GET WELL, JESSICA Jessica Clements holds the
American flag she took to Iraq, which was returned to
her with get-well wishes from her platoon members
after she was injured when a homemade bomb
exploded beneath an unarmored truck she was riding
in. REPOSITORY RAY STEWART
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Life in a war zone isn't easy. Leaving it behind isn't easy either. Stark County veterans returning from Iraq must reconnect with their families and communities while coping with emotional and physical scars of a vicious and often undefined war. And many must do it while facing the growing possibility of redeployment. On this Memorial Day weekend, we remember veterans who lost their lives to the war. But we also recognize the Stark County veterans still reclaiming their lives from the war.
PLAIN TWP. She has no scars from bullets. No limbs are missing
To look at Army Staff Sgt. Jessica Clements, it's hard to imagine that the one-time model is an injured Iraq war veteran. Her face is picture perfect, her personality infectious.
"Just because you look fine doesn't mean you're fine," said the 30-year-old, who is classified as fully disabled.
Clements' most difficult days of recovery may be over, but she continues to deal with the effects of her time in Iraq.
She left Iraq in a hurry in May 2004 - nearly dead after a homemade bomb exploded beneath an unarmored truck she was riding in.
Shrapnel gouged her body, including her brain. The injuries left the Plain Township woman in a coma for months. She was given a 2 percent chance to live.
She survived, but with injuries so severe she had to learn again how to walk and talk, to feed herself and to write.
There were days of doubt, but more of perseverance and resolve.
By the end of 2005, Clements, who recalls none of the details of the accident that nearly killed her, had made a new life for herself.
She purchased a home in Plain Township, was working toward a degree at the University of Akron and interned for a month at Stark County Family Court.
"I had to get on with my life," said Clements, who credits her family support for much of her recovery. "Whether I was in Iraq or not, I could have come home and still have got a brain injury. I think it was my fate to be injured, to go through what I have gone through."
For many soldiers adjusting from war "is a lifelong process," said Ayla Hay, public relations coordinator for the Wounded Warrior Project, which assists wounded veterans. "Wounded Warrior wants to be there for a soldier for a lifetime, but especially in the first five years."
It's during those five years, Hay said, when returning soldiers need employment and financial and emotional assistance the most.
NO STRAIGHT PATH
For nearly three years after her injury, Clements showed progress. Until January.
"I was doing really well," she said. "Then I started having the seizures. I sleep a lot. I have migraines. I had to drop out of school."
At first, the seizures came in the middle of the night. Within weeks, they began happening in the middle of the day. Anywhere at any time. She had them at a garage sale and in the parking lot at Home Depot.
"It's so frustrating," Clements said. "I can't control it. ... Now, I can't go to school. It's summertime and I'm stuck at home all day."
She no longer can drive. She isn't supposed to be alone. And she can't remember.
"My short-term memory is bad," she said. "Sometimes, I forget simple things."
She left the stove on overnight, and drowned her flowers with water from a forgotten sprinkler.
Clements has post-traumatic stress disorder with flashbacks from her tour in Iraq.
She is a regular at the three Veterans Administration facilities in Northeast Ohio. At times she feels guilty for not having a full-time job.
But her will to live her life, to enjoy her time with her fiancé, Paul Ellis Jr., and to someday have a baby, keeps her motivated.
"You can't give up," Clements said.
"No matter how bad it hurts, you have to somehow suck it up and get through the day. You can't feel sorry for yourself."
"She's amazing," Ellis said. "Most people ... I know I couldn't have survived. Her surviving has a lot to do with the kind of person she is."
The future
It was at the Red Rock Canyon in Las Vegas on April 15, that Clements' future became clear. Ellis proposed to Clements.
"By my second date, I knew I was going to marry him," Clements said.
Ellis, 28, attended Green High School with Clements. He was a freshman when she was a senior. "I had a crush on him," she remembers.
After she graduated in 1995, they lost contact. He contacted her through MySpace.com in 2006 and they reunited.
He has become her rock.
"It's OK because I have Paul," she said.
Ellis holds Clements when she has seizures. He takes her into work with him to get her out of the house. He alternates with her family in driving her to doctors' appointments.
"It would have been very hard not having the support system that I do," Clements said. "Even now, I talk to my mom every day. I'm very close to my family."
Eventually, Clements, who has three sisters, wants to have children. "I thought I'd have a family by now," she said, but doctors have advised her against it for now because of the medications she takes.
Not all of Clements' goals revolve around family. She wants to get a degree to help and counsel other injured veterans.
"Once I get these seizures under control, I want to finish my degree," she said. "I'm a junior. It's going to take a while because I can only take one or two classes. But I want to finish. ...
"I remember after I was injured, a couple of my therapists were civilians. They were never in the military. I felt like they didn't understand. I want to help because I can relate."
Ellis has no doubt Clements will continue to improve and succeed. "She is very caring, determined and resilient," Ellis said.
"She lights up a room. People are drawn to her. She is definitely a leader."
Reach Repository writer Fellicia Smith at (330) 580-8312 or e-mail: fellicia.smith@cantonrep.com
