JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- Kyle Hausmann-Stokes' first assignment in film school could have been about anything. He chose to make it about post-traumatic stress.
The experiences of young veterans readjusting to life outside a combat zone were fresh on his mind that first semester in 2009. Retired Staff Sgt. Hausmann-Stokes had only recently returned from a yearlong deployment to Iraq, and his short film "Now, After" is based on his own experiences as a student at the University of Southern California.
The film is now used by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs across the country, and was screened last week at Stone Education Center on Joint Base Lewis-McChord and at Pierce College campuses in the area.
"I think it's giving us (veterans) a voice," Hausmann-Stokes said of the film.
It's also helping him complete one of the most important missions he's ever been on.
Hausmann-Stokes joined the Army in 2001, right after graduating from high school. After several years with the Army's airborne infantry, he planned to end his term of service and attend Arizona State University -- but was stop-lossed as his unit prepared to deploy in 2004.
Before he deployed, though, he was called into his battalion commander's office.
"Sergeant, I know who you are," the lieutenant colonel told him.
His commander had seen the short movies he had become known for making over the last few years, and had plans for him. He told Hausmann-Stokes that he and he alone would not be stop-lossed. Instead, he was to find the best film school he could, get his degree and devote himself to telling the Soldier's story.
He left Fort Polk that day, but never forgot what the colonel told him. Years later he got two very important letters in the same week -- one from USC's prestigious School of Cinematic Arts accepting him into the program, and the other from Uncle Sam recalling him to active duty.
He could have gotten out of it. Hausmann-Stokes was offered an exemption because of his enrollment in film school. But instead he deployed as ordered and ultimately returned to USC in 2008.
"It was harder than I thought," he said of coming back.
He was edgy, angry and couldn't seem to leave the sights and sounds of Iraq behind him. When he received that assignment to make a film about anything, he felt the differences between him and his fellow students as clearly as ever.
"There's a disconnect there and it made me mad," Hausmann-Stokes said. "Why do they get to make films about happy stuff when this is all I can see?"
And so he made a film about himself -- and countless other veterans like him.
In fact, "Now, After" was neither the first nor the last project in fulfilling his mission to the colonel. Hausmann-Stokes has since made several training films and public service announcements for the VA, including for a yet-to-be-launched website called "Making the Connection," which will provide veterans with information about the issues closest to them.
For Hausmann-Stokes, the goal is twofold -- to reach out to veterans and to start conversations among military and nonmilitary people about what it means to be a Soldier.
So far, both missions are being accomplished.
"(I found) I wasn't alone," former Soldier Michael Keelin said at the Nov. 3 screening at Pierce College's Fort Steilacoom campus. "That was the biggest thing."
He's been out of the Army for more than six years, and he knows there are plenty of issues surrounding readjustment that need to be addressed.
"Here's someone that's actually doing something and bringing it to light," he said.
Barlow Buescher, an adjunct professor with Pierce College's military programs, was so impressed after the Nov. 2 screening at Stone Education Center he brought his wife to the Nov. 3 screening at Pierce College.
"That whole process of coming back and making a transition, we're not doing a good job of that as a society," Buescher said. "I think people assume a lot of machismo on the part of folks that have served in the military."
In reality, Buescher said, the process is fragile and frightening -- and the more people can understand that, the better.
As for Hausmann-Stokes, the process of telling Soldiers' stories has only just begun. He's founded Blue Three Productions, a production company that promises Hollywood quality and military precision, to help him accomplish the task.
"I feel like I'm on a task," he said. "I feel like I'm on a mission."
Marisa Petrich: marisa.petrich@nwguardian.com
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