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Nearly two years ago in Afghanistan, Green Beret Matthew Binney was shot in the back of the head during an ambush.

The bullet fractured his skull, but Binney continued fighting, rising to his feet and leading a small group of soldiers until a round of machine-gun fire ripped through his left shoulder leaving nothing more than skin on bone.

For hours, as fighting raged around him, Binney was lying on the ground in a small town just outside Kandahar, hoping for a rescue, bracing for the worst, his ears ringing as he lost blood and shock took over his body.

The attack ended Binney's promising Army career, where he had risen from a helicopter mechanic to a Green Beret medic. As he recovered from his injuries in Walter Reed Army Medical Center and later in his hometown of Payson, he wondered what he was going to do next.

Now on the mend, Binney has just finished his first semester at the University of Arizona and hopes to go on to medical school. But the transition from the battlefield to the classroom has not been easy. At 27, not only is he much older than his fellow freshmen, but he has a wife and two children and lingering injuries.

He had another shoulder surgery last week. For a year he struggled with sleep and he continues to be plagued with daily headaches.

"It was a kick to the groin starting out, as far as trying to get back up to speed," he said. "I'm holding my own in school now, and, for the most part, people don't even know anything happened to me."

As more and more veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan return home, there has been a growing push to help them with the transition to civilian life.

The U.S. House and Senate recently approved measures to provide more GI benefits to more people — particularly reservists and National Guard — for a longer time.

At home, the University of Arizona is launching a program that will include: a veterans center, a group of core classes open only to veterans and an outreach program for physically disabled veterans that will also track how they fare on campus. Initial funding for physically disabled veterans programs is from a $335,000 earmark that Arizona Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva got included in the federal budget.

"They are isolated," said Lynette Cook-Francis, assistant vice president for student affairs at the UA. "For one thing, they are a non-traditional age. Often, they have families. They are working. In many cases, they come on campus, they take their classes and they leave."

A recent study by the Rand Corporation, a non-profit think tank, found nearly one in five veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan suffers from either major depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.

While Binney said he never went through either of those challenges — and he thinks attention to those issues undermines more positive stories — he had his own internal struggles.

"In the beginning, I couldn't remember anything," he said. "I had a real bad time with temper. I couldn't find words as much as I wanted to. They were there, and I just couldn't find them."

One common challenge for many veterans who find themselves back in school, regardless of injuries or experience, is simply nerves.

Binney, who never planned to go to college, much less med school, experienced them. So, too, did Roy Dittler, a former nuclear mechanic on an aircraft carrier, who said he was anxious about his return to school in 2004.

"I was a little scared because I hadn't been in a classroom since 1999," said Dittler, 27. "I mean, nuclear-power school was no joke; still, it wasn't a traditional class environment, so I was a little worried if I was going to be able to hack it."

But entering his senior year, pursuing a degree in chemical engineering with a pre-health minor, Dittler has connected with the other students and several professors. His work in the Navy ties directly to his studies, and he found going to school has helped cope with the lingering pain and loss from his military injuries.

Just after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, Dittler's carrier, the USS George Washington, was deployed to Afghanistan. When a fire broke out aboard ship, Dittler led a team to clear out smoke. Heavy machinery fell on him, smashing his shoulder and compressing his spine. Five discs were destroyed.

Once an avid, long-distance runner (you can Google his name to find race times), Dittler can no longer take part in sports. He has, at times, struggled to bend over, has missed classes to attend medical treatments. He said he lives with pain every day.

"There were times I couldn't even dress myself," he said. "It's really tough. You feel worthless. You feel that you've lost so much. Basically, it was hard to cope with. The thing is, I just didn't want to sit down and mull over it and feel sorry for myself.

"And I think that's another motivation for my getting into school and doing something with my life. Because it's hard just sitting there thinking about what I've lost, but what good is that going to do me, you know? It will just make me sad. Instead, I can think about what I have gained."

Dittler and Binney are attending school through the Department of Veterans Affairs Vocational Rehabilitation Program, which is designed to help veterans with physical or mental disabilities related to their service. The aim is to help them successfully enter the workplace. It's a model program. But most veterans go to school under the GI Bill.

The VA offers work programs, counseling and health services. As far as school goes, the VA will cover tuition for 48 months, as well as books, a living stipend and any school materials needed, like computers.

"If there is something a veteran needs that they would be disadvantaged if they didn't have, we'll get it for them," said Michael O'Connor, a VA counselor in Tucson.

Statewide, the VA is serving 500 veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan — 164 in Southern Arizona, O'Connor said.

"A lot of our veterans have post-traumatic stress disorder," O'Connor said. "Some are bipolar. There is a lot of depression."

Helping veterans cope with challenges, while also building a path toward the future, takes a certain skill in delivering bad news about what is possible and what is not, said O'Connor, a Vietnam veteran who went through the VA's vocational-rehabilitation program after his own injuries.

"We don't slam the door in their face about a career, we just try to get them to think about what would happen if they went down that path and get them to think about that for a while," O'Connor said. "That's usually enough."

For Brad Brown, who supported troops in Iraq as a Marine helicopter mechanic and crew chief, the VA's vocational-rehabilitation program has been crucial to finishing his degree at the UA in microbiology.

Like many veterans who go back to school, Brown originally opted for a community college.

He enrolled in Mojave Community College in Kingman because it was close to home and he thought it would be a less stressful transition.

Back then, the GI Bill was paying for school, but Brown said he got little guidance about classes, or what to expect in a school environment. He didn't know what degree options were available or how to plan out classes. Neither of his parents had gone to college.

It took a few semesters to make a connection, but he became close with a chemistry professor and eventually transferred to the UA. At the same time, he switched to the VA's vocational-rehabilitation program for help with school and with a rotator-cuff injury he suffered while in the Marines.

Now entering his final year, Brown, 27, said if he had stayed under the GI Bill, he would not be getting a degree in microbiology. The GI Bill simply doesn't provide enough financial support over a long enough period.

"I would have definitely gotten a degree, but I don't think it would have been something that I would have wanted," he said. "It wouldn't have worked as well for me. The voc-rehab program is a better program for that. That's the amount of time I think people do need because it is so hard for someone to go in that probably doesn't have any background for school."

In many ways Brown is where Binney wants to be in a few years. Brown plans to go to medical school and is spending his time studying for the MCAT while doing work-study at Tucson's VA Medical Center.

For the next few weeks, Binney will recover from his most recent shoulder surgery. Then he will spend the summer studying chemistry and calculus.

He earned four A's and a B his first semester, and while he said he feels a little behind "the power curve," his time in the military and the responsibility of his family have brought him a new focus. If it weren't for his service as a medic, he said he wouldn't be in school, much less aspiring to be a doctor.

"I have a clear goal that I am shooting for," he said. "I have a family and responsibilities now. I am very focused."