Program helps veterans transition to school, careers

By Bill Harlan, Journal staff | Tuesday, December 18, 2007

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Jason Beyer's life changed course in an instant in a suburb south of Baghdad, when an improvised explosive device detonated under his Humvee.

More than 30 surgeries later, after a medical discharge from the U.S. Army and a move to Spearfish, Beyer is working in a cafeteria at Black Hills State University.

Next semester, he'll also be a student there.

Beyer's journey from battlefield to classroom has been difficult and painful, but he did get a lift from the Veterans Upward Bound in Rapid City. The program, funded by a U.S. Department of Education grant, helps former military personnel make the transition to jobs and especially to college.

"It really got me used to a classroom environment again," Beyer said.

About 70 veterans are enrolled in Veterans Upward Bound in Rapid City. They're from all branches of the military and all walks of life, program adviser Rick Rhode says. They range in age from early 20s to 60s.

Debra Anderson of Rapid City, for example, is 41. She retired after 15 years in the Air Force. In 2004, she took algebra and writing courses at Veterans Upward Bound, which is based at National American University in Rapid City.

"It enhanced skills I already had," Anderson said. It also allayed her fears about a mid-life return to school

Now she's a junior at Black Hills State University, working toward a degree in human services.

Veterans Upward Bound helps veterans to catch up on basic courses so they don't have to spend their veterans benefits on remedial classes.

"We're trying to give them a head start," Rhode said.

Many veterans in the program, like Beyer, are disabled because of their service.

Beyer, now 24, grew up in Idaho.

He installed flooring for a couple years after high school, but he was watching the news from around the nation and the world.

"I wasn't too thrilled about 9/11, like a lot of people," he said. So at age 20, he enlisted.

Beyer trained to be a crew member on an M-1A2 Abrams main battle tank. However, when he got to Iraq with the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment, Beyer was assigned to an armored Humvee.

He spent a month and a half on "route reconnaissance" and other duties, including rounding up suspected insurgents.

Beyer's first encounter with an IED resulted in some blown tires but no injuries.

The day Beyer was wounded he was on a patrol in the Salmon Pak, a suburb of Baghdad.

"It's like a small village, with farms around it," he said.

Beyer was a gunner, manning a .50-caliber machine gun from a hatch in the top of the Humvee. He remembers being in a "defilade" position - that is, with his sling seat lowered so only his head and neck were exposed.

Beyer doesn't remember the explosion, which ejected him from the vehicle.

"I got a severe concussion," he said.

Beyer also suffered a broken pelvis, a mangled right arm and internal injuries that led to the loss of a kidney.

Over the next several months, he moved from hospital to hospital - from Germany to Walter Reed Army Medical Center near Washington, D.C., to a couple hospitals in Colorado.

The most serious injury, for the long-term, proved to be his arm, which has required many rounds of reconstructive surgery. Beyer still doesn't have full use of the arm, which meant the end of his career as a tanker.

Recovering at Fort Carson, Colo., Beyer met his girlfriend, who is originally from Sturgis, which is how he ended up in the Black Hills.

Beyer's surgeries are done, for now, and most of the pain has abated. "I'm pretty well stabilized," he said.

But the right-handed Beyer continues to adjust to the limits of his deeply scarred right arm.

"I do almost everything left-handed now," he said during a break from his new job at a Black Hills State University cafeteria.

Beyer once contemplated a career in law enforcement. His damaged right arm limits those options, so, like Anderson, he's majoring in human services. He hopes to become a parole or probation officer.

Based on Beyer's first few days at his new job at BHSU, his supervisor at the cafeteria thinks the young veteran will succeed at whatever he does. "I wish I could clone him," Richard Walker said.

Contact Bill Harlan at 394-8424 or at bill.harlan@rapidcityjournal.com