WASHINGTON — It has been just over a year since 29-year-old Joseph Yu returned to Honolulu from his second deployment to Iraq. The former Army officer says his memories of war are already “kind of fuzzy.” What Yu found he
WASHINGTON — It has been just over a year since 29-year-old Joseph Yu returned to Honolulu from his second deployment to Iraq.
The former Army officer says his memories of war are already “kind of fuzzy.” What Yu found he couldn’t shake were the emotions associated with being at war, and that’s what eventually made him realize he needed help.
“Especially for soldiers from Hawai‘i, your mindset is ‘go go go,’ and you come back to paradise and it’s an even bigger transition,” Yu said. “(In Iraq), every day you’re super aware of your surroundings, super aware of every little movement. Every day is a life or death situation, even just brushing your teeth in the middle of the night. Coming home and just being able to relax, I later found out it was a lot more difficult.”
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