MIDDLETOWN, Pa. — When Andrew Butch was forced to retire from the U.S. Army in 2017, he felt like the rug had been pulled out from under him.
He had enlisted at age 18 and spent time overseas twice, first in Afghanistan and then in Korea. He’d reached the prestigious unit where he’d always wanted to serve and planned to spend the rest of his military career there.
But vision problems meant he was forced to medically retire instead. It sounds cliché to say that being in the military is more than a job, he said, but it is. With the forced retirement, “I was miserable, at the end of my rope,” he added.
Butch needed a new path and since he had previously graduated from nearby Middletown High School, coming to Penn State Harrisburg just made sense, he said.
He didn’t find fulfillment in the first major he chose and soon switched to psychology and sociology. He recalls reading a quote from a philosopher, Viktor Frankl, about how suffering ceases to be suffering when it finds meaning.
“I took that and applied it to my situation,” Butch said. “Maybe I can use those experiences … to benefit others.”
Now a graduate student earning his master’s in applied clinical psychology, Butch and others on campus are working to better connect student veterans with the resources and support they need.
“This transition is very difficult for some people. I want that not to be such a turbulent time for people to deal with,” he said.