- Student; On Campus
The nightmares stopped after a few years. But the aftereffects of what SNHU student P.J. Audley experienced during the Vietnam War would dog him for years.
P.J. entered the Army in September 1969; he was in Vietnam the following May, installing and dismantling radar units for artillery fire bases.
“I saw the results of war almost every day,” he says.
One Tuesday in 1971, he was told he was going home the next day. A week later, he was back in the U.S.
“We were just expected to resume normal activity, go back to work, go back to school, do whatever you were doing and forget about it. And I tried to do it, but it didn’t work out that way,” he says.
Though he tried going back to college, he ended up jumping from job to job instead. It was 30 years after his return from Vietnam when P.J. finally learned why he always felt “off.”
A panic attack in 2002 led him to the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Manchester, where he learned he’d been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder for decades.
With help from the VA, P.J. is now enrolled in SNHU’s School of Education.
“The day I walk in May ’10 is going to be a major, major win for me,” he says “And I know that with my degree comes some credibility.”
After graduation, P.J. wants to help soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
“I want to show that someone cares when these guys get home,” he says.
