolled so far this semester, up 40 from last semester.
"Many more veterans are enrolled at MJC who either are not using the GI Bill or whose benefits have expired, but I don't have a count of those vets," McKenzie said.
The Veterans Office at MJC helps returning veterans convert their military training and experience into college credit. The office also processes GI Bill entitlements. Some, who have been to other colleges, say that Carol McKenzie is among the best at what she does. She avoids making generalizations about the veteran-students, since there are so many of them - except that "they're very disciplined, very motivated as students." But they are often treated by other students and civilians in general as objects of fascination instead of human beings with their own sorrows and pains. They love greatly, even to the point of laying down their life for a friend. They chose to go to war, they often say, because their country needed people willing to answer the call. They lived the nightmares, the exhaustion, the anguish, believing that someone needed to make the sacrifice of service.
Today, amongst civilians, they must carry on with the hope that this sacrifice will prove to have been for something.
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