AMANDA DEDIE
News Editor
Meet Casey Springer, a senior social work major.
A lot of people have things about them that make them stick out from the rest, but Springer is of a very small minority on the Fredonia campus.
From 2008-2011, Springer served in the United States Air Force. He returned, following an accident with a drunk driver while riding on a motorcycle. Ever since, his life has been spent trying to better the lives of veterans. This is his story.
CS: I joined after 9/11, and it wasn’t so much that I hated terrorists, or anything like that, it was more about wanting to protect those that were behind me. So it wasn’t hating those who were in front of me, it was loving those who were behind me, which was much more important, and is something I see misinterpreted a lot, as well, with veterans. A lot of veterans share that same mentality. It about protecting those that can’t protect themselves.
I got hit by a drunk driver when I was on a motorcycle — a sport bike, if you will — and I had to relearn everything. My family members’ names … I went from Dean’s List at a community college and doing advanced aeronautical science, which is some really complicated stuff [to relearn].
I did air traffic control in the military. I stayed up in a tower next to this airport and we talk in a different language … we memorize a lot of aeronautical rules. We yell at the pilots nicely all day with a set of rules and people don’t crash and people don’t die and everyone gets home safe.
It was fun. It was an experience that I actually intended on doing for the rest of my life. But once you have a brain injury or are diagnosed with PTSD or anything like that, that instantly sets you apart from being able to do things like that without medical approval or jumping through some pretty big hoops.
When I came back to New York, I didn’t even know I had a brain injury at the time. I just knew that something had changed and things were not the same. When I came back to New York, it was, “go home and figure it out. Good luck!”
That’s one of the worst things you can do to a veteran. It’s ingrained in the brain and their daily life, a habit, a ritual, a standard set of procedures, and when things like that are changed so abruptly … when you are going from a structured environment with high stakes … to an environment where you can do anything … civilian-side, if you will … it is a dangerous place to be, for veterans.
That’s why I’m doing what I’m doing today, to hit that problem head-on. Because 22 veterans a day committing suicide isn’t acceptable. It never was and it still isn’t today, and I daresay it’s even more so [unacceptable] today, because we have technology, societal advances and access to healthcare reformats where this shouldn’t even be discussed. [Health care] should be a given. We spend a few trillion dollars on war … why could you not spend a few billion taking care of the veterans when they come home? Percentage-wise, it’s a joke.
I’m planning on attending U[niversity at] B[uffalo] for law school to receive my licensed juror’s doctor licensed clinical social worker dash R — that would be the title, JDLCSW-R. A lot of problems with veterans is that veterans get incarcerated.
Veterans, in particular, have a special skill set in very well-developed values and ethics, if you will, and they have something to offer in society to help a lot of people just with their individuality and combined, they become more powerful. But that thing that they bring to the table, you take that away by not getting them the help that they need by getting incarcerated or sending them down the wrong path.
The answer is not mass incarcerations … the answer is in social work. Every human individual has a unique story to themselves, and addressing the problem on a multi-variable approach, curtailing each care plan to each veteran that’s unique to them is really the solution,and that’s what social workers do best. They see things much deeper than what the surface is showing, and that’s why I’m combining legal education with the social work cause; because you have to have both to make change happen.
The answer is to get them the help that they’re entitled to. It’s not that they deserve it, it’s that they’re entitled to it. When you sign on the dotted line for your life and for your country, you become government property. During that exchange of that government contract, their side of the contract is saything, “if something should ever happen to you, we will take care of you, medically — and that’s physical and mental health care, which go hand in hand — and benefits.
A lot of people don’t understand the complexities of the policy set in place, but until you experience it — that’s where I come into play — now you have incentive, motive, insight and power to take on something to make the change that needs to occur.
AD: If you don’t mind me asking, what was it like when you were serving?
CS: I try not to focus too much on it, because of flashbacks and PTSD, so I’d like to talk more in generalities. That’s the case with a lot of veterans. You can still send a message without sharing details.
When you’re experiencing something in the civilian world that reflects back some trauma that happened, you literally can just … your ears, the ringing starts happening, and you literally just go numb. It’s kind of an interesting experience … I’ve been through it so many times at this point that it’s like, you can almost predict when it’s coming.
Anyway, I went down to Mississippi, and I remember waking up at like three in the morning to be standing out in the cold in formation at four-thirty in the morning, for an hour. You’re just sitting there thinking about how pointless it is. But for every pointless thing I did in the military, I learned something so powerful about leadership and integrity and values that I will never do things any other way than the way I was taught because of how valuable they are.
I’ll never forget … I’m helping this person up … he was going down the stairs and he wiped out. He had a nerve disability. It was neurological and some disability with his nerves, so he couldn’t function correctly. He missed a step and went face first right into hard floor and it was all bloody.
I’m helping him up, asking him if he’s alright, sitting him down and calling medical attention to him, and it was a surreal moment, because he was so happy. He wasn’t even thinking about the blood, he was just so happy about getting to train for the special olympics that day, that how dare I think for a second that I have nothing to be grateful for?
AD: Other than your injuries, what’s the biggest re-adjustment you had to make when returning to civilian life?
CS: My story, in particular, and veterans in this area that I see … there’s not a lot of veteran population out there, and in western New York, the population density isn’t that great. Coming back, I had this traumatizing experience and no one to talk to about it. That, right there, I’d have to say is one of the big readjustments.
I battled reintegration very hard, because once you have a military mindset, speaking with civilians, it was difficult at first. I didn’t agree with almost anything any civilian would say.
It’s hard to remember what it was like before, because you change. You can’t unsee what you saw, and you can’t un-experience what you’ve experienced. But you can adapt and overcome. That’s what I had to do. Things had to get so bad that you either change or die. I was lucky to be one of the people who [chose] to adapt and overcome.
Flashbacks, waking up everyday with a pain in my brain and not knowing I had a brain injury … In the military, when I woke up I was covered in blood head to toe after I did a ton of flips. They’re supposed to go through a procedure where they get you into a medical facility and they document what’s going on.
They didn’t do that because as soon as they do that and they find out I’m diagnosed with something on-site, such as a brain injury or something like that … By not getting me to a medical site to get that diagnosis while I was in service, they don’t get compensated for that. In the civilian world, that’d be a settlement or a lawsuit or there’d be some sort of kickback. In the military, because you’re government property, it’s a different process.
The military is supposed to compensate you for things you can no longer do for the rest of your life, if you’re permanently or irreparably damaged. I lost functioning in my jaw. I can’t chew fast at all anymore, I can’t hear very well, I can’t do a lot of things I used to be able to do, but I focus on what I can do and how I can help others focus on what they can do. Reintegration … that was hard. It still is today.
AD: Why did you choose to join the Air Force [out of all the military branches]?
CS: Because I knew that if I went into any other branch, the transition would be that much more difficult. I actually planned on staying in for 30 to 40 more years, until that injury occurred.
But why the Air Force? Because of the careers they have to offer, the transition to the civilian sector with great pay, great benefits, great leadership, corporate structure and things that would transition easily into civilian-hood.
For an infantry member, though, how often are you going to be wielding an M16 or M4 or anything like that? If they don’t want to be a cop, it’s hard for them. But the things I’ve learned are applicable to a lot of career fields, a lot of leadership positions, and that’s why I did that.
AD: And finally, why did you choose to come to Fredonia?
CS: I went to JCC first and I knew that Fredonia … once my eyes started to open up and I learned about what was possible in this world, I no longer was willing to accept mediocre education, mediocre results or be around things that can’t put me on a platform to succeed. Fredonia gives me that platform.
It gives me an international scale, it gives me state scale, and it gives me connections. It’s big enough for international, national and state stuff, but it’s private and close enough where staff members on campus on a first-name basis. To combine those two things sends a powerful statement. It’s something other universities can’t really offer. Fredonia is it’s unique world, and I’m glad to be a part of it.