The Battle After The War

When the 3rd Infantry came home to Ft. Stewart, Georgia, at summer's end, they couldn't wait to get back to their future, a future of new marriages and old routines like physical training.

But the reality of re-entry is more than just getting used to pre-dawn workouts again, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Axelrod.

"You've got to be open minded when you come home," said Sgt. Charles Hall.

CBS News viewers first met Hall on the sands of Iraq, just hours into his first battle. At the time, he said, "You'd have to be a fool to say you weren't scared."

Hall has learned you can't leave that fear in the desert. It comes back with you, reaching into your home.

"My son, he'll go outside and play and I'll be worried about snakes or something like that outside," he said. "At any moment anything can happen. You never can tell when death comes. It's going to come get you."

At Fort Stewart, there's a tree planted for each of the 31 troops from the 3rd ID killed in combat.

But measuring the consequences of war on those who did come back can be tricky business because the effects aren't as always as easy to see.

While Lt. Col. Rock Marcone was storming Saddam's palace, Holly Marcone was holding down the fort in Georgia.

"When women are expected to do what we were expected to do for six months, and then a very strong, normally in charge, very controlling husband comes home, it's like, 'Wait a minute," said Holly Marcone.

"It was tough," admits Rock Marcone, "for the first couple of weeks, because I just wanted peace and quiet and not have to think."

Col. Will Grimsley is still wrestling with re-entry, months after turning in his weapon.

"I was less interested to ask the questions of what went on back here than they were to ask what went on over there," he said. "I quickly found out that I really needed to spend more time finding out what did go on back here just even every day life."