Montville VFW To Host Wounded Warrior Foundation Event Saturday

By Jayne Keedle

Tuesday, more than 100 Connecticut National Guard troops from the 248th Engineer Company of Norwich returned home after being stationed in Bahrain for nearly a year. They were greeted with tight hugs and long kisses from family and friends, and with great fanfare from state officials.  

Joanna Eldridge, 31, of Waterford knows what that feels like. Her husband, Justin, served in the Marine Corps for eight and a half years, including one eight-month stint driving wreckers in Afghanistan.

The mortars exploding around him on a nearly daily basis left a lasting impression. Not only did Justin return home with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), he also suffered traumatic brain injury. 

Not All Wounds Are Obvious

PTSD can manifest in a variety of ways but Justin had many of the classic symptoms. He had extreme mood swings and would fly into rages. His hypervigilance made him anxious in crowds. He had trouble getting to sleep and would have nightmares that jolted him awake. He was also drinking heavily as a way of self-medicating, which only exacerbated the problem.

Justin was diagnosed with PTSD at the same time Joanna was pregnant with their third child, Nikolai, who is now four. "I don't know whose moods were worse at that point," she jokes. 

Joanna can laugh about it now but at the time, she says, some of her friends urged her to leave her husband. Joanna's response was oddly prescient. She asked them whether they'd be saying that if his erratic behavior was caused by a brain tumor?

"I love him. There's something wrong with him. I'm going to help him," she told them. "If we turn our backs on veterans, what good does that do anyone?" 

A Battle on the Homefront

Justin was medically retired from the Marines in 2008 but, for a long time, his traumatic brain injury went undetected because his PTSD symptoms were so severe that no one thought to look for potential brain damage. 

Now he's in treatment for both PTSD and the traumatic brain injury, which involves weekly therapy sessions and brain training to help rebuild the neural pathways that were damaged.

Getting Justin into the right treatment and getting benefits from the Veterans Administration (VA), however, was an uphill battle. 

Justin first sought help at Lawrence & Memorial Hospital in New London but, Joanna says, the hospital told them he really needed to have specialized treatment at a VA hospital—and it would take at least two weeks to get him in.

Joanna says that's when she called Congressman Joe Courtney and Senator Richard Blumenthal to ask for help. She jokes that they probably would have done anything to stop her very persistent calls but, in three days, Justin was admitted to a VA hospital. 

It was far from smooth sailing even at the VA hospitals. Justin attempted suicide while at the VA hospital in New Haven, Joanna says. Sadly, that's not uncommon. The Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that 22 veterans commit suicide every day.

Justin fared better in a six-week in-patient program at a VA Hospital in Massachusetts, where he had lots of intense therapy and medication management. He's been sober since going into that program a year ago, Joanna says, although his being away from home "was rough."     

Getting Help and Helping Others

Justin currently receives 100 percent disability from the VA.

"For the foreseeable future, he won't be working," Joanna says. "His fulltime job is to be a parent. Now he's gotten help, the kids love having him home." 

Joanna also receives a stipend as a VA certified fulltime caregiver—which enables her to stay home to take care of Justin and their four children. She's studying psychology in college now and hopes to go on to law school. Her goal is to become an advocate for veterans to help them get the benefits they deserve.

"I feel like I want to help them all," says Joanna.

Given the current backlog in processing claims from veterans, chances are there will still be work for her to do when she graduates. The latest figures from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs put the number of veterans still waiting for claims to be processed at 851,000—and two out of three of them have been waiting for 125 days or more.

"I saw what [Justin] went through. They're fighting for benefits that they should be handed on a silver platter," says Joanna.   

"He Is My Hero" 

Adjusting to civilian life after being in a war zone isn't something that happens overnight. But while some people seem able to return and slide right back into life as usual, others come home to discover that the experience has changed them. For some people with PTSD, life is never quite the same again. 

"It's not about making them the way they were before," says Joanna. "It's about adapting to who they are now."

Joanna understands that when the family goes out to a restaurant, Justin now needs to sit with his back to the wall and his eyes on the door. For reasons even he can't explain, he may never be able to sit in the dark in a crowded movie theater.

The hypervigilance that kept him alive in Afghanistan is a symptom of PTSD that the whole family lives with—but having the whole family together means the world to both of them.

"I love him and that's why I do what I do," says Joanna. "Seeing him go through all of this, trying to get better for his family—he is my hero."

A Benefit For The Wounded Warrior Project

Joanna Eldridge has organized a fundraiser this Saturday to benefit the Wounded Warrior Project at the Montville VFW on Raymond Hill Road in Montville from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be face-painting for kids, a DJ, food from Uncle D's Blazing BBQ, and more than 50 raffles. 

The event includes 35 to 40 vendors such as Heather's Extreme Cakes and Haley's Comet Crochet (a home business operated by another wounded veteran's wife, Megan Swanson). Joanna and friends Gretchen Lally (who is also married to a wounded veteran) and Kailah Pflugbiel, will be launching their own home-based business, "Glamourize," at the event, selling affordable fashion-forward accessories. 

All the table fees and raffle proceeds will go directly to benefit the Wounded Warrior Foundation.