Veterans Among Us

There are approximately 600 SDSU students who are also military veterans. In observance of Veteran’s Day, below is the story of one of the university’s student-veterans.

His hobbies include working out at the gym, playing tennis, and spending time with family and friends. He has pulled an “all nighter” studying into the early hours of the morning, and is flushed with panic at the thought of a pop quiz.

In many ways Victor Ozuna is a typical college student; but before attending SDSU he lived a reality that most of his peers will never know.

“I was 17 when I enlisted in the Navy. My parents had to sign a waiver for me to enlist,” Victor said.

“One of the reasons I decided to join the Navy was to do construction as a Seabee. I’ve always enjoyed construction and I admired my father, who was a great handyman. I joined because my family is very patriotic. Plus, I always wanted to serve my country.”

Victor was trained as a combat engineer with the U.S. Navy Seabees, where he was part of a construction battalion that provided engineering and construction support to U.S. troops during major combat operations. He was deployed to various destinations around the world.

In 2003, Victor was deployed to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. “I was one of the first (American troops) to cross the Kuwait–Iraqi border. And I was one of the first to come home,” he said.

Prior to his deployment to Iraq, Victor began thinking about attending college after a Navy superior suggested he consider a career in construction engineering. “I was stationed in Greece when I first visited the SDSU Web site,” Victor said. “I saw that they offered a construction engineering program and I wanted to experience something other than the military.”

At 23 years old, Victor went from walking the battlefields of Iraq to walking the campus of SDSU—in less than a month.

“In a matter of weeks, I went from conducting urban combat operations in Iraq to a classroom.” Victor said it was tough for him to relate to other students when he first arrived at the university. “I was ready to quit college after my first week.

“No one wanted to hear about the war. No one talked about it. It was like it wasn’t happening. I felt like nobody cared, and that the war was in vain. I saw people dying. To think of people dying in vain. …”

Someone did care.

While Victor was working part-time in the SDSU Veteran’s Affairs Office, his supervisor, Joan Putnam, showed interest in Victor’s story. “The fact that she actually cared, and noticed the war, that was a big factor for me continuing as a student at SDSU.”

Victor also credits his military training to helping him continue in school. “The main thing I got out of the military was discipline,” he said. “Discipline is what kept me in college.”

Today, he participates in a Combat Veteran Support Group at the San Diego VA Outpatient Clinic where he meets with other local students who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom and/or Operation Enduring Freedom. According to the clinic’s Web site, the support group meets once a week to discuss topics that include combat veterans and the classroom environment, common people with uncommon experiences and integration to student and civilian life.

Victor has also become involved with campus organizations. He is a member of SDSU’s Civil Engineering Honor Society, Chi Epsilon, and is the vice president of the student chapter of Associated General Contractors of America at SDSU. In 2006, he and other SDSU chapter members participated in the Construction Management Competition, supported by the Associated Schools of Construction.

Last spring, he began an internship with a construction company, where he works as a field engineer.

Victor has come a long way from the first-time freshman who thought he wasn’t college material. He’s had to make several transitions in his young life and has faced each one, courageously.

“A new transition is hard for anyone. I went through a lot of them,” he said. “They’re unavoidable in life; but the better you handle them, the more successful you will be overall.”

Victor has witnessed tragedy, lived fear, and experienced what the majority of his 18-to-23-year-old classmates have only read about in textbooks or seen in video games. Although he described his transition from soldier to student as “difficult,” he found the strength to persevere.

Victor is among the first seven students pre-enrolled in SDSU’s new Construction Engineering and Management Program. He is earning his undergraduate degree in only three years and will graduate in 2007.