‘It’s everyday, it’s your life, you adjust’

After serving for a while in Iraq, especially near a detonation facility, bomb blasts start to seem common.

“Explosions were a daily occurrence,” said Alexis Taylor, an Army Reserve veteran who works as legislative assistant for Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-Iowa). “I woke up to the sound of mortars going off and probably fell asleep to it also.”

Taylor’s experiences serving in Iraq helped her draft the Joshua Omvig Veterans Suicide Prevention Bill, sponsored by Boswell in the House, which seeks to address the high incidence of suicide among veterans and the post-traumatic stress that contributes to it. The House bill had 152 sponsors; the Senate version, introduced by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), had 31.

“There’s not too many around here that have been [in the military],” Boswell said. “Being an ex-serviceperson, Alexis was very involved, and she knew the lingo. … She understands a lot of things because of her [Iraq] experience.”

The bill, named for a veteran from Boswell’s district who struggled with post-traumatic stress before taking his own life, provides counseling services for veterans and their families, a mental healthcare hotline and mandatory training on suicide prevention for Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employees.

“I think, bottom line, it’s a good bill,” Taylor said. “I see my friends who have gotten counseling get better and move forward with their lives — become happy again. The friends who haven’t, honestly, aren’t doing very well. They’re not the person they were when they left. … And they are the reason this bill is needed.”

Though Taylor’s adjustment to Iraq and then back to civilian life went relatively smoothly and she did not require professional counseling, she said she still underwent a period of transition that any veteran would understand. She was not bothered by nightmares or post-traumatic stress disorder, but there were other, more subtle aftereffects. For example, she said, some of her instinctual reactions surprised her. She was anxious in large crowds and had a shorter temper.

“You live for a year in a very unnatural setting, and you have an unnatural level of stress on you every day, and I think it’s normal to come home and have some adjustment problems,” she said. “One of the hardest adjustments was having freedom again. For over a year, most of my decisions were made for me, and overnight I had control over my own life again. When I was deployed, I was told when and where to eat, what to wear, where I could go, et cetera … When I got back home … I had too much free time and too many decisions. At times it was overwhelming.”

The bill passed the House unanimously in March and was scrutinized in the Senate, where Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) expressed concerns. He said the bill failed to target veterans with real needs, threatened privacy rights and ignored recent upgrades in mental health services at the VA. With amendments, it passed the Senate unanimously in September.

“Our veterans may be better served by continuing to target scarce resources to veterans who are most in need, rather than creating a feel-good mandate that treats everyone unfairly and inadequately,” Coburn said.

While developing the bill, Taylor met with lawmakers, veterans groups and mental health organizations to discuss various needs and how to address them. Patrick Campbell, legislative director for the nonprofit group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said he appreciated that Taylor was “asking the right questions” to find an appropriate legislative response to widespread post-traumatic stress among veterans.

“My experience in Iraq and returning home and seeing many of my friends struggle adjusting back to civilian life hasn’t given me a unique perspective, it’s given me their perspective,” Taylor said. “I know what it is like to feel lost at times and confused, not knowing what your next move is, to feel angry for no reason.”

Taylor grew up in Holy Cross, Iowa, a small town where she and her sister helped feed cattle and drive tractors on the family farm. Her upbringing exemplified traditional American ideals — her father served in the Army Reserve and drove only American-made cars, and her family discussed politics at the dinner table.

“My family is very patriotic,” she said. “So I grew up with that embedded in me. [Military service] was always something I wanted to do.”

At 17, Taylor volunteered for the Army Reserve and had completed basic training by the start of her senior year of high school. In February 2003, during her junior year at Iowa State University, Taylor’s Reserve unit was activated.

She entered Iraq a few months later to work as a cook for her 700-member battalion at the airport just outside Baghdad. Though she usually worked in a relatively safe area, she said, nowhere was truly safe in Iraq. She said with time, soldiers just learned to deal with the danger by settling into
a routine.

“It’s every day, it’s your life, you adjust,” she said. “You can’t worry all the time about what might happen. You would drive yourself crazy.”

After returning, Taylor graduated from Iowa State in the summer of 2005 with a degree in political science and communications studies. Though she had always been interested in politics, Taylor said, she discovered her passion for policy when she volunteered to campaign for John North, who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2002.

She learned of an opening in Boswell’s office from a family friend and started work as a staff assistant in November 2005. Less than six months later she was promoted to her current position as legislative assistant. Her responsibilities include meeting with constituents, preparing written materials for meetings and advising her boss on agriculture, trade, energy, the environment, the interior and veterans affairs.

“I do love my job,” she said. “The congressman is sent here to do a job by constituents to represent them, and my job is to make sure he can do that effectively.”