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"The transition from military life to civilian life wasn't really hard for me," said Melissa Coleman, a former Fort Bliss soldier who spent 33 days in a Baghdad prison during the 1991 Persian Gulf war. "The only real trouble I've had, and (Shoshana) might have, is getting disability funds" from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Coleman permanently retired from the Army in 1991, but she said she is still struggling with the Department of Veterans Affairs to obtain 100 percent disability payments to pay for medical problems caused by her experiences while in captivity. Coleman, then Melissa Rathbun-Nealy, was with the 233rd Transportation Company when she and another soldier, David Lockett, were captured near Khafji, Saudi Arabia, on Jan. 30, 1991, during a supply run. "I still have migraines. I have knee problems, post-traumatic stress disorder and I have thyroid problems," Coleman said from her home in San Antonio, where she lives with her husband and two children. "My disabilities make it so I can't be employed." The publicity-shy Coleman said that when she returned from Operation Desert Storm, "things changed." "I'm not really sure how to describe it, but everything was so tense," she said. "I'm sure everybody's nerves today are still rattled because the 507th Maintenance Company lost some soldiers, but my unit didn't" lose soldiers. In addition to dealing with medical issues, Coleman said, Johnson will have to face uncertainty when it comes to finding a new career. "In the Army, you knew you had a job. But now she's going to have to rely on herself," Coleman said. "But she has a good family support group, and that really is an important thing." |
I heard elsewhere that she was dealing with chronic fatigue syndrome as well, but that might be what the thyroid problem used to be diagnosed as.