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For veterans, life isn’t as easy as expected when returning to American soil

 

- Jen Tota McGivney

BRIAN TINKER ENTERED THE MILITARY at 20, and spent much of the next two years in the 10th Mountain Division 2nd Battalion, dividing his time between Fort Drum, New York, and Afghanistan. At 22, he thought that leaving the military would be easy. It wasn’t. “Being lower listed in the Army … You have your life laid out before you. You’re told what time you line up in formation, what time you’re going to be training, and even what you’re wearing while you’re doing it. So when you get out, you don’t have anyone telling you what to do anymore. At first, it’s cool, but after a while, it leaves you out there to hurt yourself. I didn’t know what to do.” He had trouble finding work.

How does one take infantry experience into the civilian world?