by LIBBY WHITTEMORE
photos by CHRISTIN ROSE PALAZZOLO
Dressed in U.S. Army fatigues, a young combat veteran stood idly in an elevator in a University of Oregon residence hall and waited. Just before dinner time in January 2006, twenty-two-year-old Kevin Pelatt was on leave from his base in El Paso, Texas, and visiting his younger brother. He watched silently as the elevator approached the fourth floor.
Without stops, the ride lasts sixteen seconds, and at six-foot-four, Pelatt could easily palm both walls of the unusually petite space and still bend his arms. Red digits, illuminated on a screen, climbed upward and beeped mechanically at every passing floor. Next to him, a passenger braced himself to exit. A bell dinged, they stopped, and the door slid open from the left. After sixteen seconds of mutual silence, the stranger turned to Pelatt, locked eyes with him, and sputtered, “I fucking hate the military.” Then he spit on Pelatt’s chest.
Above : Business student and twenty-six-year-old sergeant Marine reservist Shane Addis Boyum at the University of Oregon. Addis served one tour in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Below: Twenty-six-year-old Jason Kim, a recent graduate of the University of Oregon, guarded the Pentagon with Operation Noble Eagle on September 11, 2001.
This isn’t what Pelatt signed up for. This isn’t what any veteran signs up for.
Educational assistance is a strong incentive for many enlistees. The United States Veteran’s Benefits Administration provided educational assistance benefits to more than 470,000 student veterans in the 2006 fiscal year, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office. At any one point in time, University of Oregon Veterans Coordinator Nadine Clark assists approximately 250 students in receiving their government-sponsored financial aid. And the University of Oregon’s Veterans Family and Student Association (VFSA), a support network for members of the armed forces and their families in the Eugene community, estimates that almost 100 students utilize their services.
University of Oregon students Ben Mangin, Shane Addis, and Jason Kim, like so many active service members, enlisted for the tuition assistance and the chance to attend the University of Oregon. After his parents went bankrupt and lost their house, Addis knew the military and Governor Kulongoski’s Voyager Tuition Assistance Program were his only tickets to college. Kim signed a two-year contract because his only options after high school were to work or attend community college; when it expired, he signed a six-year contract with the National Guard to earn in-state tuition. Mangin entered the military straight from his job at Jiffy Lube. Broke and just out of high school, he didn’t know what he wanted to do with his life.
“I knew I wanted to go to college, but I didn’t have any money, and I just wasn’t ready for college yet. Clinton was in office, there wasn’t really much going on — it was a pretty sweet gig,” he says. “Obviously everything changed once Bush took office.”
Mangin, Addis, and Kim are home and attempting to be what they set out to be: students.
When the current administration invaded Iraq in early 2003, Mangin, Addis, and Kim had already enlisted. These three soldiers, and so many other college students in the armed forces, were expecting an education, not a war. Four years into the current conflict, Mangin, Addis, and Kim are home and attempting to be what they set out to be: students. But not everyone wants to help them.
In the summer of 2006, a University of Oregon psychology lab fired twenty-six-year-old Kim because his annual training for the National Guard conflicted with his hours. The lab would not accommodate his schedule. “They basically just said goodbye,” he sighs.
A few months later in the fall of 2006, another lab fired Kim because of complications resulting from his Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Kim guarded the Pentagon with Operation Noble Eagle on September 11, 2001 and was recently diagnosed with the condition. He says his supervisor swore at him, told him he’d messed up, and kicked him out with no notice. “I do have problems in certain environments,” he says, “and they kind of harassed me about it. They basically said ‘you’re a waste of time — get out.’”
Kim addressed his concerns to Oregon congressman Peter DeFazio and senator Ron Wyden in an April 2007 meeting on campus with VFSA members. He also filed a complaint in January 2007 with the Bias Response Team, a campus organization that helps to resolve incidents and support victims of discriminatory actions. The lab, however, only responded to the complaint three months later when Kim threatened to take the issue to a public venue.
Kim volunteers at the VFSA with twenty-four-year-old Sergeant Shane Addis. A university junior and Marine reservist from Portland, Addis served eight months in Iraq during OIF 3 — the third installment of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Because he’s in the Marine reserves, Addis puts on his uniform one weekend a month and drives to his post to train in the field. But sometimes the weekend begins on a Wednesday. And sometimes he has a midterm on Friday. Sometimes his only decent meal and night of sleep come on Sunday evening during the few hours he has to rest and catch up on homework.
