Originally submitted to the USA TODAY College program July 28, 2015.
Walking into a room, it is impossible to not notice NASA student researcher and chemical engineering student Grace Gaskin’s presence.
Presence that, she says, would not have been possible without her past experiences in the U.S. Army.
“[The Army] has given me the self-confidence to do pretty much whatever I want to do,” she said.
Gaskin, an undergraduate student, is one of thousands of student veterans that are in student bodies across the nation.
In fact, in 2009, there were over 500,000 student veterans receiving education benefits, according to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
Gaskin’s experiences in the Army changed how she goes about her daily life.
“I feel so fortunate for my experiences in the military, since there are so many applications,” she said. “I feel so prepared for my life because of those experiences.”
Personal growth
Having joined the military when she was 17 — and having left for basic training in 2009 — Gaskin was part of the Army during the height of multiple battles being waged overseas, including her own yearlong deployment in Afghanistan.
“Deployment was challenging, but more in a mentally, physically taxing manner,” she said. “When you become a leader, everything you do has to be on point — especially in the military. You care so much about your soldiers and that is when I started to take a look at my strengths and weaknesses.”
As a result of those lessons, like other young leaders, Gaskin was able not only grow on the battlefield but as a civilian back home. A member of the volunteer emergency medical service at Case Western Reserve University, Gaskin also works to keep other students and community safe.
“i became an EMT specifically because of my experiences on deployment,” she said. “We go through medical training in the military but I was uncomfortable knowing basic medical skills.”
Although she learned many valuable positive lessons, Gaskin learned other lessons as well — ones that were not as positive.
Wartime memories
“We were in a very volatile area, an area considered to be the birthplace of the Taliban,” Gaskin said. “The typical attack there is considered a ‘complex attack,’ which is usually triggered first by an IED and then there are usually insurgents waiting to deliver small arms fire.”
According to the Congressional Research Service, in 2011 through 2012, the U.S. suffered 720 fatal casualties in combat — and 8,081 non-fatal injury casualties.
“Whenever we lose a soldier or there is an injury, we go on blackout communications — we just don’t want a soldier’s family finding out on Facebook or something,” Gaskin said. “Because we had a lot of casualties, there were many days that we couldn’t call home.”
Not only that, but each time a soldier was lost, other effects were felt beyond the disruption of communication connections.
“At the brigade level, there is always a memoir — you feel every loss,” Gaskin said. “When I was at the brigade level, I would go to every memorial. It was hard listening to each loss, because you listen like you have lost your best friend.”
Coming together
Though the loss of a soldier was challenging, Gaskin said the experiences overseas helped form unexpected relationships — relationships that resembled a family.
“I grew closer with the people I was deployed with than I ever thought I could be with anyone,” she said., “People who were complete strangers before I left felt like family a couple of months into deployment.”
In addition to gaining an additional “family,” Gaskin learned another skill — the ability to counsel others.
“I was able to be a person of comfort to these guys,” she said. “As a sister in arms, they told me things I don’t think they could have told their brothers.”
These experiences have helped Gaskin become the human being she is today.
“I will always try and be a mentor the rest of my life, something that definitely came from the military,” she said. “I find myself wanting to impart knowledge and experiences on every person I come across — and trying to tell all the things someone brilliant once imparted on me.