Veterans discuss transition to civilian life

With Veterans day Wednesday, a group of students at Salisbury University decided to host a Veterans Conference Tuesday night to help raise awareness about what veterans go through and how their transition period back to civilian life can be.

The conference featured three veteran speakers, who shared their experiences with a mixed crowd of veterans students and the general public.
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As far as the transition process, one of the biggest things veterans said was having people their to support them, even if just to lend an ear.

“I think if I had someone or a group of people like the (student military veterans association) here, who I eventually found, to talk about what I went through, to talk about my experiences, I think the transition would have been a little bit easier,” said Navy Veteran and Salisbury student Kevin Cunningham.

Cunningham said with the prevalence of post traumatic stress disorder among personnel returning from duty, that civilians feel scared to talk to them about their experiences.

In actuality though, the talking Cunningham said, helps them tremendously and helps them feel that they’re back in society.