Soldier travels nation to inspire veteran students

It was just a routine day in late October for Spc. Bryan Adams.

"I was on a regular mission that day. The mission was called an OP, which are observation posts," said Adams, a Rutgers-Camden junior. "We were basically supposed to go out to abandoned buildings and over watch an area of town that had a lot of violence."

Adams, with his reconnaissance team, reported their findings and were ordered to return to base. But there was no transportation available to pick his team up.

"We developed our plan to walk back to our base, which was probably about a mile. We started moving back through the city, and we were cutting through people's backyards," Adams said. "We got to a point where we couldn't cross any further and we had to get onto the street."

As Adams and his team moved into the street, Iraqi citizens began to disperse.

"When people started clearing out, I had this gut feeling that something was about to happen," he said. "I took probably about five more steps and I just heard a loud pop."

The loud pop Adams heard was gunfire and in an instant, he physically knew something was wrong.

"It felt like somebody tried to kick my leg out from underneath me and that's when I put two-and-two together," he said. "I realized that we were getting shot at and I had been hit."

Adams was shot in the leg but didn't fall down. He and his team started running in search of shelter from the spray of bullets.

"They opened up on us and the whole time I was running, there were bullets flying past my feet. They waited until we were behind a 6-foot concrete wall so we couldn't go any further," he said. "When the bullets hit the wall, I could feel the concrete going into my mouth."

His team applied a tourniquet to his leg and hand to stop the bleeding. Adams could only describe the experience as terrifying.

But as is with many veterans, the struggle for Adams was just beginning.

Adams, who toured Iraq from February 2004 to 2005, entered the University in 2008 and realized his experiences in Iraq made it difficult to assimilate in an academic community.

"It's hard to relate to someone who hasn't been there when you have gone through an experience like that. It's one that is so intense and overwhelming," he said. "It's a hard adjustment."

This is where Adams' close friend, William Brown, comes into play.

"I think one of the things that attracted us was the fact that we were both college students … and were both combat veterans," said Brown, a Rutgers-Camden law student. "We were both kind of going through different stages of the transition period."

Since returning from the Iraq war, both Adams and Brown involved themselves in trying to help returning combat veterans deal with both mental and physical issues by telling their story.

"Bryan is an intellectual who is compassionate about his experiences in Iraq, as well as his experiences at Rutgers," Brown said. "He uses his love of learning and his compassion to make a positive difference for veteran advocacy."

Adams is part of many veterans advocacy groups, in which he tours around the nation speaking to other veterans about his experience, Brown said.

"He's made trips out as far as San Francisco for meetings or Washington, D.C., where he meets with other college veteran leaders," he said. "He's also involved with [Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America] … which is the largest nonprofit advocacy group for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans."

Adams said he speaks for many other veteran advocacy groups, working as the New Jersey representative for the Student Veterans of America and is part of a veteran advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., called The Heard.

"I travel the country and share my story with people and try to eliminate mental health stigmas that surround returning veterans while trying to educate them," he said.

Adams said by telling his story to veterans across the nation, it not only helps other veterans deal with the stresses of war but himself as well.

The efforts of Adams to help veterans has not gone unnoticed, being part of a groundbreaking public service announcement sponsored by the IAVA, he said.

"I also won the Pat Tillman Scholarship a few months ago," he said. "There are only 60 [given out] in the nation."

Adams' effort to help other veterans deal with returning from war can be said to be part of his nature.

After not being able to walk for two months during his rehabilitation, he decided to return into battle because his fellow soldiers needed support.

"Two of our guys were already hurt from previous missions so our squad was really stressing out so I had to go back out there and help them out," he said.

Adams' mother, Janet Adams, said her son has a passion for helping others and will go out of his way to do so. But she said it was not easy at first.

"He was very bad when he first came back," she said. "He just had a lot of issues from [post-traumatic stress disorder] after he was shot."

She said Adams became angry due to people asking about his experience in Iraq but learned to channel his anger by speaking to other veterans.

Janet Adams recalled hearing about her son speaking to people about his experiences, which made the audience emotional.

"It is amazing that this kid so shy growing up brought people to tears," she said. "I think he will be a household name in a couple years."

Director of Veterans Services Col. Stephen Abel said Adams' story is like many combat veterans returning from war.

"They served their country and now they are here at Rutgers and they are not going to be wallflowers. They are going to be actively engaged in the community and the University," he said. "[Adams] has a particular agenda, [which] is to make sure that veterans receive educations … and I think that is a very worthy goal."

Abel emphasized the efforts of Adams by saying that both the University and New Jersey's veterans are underrepresented.

"The state of New Jersey ranks 35th on the list of states where veterans choose to receive a higher education," he said. "So clearly one of Bryan's goals is to increase the number of veterans here at Rutgers University."

Although Abel said his office has only been open for two weeks, they have clear-cut goals to make the University a hospitable environment for returning combat veterans.

He said one of their goals is to create a first-year seminar for veterans at the University, which is similar to the seminar offered to incoming first-year students.

"The reading that I've done, put out by the American Council on Education, indicates that veterans who go through a seminar together with other veterans and were able to share their experiences and anxieties tend to perform better," he said. "We are talking about creating a learning living community for veterans at Rutgers."

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