Despite Post Traumatic Stress and Deployments, Soldiers Earn Their Degrees

Today has been more than 11 years coming for Specialist Alejandro Ramirez.

In the last ten years, he has served three combat missions in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq.

When he returned home from the two wars, his battles were far from over.

Ramirez suffered from Post Traumatic Stress. His platoon had served amid the deadliest period of the Iraq War, and Ramirez saw horrors on the streets of Baghdad.

Once home, his friends and family said he was “no longer fun to be around.”

His psychologist told him he was “addicted to adrenaline.”

Ramirez struggled to find his bearings outside of combat.

It was through college that Ramirez reconnected with the goals he had before deployment. In 2000, he had enrolled in college but couldn’t keep up with his classes between training and deployment with the National Guard.

However, today Ramirez will graduate along with 46 other members of the military, all of whom understand just how hard and how important it was for Ramirez to earn his degree

They are students at Columbia College on the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base, and they will graduate this afternoon at the Queen Mary.

For many, this college has provided a way to get a degree through programs that accommodate the realities of military life: training, deployments and occasional long hours. 

Columbia College Director Carl David, a retired colonel, said there are currently about 125 students for every eight-week term and that the campus is growing.

Based in Columbia, MO, the college has 34 campuses around the country, with 18 of those on military bases, and about a quarter of their students are in the military, according to their website. The Los Alamitos campus was founded in 1997.

It offers majors in criminal justice, business administration, and general studies. Several classes are offered online. Tuition at the school costs about $6,000 a year, or about $24,000 for the four years. But this cost, along with the cost of books, fees and living expenses can be covered by the 9/11 GI Bill.

Many such as Ramirez have gravitated to Columbia College because it is designed to accommodate the life of a soldier.

He struggled through the normal student challenges such as learning how to read large amounts of material in a short time and finding the time to study. (Ramirez has since learned how to speed read and review textbooks quickly, techniques he's shared with his friends who are also in college and with his high school-aged nephews.)

But one of his biggest struggles was overcoming his post-traumatic stress suffered as a result of missions in Iraq. 

“We saw, just, horror in the streets of Baghdad,” Ramirez said. He was there during the most dangerous period right after the invasion in 2003 through 2005. His particular platoon did two to three missions daily, with each person rotating among the three jobs of gunner, driver or “dismount,” sitting beside or behind the driver.

“After you have that adrenaline rush every day, every second for 14 months, it’s hard to come back to a boring life,” he said. Once he returned, he tried several things to regain that rush, from skydiving to motorcycling.

After he returned in 2005, his friends and family said that he didn't have the same energy. Six months after he returned, he went into therapy.  He has improved significantly.

Today he will earn his associate’s degree in general studies, and he plans to get a bachelor's in psychology by this time next year. 

He had high praise for David and the staff at Columbia College.

“There are no words to describe them. They’re great,” Ramirez said. “Because I gave them my 100 percent, they gave me their 100 percent.”

Another of the graduating students, Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Baker, said that school helped provide a way for him to decompress after returning from Iraq in 2006.

During his deployment, his mother died, and his younger daughter became very ill.

His math instructor saw that he was struggling with the class, and recommended he take an incomplete so that he could finish coursework and pass the final. He passed the class.

Despite the hardships, there were also moments of levity. The last class Baker had to take was a public speaking class that happened to be taught by his older daughter, Christina Baker.

“I was the teacher's pet,” Baker said. But he admitted it was awkward at times. In class, “she didn't know whether to call me dad or Mr. Baker.”

He ended up getting an A in the class.

Baker decided to get his bachelor’s in general studies because he will soon retire from the United States Postal Service, where he’s worked for almost 30 years.

Baker will use skills he learned in his daughter’s class on Saturday, since he is delivering a speech during graduation.

He plans to talk about how a diploma is a lot like a key—“a key to life to get you in doors in different parts of your life … that key can be anything you want it to be, and you've got the key in your hand, how are you going to use it?”

And no, Baker said, his daughter did not help him with the speech.

Baker said he also plans to give well-deserved praise and credit to the Columbia College instructors.

“Carl (David) made a difference there, to grow the school larger,” Baker said.

“I’m excited about what's going on in the campus, and I believe we're here for a reason,” college director David said. “I also believe that they deserve all of our honor and glory.”