A small group of UVM veterans are reexamining their own personal experiences of military combat through the ancient eyes of Odysseus, the protagonist in Homer’s The Odyssey and The Iliad. “For many in the UVM class, Homer's 2,800-year-old verses seem all too familiar: the siege of Troy, the difficult quest of Odysseus to return home after 10 years at war, his anguish at watching friends die, and his problems readjusting to civilian life,” writes AP writer Wilson Ring.

The for-credit class is being taught by John Franklin, associate professor of classics, and David Carlson, coordinator of student veterans' services at UVM and a Marine veteran of Iraq in 2005 and 2006 who sits in on the classes. Student participants are UVM students who have done combat duty in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. Read the story and listen to a VPR Vermont Edition interview with Franklin, Carlson and UVM junior Stephanie Wobby. Wobby is a combat veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan as an Army medic.