Jeremy Roberts made a big transition from Marine serving in Iraq, to everyday citizen last January.
"When I did get out, I was expecting to have all of these job opportunities since I was a Marine, you know I had all of this stuff in my mind, it was gonna be great," Roberts said. "Got out, I applied for twenty five jobs, I could not find one."
Roberts eventually got a job with, ironically, the Texas Workforce Commission.
Now he's made a career out of helping former troops, like himself, readjust to society.
"There's also the unknowing factor, of not knowing that there's things out there," Roberts said.
Jim Hare is part of a the handful of people that specialize in veterans resources in Lubbock.
"We do expect to see an increase as they come back again, we want them to know our services are available," Hare said. "Our staff are composed of veterans ourselves and we are here to lend a helping hand to all of those who are coming back."
Hare says as with any war, soldiers and sailors coming home, will not be the same.
"It will change you, and many folks that have never been through anything like that, won't understand," Hare said.
"It takes a lot for some of those guys to come back and say, 'hey I need help.' To some people, they think that's a weakness, and nobody wants to appear weak, especially somebody who's been a big bad combat veteran," Roberts said. "It's been a very sensitive subject for a lot of veterans, and it's just a hard process to go through."
Patrick Aland, a therapist at the Lubbock Vet Center says most of the time, a war veteran will avoid counseling for as long as possible.
"I expect to see a significant number of Iraqi and Afghan vets who will go as far down the road as they can and hopefully at some point before too many bad things happen in their life, they will say, you know, maybe I need to see somebody," Aland said.
He said he's recently seen an increase of Vietnam vets, looking for someone to talk to.
"They readjusted and coped as best they could and for most of them that meant staying busy, working hard, and simply coping via those methods," Aland said.
Although an influx of returning troops is expected, the number won't be as great as some of the national headlines make it seem.
"Here in this area of course, the majority of our veterans are reservists and national guardsmen, although we do get folks coming back from the regular Army and the other services that come back to this area," Hare said.
"Everybody pulling out of Iraq, well that doesn't mean they're coming home," Roberts said. "They'll probably end up, half of them going back to Afghanistan, you know because Afghanistan's the new Iraq."
