By Fernanda Arellano
After 26 years, James Comoda, a retired United States Army Veteran, returned to Dominican last fall to complete his degree.
Comoda was born in 1979 in Frankfurt, Germany and later moved to Arkansas, Georgia, and Louisiana, where he graduated high school. In 1997, he enrolled at Dominican and began playing basketball.
In 2005, he joined the United States Army and concluded his services in 2015. He currently lives in River Forest, Illinois with his wife, Marissa, their two children, Amelia and Justin, and their two rescued service dogs, Maxx and Vito.
Comoda expressed his gratitude for the Veterans Administration Benefits paying for his education.
“The Veteran Administration does not advertise the benefits for us,” he explained. “If I did not hear through other veterans who received it, I wouldn’t have thought I could have these educational benefits.”
Q: Where did you serve in the army?
A: [I served in] Fort Rucker, Alabama, Fort Drum, New York, and South Korea. Before I went to the active-duty side out of Midway, I was also in the Illinois National Guard.
Q: How did you feel about coming back to school?
A: When I went to SOAR (Student Orientation, Advising, and Registration), I brought my service animal. I was very nervous about coming back here. However, the [Dominican] community has been so welcoming. I realized that I didn’t I bring him anymore.
Mental health was also a difficult pill to swallow. I made an impact in my soldiers’ lives, but when I get out, everything just keeps going. I still wonder if I have an impact [because] PTSD starts again. I have gone through a lot of therapy and different medications. Luckily, it has ended here.
Q: What is your major?
A: My profession was like violence. So, [I thought I should] switch things up and make it about creating something. That’s when I switched to graphic design.”
Q: What are you currently involved with outside of school?
A: The non-profits I [belong to] are War Dogs Making it Home, [where I work as] a trainer and photographer and the Chicago Warriors, [where I am] a player and photographer. The Chicago Warriors team is where I found out about the educational benefits. Every single one of these players is a disabled veteran. War Dogs Making it Home was founded by Alana Morgan, who is the [organization’s] president. The dogs not only handle civil and PTSD veterans, but also [help with] sexual trauma and mobility issues.
Q: What are your future goals?
A: [I would love to earn] my doctorate in art therapy because I want to develop more programs for veterans to minimize PTSD. I then want to have a recreational center. Many military bases [have] a center [you can visit] because living in the barracks is like living in a dorm room. There’s also no veteran organization here at Dominican. So, I would love to start that too.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to say?
A: After being a student here, the impact I want to leave is to make it easier for other veterans to find out about this opportunity. Many people assume Dominican is a private school, [but] I want to show the faculty and students to not believe the cliches about veterans. We are not all shell-shocked snowflakes.
I would also love to teach here. I enjoy helping some of my classmates. It kind of gives me the same feeling I would get when I taught a soldier how to do something.
