By MIKE KRAFCIK
6 News Reporter
KNOXVILLE (WATE) - Some 40,000 American troops have returned home in the months since President Barack Obama announced the end of the U.S. mission in Iraq.
Thousands of East Tennesseans have served in Iraq over eight and a half years of war.
Some soldiers spoke with 6 News recently about coming home and their adjustment back to civilian life.
March will mark the one year anniversary of Bryan Graves returning to Madisonville. He spent a nearly year long-deployment in Iraq with the Tennessee National Guard's 245rd Military Police Company, based in Lenoir City.
Graves is chief deputy with the Monroe County Sheriffs Office.
He was used to "living by myself or with one person, and it's you. Then I come back to my loving, large family."
He's transitioning to routine life that includes his wife, Melissa, and her six children. They have a daughter, Sophia, who Graves left during his first deployment in 2005 when she was only three months old.
Graves was deployed with the 278th during his first deployment.
"When he had to leave her, I think it really hurt her not being able to have him there at night to rock her asleep in the rocking chair. That's her snuggle bunny," Melissa said.
Graves says being away from his family was the toughest part about his deployment.
Michelle Hoskins-Slavens, a first staff sergeant with the Army Reserve's 844th Engineer Battalion, expresses a similar sentiment.
She has deployed twice to Iraq. "My kids had to give up their mom, but it's made them stronger," she said.
As Guard and Reserve units return to civilian life, many come back from the front lines directly to their every day life.
Hoskins-Slaven took two months off her job as a legal assistant after returning home from her deployment in 2010.
"I had money coming in so I decided to take a breather and not focus immediately on everything else, just me and blending back into my family," she said.
The lack of a military environment that many soldiers return to can make for a rough transition, according to 1st Sgt. Jason Glew, with the Marine's Delta Company 4th Engineering Battalion.
"They're coming back to Knoxville, Tennessee. They're not in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina or a big military installation," he said.
Glew deployed twice in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now much of his work consists of helping transition soldiers back to civilian life.
He's helping Marines, who are members of the 4th Combat Engineer Battalion, who returned home to East Tennessee last week.
"We give them some resources to reach out to if they need assistance. But besides that, they go back their civilian sector life. They go back to their families, go back to working their job. They don't have a military community surrounding them like the active duty personnel have," Glew said.
He also says many programs are available for returning soldiers, including many psychological health outreach programs through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Hoskins-Slaven says she attended a mandatory yellow ribbon session in Orlando, Florida. "We sat through classes that talk about things that are open to us," she said.
Many say for those who have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or other stress-related disorders because of combat, the transition is especially tough.
"It is tough for soldiers who suffer from PTSD to find the manpower and resources to do it," Hoskins-Slaven said.
Both soldiers say the biggest factor in their return to civilian life was the help they got from their spouses.
Michelle's husband, Ken Slaven, is in the National Guard. "I understand a lot of what she's going through," he said.
Melissa Graves says community support made the difference while her spouse was gone.
"Just not the emotional support they might need, just like I did need somebody to clean the gutters, pick up things around the yard. It makes a big difference," she said.
We can't forget that thousands of troops and spouses still deal with the separation. Units like the 489th Civil Affairs Battalion are still deployed as the U.S. mission continues in Afghanistan.
Bryan Graves was used to "living by myself or with one person, and it's you. Then I come back to my loving, large family."
"My kids had to give up their mom, but it's made them stronger," Michelle Hoskins-Slavens said.
