A soldier adjusts to life back home

WATERLOO - More than a week after returning home, Spc. Chad Barthel of the Iowa National Guard said the simple pleasures in life still take some getting used to.

Especially now that he doesn't have to ask a superior officer for permission.

“Even just going down to the gas station and buying a pop,” said Barthel, 22, of Waterloo. “Just being able to sit down and take a bath, instead of a shower in a tiny cubicle, and being able to relax.”

On July 14, Barthel was one of about 50 soldiers with the 34th Infantry Division, Company C, Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team - also known as the Red Bulls - to arrive home.

The unit's homecoming was one of the first in the state, held at Prairie Point Middle School in Cedar Rapids. About a dozen friends and family welcomed Barthel with affection. That night, he said, they held a cookout back home and celebrated well into the night.

But what about when the celebrations end and the process of returning to civilian life really starts?

Britany Barthel, 19, said that after not seeing her husband for five months, the time since his return has passed quickly.

“He's been home for a week and it flew by real fast,” she said. “It feels like just yesterday!”

Chad Barthel said the pressure to find work has not hit a high point just yet. He said the couple will soon move to Iowa City and try to find jobs there. Britany Barthel is a Waterloo native, but her husband has plenty of Iowa City connections, having graduated from West High.

He said his situation is flexible as he tries to forge a new path.

“I'm going to be searching for a job and eventually planning on going back to school,” Chad Barthel said. “I was planning on doing it in the fall, but that may be too soon. I'd rather try and get a job and get some income going and try and pick school up in the spring.”

Last summer, Barthel was part of the call-up and deployment of thousands of Iowa National Guard troops. In the time leading up to it, he said that he had been in school but chose not to look for work because he knew the deployment was coming.

Finding work and building careers is one of the challenges returning veterans may encounter. In March, the Associated Press reported that the unemployment rate for young veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is 20.9 percent.

But Chad Barthel is optimistic about the road ahead for the two of them. He and his wife said they hope to spend the next few years saving up and eventually move closer to his parents in South Carolina.