Warsaw Veteran ‘Finally Home’
After three Iraq tours, Raymer settles into new life
September 14, 2017 at 4:42 p.m.
Warsaw Veteran ‘Finally Home’
By Dan [email protected]
The Warsaw native is quick to tell of the lighter moments, like when he ended his first 90 days in Iraq without hot meals or running water and how his shorts were so starched with sweat that they stood up after he took them off.
He can even smile about the difficulty and embarrassment of having a shoulder dislocate while carrying a casket for a fallen soldier across a high school football field in Ohio.
But as the 35-year-old eases back into civilian life and adjusts with internal and external scars left behind by three deployments to Iraq, he said he’s learned a few coping skills, including not crossing the line. Not even with other disabled veterans.
“I avoid a lot of it,” Raymer said. “I just try to leave it there.”
Raymer is back in Warsaw after spending much of the past decade in Germany, Iraq and South Korea. For nearly two hours, he talked with ease about his military career while sipping coffee at a Martin’s coffee shop.
He talked about his physical struggles and the appreciation he has for Operation Finally Home, a national organization that is responsible for him and his big family getting a new home that will be unveiled tonight in Warsaw.
Interest In Serving
Raymer enlisted in the Army National Guard when he was 17 and headed to basic training shortly after graduating from Warsaw Community High School in 2000.
His willingness to “help people” in a moment’s notice was embedded as a child, when he sometimes rode alongside his father, a firefighter, to emergencies. He said he saw the military as opportunity to do that on a bigger scale “than what I could do.”
“I played sports in high school. I knew I had the stamina to do it. I knew I had the strength to do it,” he said.
He went to basic training on June 26, 2001, and began advanced individual training on Sept. 11, 2001.
At the time, he said, the TV images of the terrorist attacks looked more like a “Die Hard” move, but he and others soon acknowledged they were headed to war.
“I was a little apprehensive,” he recalls.
His unit was fast-tracked, and after several stops in other locations, was shipped to Kuwait.
There, they waited until war began on March 19, 2003.
Plenty of Combat
Raymer was trained to be a mechanic for Bradley Fighting Vehicle, but his unit was reclassified to infantry, and eventually he became a machine gunner and a tank commander.
He saw a lot of combat during three tours. He participated in raids and often kept watch over fellow troops while perched on hilltops and buildings.
Much of his work involved suppressing the enemy.
“I got real good with a machine gun,” he said.
He describes combat situations as “organized chaos” in which nothing happens as planned. Soon, though, he became accustomed to the environment.
“You do it a couple of times, you get OK with it,” he said.
He returned to Warsaw after his first tour, and it did not go well.
He struggled to keep a job, was getting in fights and had brushes with the law. “It got to the point where I needed to get back to where I was comfortable, and that’s why I went active in ’06,” he said.
Striving For Excellence
A Combat Infantryman Medal is fastened to the side of Raymer’s Iraqi Freedom Veteran ball cap.
Asked about other medals, Raymer begins rattling off achievements, then asks for a pen and pad. The wheels are spinning. The list is growing. He intently scans a website on his phone and within minutes the list is 23 lines long.
He has a coveted Presidential Unit Citation. He earned four Army Commendation awards for acts of heroism or meritorious achievement or service, and has 11 Army Achievement Medals for excelling in ways that stand out among his peers.
“I enjoyed doing that,” Raymer said.
Other medals were accorded for deployment, marksmanship and for participating in the Global War On Terror.
“There’s a lot of awards,” he admits.
Sidelined By Injuries
With 14 years of service under his belt, Raymer was looking forward to reaching 20 years to qualify for a healthy pension.
But over the years, he sustained numerous concussions. He hyper-extended both elbows and separated his right shoulder more than once. Surgical scars can be seen on both elbows. The right elbow still comes out of socket occasionally, including Tuesday, when it took two hours to slide it back into place.
During Raymer’s third deployment, a Humvee he was in was hit by an improvised explosive device and he was thrown from the vehicle and suffered a concussion.
Some of his buddies did not survive.
He has a traumatic brain injury and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
He continues to suffer migraine headaches and has tinnitus – a ringing of the ears – which fuels episodes of vertigo that cause him to lose his balance.
Falling into walls, he said, is “quite annoying.”
The end of his military service, though, arrived in 2015 after a surgeon warned him that continual surgery would be needed on his elbows.
Leaving active duty was a “hard pill to swallow,” but he compares it to a breakup, in which both sides conclude it would be best for everyone.
“It wasn’t my choice,” Raymer said. “Everything that I had going on medically, it was more than what the military wanted to keep up with.”
Coming Home
Raymer met his wife, Kaci, in 2011 and they married a year later. After he was discharged, they moved to Georgia, where he was hired to do government contract work and had convenient access to the Veterans Administration near a Marine base.
The couple have five children from previous relationships. They wanted to find a way to bring the family together, but logistics and finances stood in the way.
Raymer learned about Operation Finally Home while working with the Wounded Warrior Project in Georgia. He applied once for a home in Louisville, Ky., but was not selected. He applied again and then saw that Warsaw was listed as a possible residence.
And suddenly – finally – he had a chance to get back home and, at the same time, find a home big enough and affordable enough to accommodate the entire family.
He applied last year and learned of his selection at a surprise concert at Wagon Wheel Performing Arts Center in November.
The home represents an opportunity for the family to meld and for him to heal.
“We have that family and support and it makes life so much easier,” he said.
The home at 2613 E. Ontario Lane is expansive and comes with some state-of-the-art features. He got a glimpse of the home this spring when it was first framed up, and will see the completed project during a 6 p.m. ceremony.
Raymer said he knows there are many other veterans who could use a new home and more support. He doesn’t exactly like the spotlight, but says the work by OFH and the community put his family in a good position.
“I know there has been a lot of people that have been through rough patches,” Raymer said. “There’s a lot of us.”
“I’m very grateful,” he said.
The Warsaw native is quick to tell of the lighter moments, like when he ended his first 90 days in Iraq without hot meals or running water and how his shorts were so starched with sweat that they stood up after he took them off.
He can even smile about the difficulty and embarrassment of having a shoulder dislocate while carrying a casket for a fallen soldier across a high school football field in Ohio.
But as the 35-year-old eases back into civilian life and adjusts with internal and external scars left behind by three deployments to Iraq, he said he’s learned a few coping skills, including not crossing the line. Not even with other disabled veterans.
“I avoid a lot of it,” Raymer said. “I just try to leave it there.”
Raymer is back in Warsaw after spending much of the past decade in Germany, Iraq and South Korea. For nearly two hours, he talked with ease about his military career while sipping coffee at a Martin’s coffee shop.
He talked about his physical struggles and the appreciation he has for Operation Finally Home, a national organization that is responsible for him and his big family getting a new home that will be unveiled tonight in Warsaw.
Interest In Serving
Raymer enlisted in the Army National Guard when he was 17 and headed to basic training shortly after graduating from Warsaw Community High School in 2000.
His willingness to “help people” in a moment’s notice was embedded as a child, when he sometimes rode alongside his father, a firefighter, to emergencies. He said he saw the military as opportunity to do that on a bigger scale “than what I could do.”
“I played sports in high school. I knew I had the stamina to do it. I knew I had the strength to do it,” he said.
He went to basic training on June 26, 2001, and began advanced individual training on Sept. 11, 2001.
At the time, he said, the TV images of the terrorist attacks looked more like a “Die Hard” move, but he and others soon acknowledged they were headed to war.
“I was a little apprehensive,” he recalls.
His unit was fast-tracked, and after several stops in other locations, was shipped to Kuwait.
There, they waited until war began on March 19, 2003.
Plenty of Combat
Raymer was trained to be a mechanic for Bradley Fighting Vehicle, but his unit was reclassified to infantry, and eventually he became a machine gunner and a tank commander.
He saw a lot of combat during three tours. He participated in raids and often kept watch over fellow troops while perched on hilltops and buildings.
Much of his work involved suppressing the enemy.
“I got real good with a machine gun,” he said.
He describes combat situations as “organized chaos” in which nothing happens as planned. Soon, though, he became accustomed to the environment.
“You do it a couple of times, you get OK with it,” he said.
He returned to Warsaw after his first tour, and it did not go well.
He struggled to keep a job, was getting in fights and had brushes with the law. “It got to the point where I needed to get back to where I was comfortable, and that’s why I went active in ’06,” he said.
Striving For Excellence
A Combat Infantryman Medal is fastened to the side of Raymer’s Iraqi Freedom Veteran ball cap.
Asked about other medals, Raymer begins rattling off achievements, then asks for a pen and pad. The wheels are spinning. The list is growing. He intently scans a website on his phone and within minutes the list is 23 lines long.
He has a coveted Presidential Unit Citation. He earned four Army Commendation awards for acts of heroism or meritorious achievement or service, and has 11 Army Achievement Medals for excelling in ways that stand out among his peers.
“I enjoyed doing that,” Raymer said.
Other medals were accorded for deployment, marksmanship and for participating in the Global War On Terror.
“There’s a lot of awards,” he admits.
Sidelined By Injuries
With 14 years of service under his belt, Raymer was looking forward to reaching 20 years to qualify for a healthy pension.
But over the years, he sustained numerous concussions. He hyper-extended both elbows and separated his right shoulder more than once. Surgical scars can be seen on both elbows. The right elbow still comes out of socket occasionally, including Tuesday, when it took two hours to slide it back into place.
During Raymer’s third deployment, a Humvee he was in was hit by an improvised explosive device and he was thrown from the vehicle and suffered a concussion.
Some of his buddies did not survive.
He has a traumatic brain injury and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
He continues to suffer migraine headaches and has tinnitus – a ringing of the ears – which fuels episodes of vertigo that cause him to lose his balance.
Falling into walls, he said, is “quite annoying.”
The end of his military service, though, arrived in 2015 after a surgeon warned him that continual surgery would be needed on his elbows.
Leaving active duty was a “hard pill to swallow,” but he compares it to a breakup, in which both sides conclude it would be best for everyone.
“It wasn’t my choice,” Raymer said. “Everything that I had going on medically, it was more than what the military wanted to keep up with.”
Coming Home
Raymer met his wife, Kaci, in 2011 and they married a year later. After he was discharged, they moved to Georgia, where he was hired to do government contract work and had convenient access to the Veterans Administration near a Marine base.
The couple have five children from previous relationships. They wanted to find a way to bring the family together, but logistics and finances stood in the way.
Raymer learned about Operation Finally Home while working with the Wounded Warrior Project in Georgia. He applied once for a home in Louisville, Ky., but was not selected. He applied again and then saw that Warsaw was listed as a possible residence.
And suddenly – finally – he had a chance to get back home and, at the same time, find a home big enough and affordable enough to accommodate the entire family.
He applied last year and learned of his selection at a surprise concert at Wagon Wheel Performing Arts Center in November.
The home represents an opportunity for the family to meld and for him to heal.
“We have that family and support and it makes life so much easier,” he said.
The home at 2613 E. Ontario Lane is expansive and comes with some state-of-the-art features. He got a glimpse of the home this spring when it was first framed up, and will see the completed project during a 6 p.m. ceremony.
Raymer said he knows there are many other veterans who could use a new home and more support. He doesn’t exactly like the spotlight, but says the work by OFH and the community put his family in a good position.
“I know there has been a lot of people that have been through rough patches,” Raymer said. “There’s a lot of us.”
“I’m very grateful,” he said.
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