OU Vet Program Provides Mentor to Soldiers Returning Home

Ceremonies were held in Norman Wednesday to honor the veterans of the past and present. And just a few miles away the University of Oklahoma is reaching out to help our newest veterans who are coming home.

Wednesday, November 11th 2009, 4:39 pm

By: News 9


By Gan Matthews, NEWS 9

NORMAN, Oklahoma – Ceremonies were held in Norman Wednesday to honor the veterans of the past and present. And just a few miles away the University of Oklahoma is reaching out to help our newest veterans who are coming home.

You expect to see veterans from World War II, Korea and Vietnam at ceremonies on Veterans Day, but some Norman fifth graders came too. A few of them have family members in war zones now.

"My uncle, he is a Marine and he is serving right now and he's in Afghanistan," Gavin Williams, Madison Elementary student, said.

Veterans from Afghanistan and Iraq are already returning home, making the transition to civilian life and the civilian workplace. That's not always a smooth process.

OU has about 2,000 veterans on campus. A visiting professor who's been embedded with Marines in Iraq and Afghanistan says outreach is all important.

"They've served the country multiple times on multiple tours and we have to do everything we can for them," OU visiting professor Mike Boettcher said.

Boettcher has several veterans in the class he's teaching on military diplomacy. There in the midst of that transition.

"I was one of the fortunate ones," said Boettcher. "I didn't really have any problems transitioning into the civilian world. There are some people that had a lot more problems."

OU Vice President James Pappas is developing a program to help vets.

"The idea behind it is to try and match a mentor with a veteran who's leaving the service, so that the veteran will have someone to talk to about the transition into the workplace," Pappas said.

The mentoring program will benefit the veterans of the present, just as the GI Bill aided the veterans of the past.

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