Veterans on campus spend holiday like many other students

When a veteran shares a story of past combat it’s easy to appreciate. Honoring that person is as simple as listening politely, applauding and hopefully shaking hands and thanking them personally.

While attending classes, grabbing a coffee in the bookstore or studying in the library, there may be no special physical distinction from the average student and a veteran.

“This is it,” said Tyson, a man who clearly doesn’t fit the mold for the job he’s taken on, when I asked him what he did at the Veteran’s Office. Tyson looks like a heavyweight boxer, has a full beard and a disarming sense of humor. He does not look like a file clerk.

Stefanie interrupted Tyson: “That’s what we all do,” referring to filing duty.

“Filing and helping veterans get on file and their benefits started,” said Stefanie, a polite mother with a bull-ring septum piercing.

Tyson worked intelligence, or “intel,” for the Navy, Stefanie did interrogations for the Army and the last veteran I interviewed, Estevan, did intelligence analysis.

After five minutes, I was either invisible or one of them; I wasn’t sure. They were laughing, interrupting and teasing each other, bringing to mind the sense of family and camaraderie Stefanie had mentioned in our earlier interview.

“They’re bad-ass. They’re fun to work with,” she said when I asked what she liked most about helping veterans.

“It’s like the military, but not so uptight – I’m allowed to put holes in my face.”

Stefanie, Tyson and Estevan are all going to MHCC and working in the Veteran’s Office. After graduation, Stefanie plans to be an English instructor, a profession she had targeted since high school before deciding to join the Army.

“I was taking AP classes and needed money for college,” she said adding that the job of interrogating was also enticing.

Tyson is headed for management leadership, he says. He has always been interested in business. Last year, for Veterans Day, he and his dad handed out clothes and box lunches to homeless veterans.

“This year, I’m going to try to write a paper. School has really ramped up,” he said.

Estevan spent five years in the Army and two in the Army reserves. He is studying geology, a subject he fell in love with during his first class with instructor Daina Hardisty. He wants to go into economic geology.

He plans to spend time with his family over Veterans Day and said that if a veteran needed help, “I would help them.”

Worker Bees. Bad-asses. All-around cool people, as far as I could tell.

Each veteran I interviewed was calm, polite and above all more than happy to answer any of the questions I had. Mostly, thinking back, they seemed just like any other group of students that have spent a lot of time together — but they’re not just like other students.

Every veteran I talked to has done something I have not: served his or her country in the military.

They have all probably been in situations we all could never imagine or experience even through the best filmmaking. Yet, there they were, filing away, teasing each other about their clothes and going to school – just like you and me.