A child’s tennis shoe Teresa Wickens saw in the rubble along a war-torn Kuwaiti highway in 1991 triggered a thought.

“My head immediately went to my 3-year-old daughter at home,” said Wickens, who transported classified documents 70 miles between Iraq and Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm.

That motherly memory — combined with long days of apprehension in an environment where anything was possible at any moment — left her in a precarious existence after returning home.

She struggled for three years in isolation thinking her melancholy  was “just normal.”

Then she went to the doctor.

The North Platte native was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and put on medication.

It was an experience, the mother of one said, she wants to help other female combat veterans avoid.

She’s now the leader of a year-old Nebraska group called the United Female Veterans of America.

“Women get pushed through the cracks because people don't know how to deal with us when we return,” Wickens said.

“Most women are typical. They say ‘OK, fine be that way, I’ll deal with it.’ But many of them can't do that.”

The group, part of a national organization, is different from other veterans groups because it specifically targets women of recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Though men will be accepted if they need help, the emphasis is on helping women. Members are given assistance navigating the Veterans Administration’s health care system, obtaining counseling and receiving a financial and emotional safety net.

The North Platte-based group only has 12 members. But they’re hoping publicity from a proclamation by Gov. Dave Heineman — dedicating May 28-31 in recognition of women’s service — and a visit from the group’s national commander will help the effort spread.

The goal is to start another four or five chapters across the state, including one in Lincoln.

Kerri Gentry, 24, an Army Reservist and University of Nebraska-Lincoln student who is a member of the group, is interested in starting a local chapter.

“It’s been interesting to see how people who went to war 10 years ago are having the same experiences we are having today,” said Gentry, who served in Jordan and later Iraq.

“It’s different times, different wars, but we can all relate.”

While there has been little tangible effort to organize locally, interest was building among her peers at school.

Members of the Nebraska chapter, named after Sutton native Linda Ann Tarango-Griess, who was killed in Iraq in 2004, meet each month to share their experiences coping.

Their shared struggles — including post-traumatic stress disorder, divorce, sexual trauma and loss of children — make them suited to support each other, Wickens said.

Cases of rape and mistreatment in the military can compound problems for women when they come home and are told to “go to the VFW,” she added.

“They (women) can’t go so instead they suffer in silence,” Wickens said. “They end up coping in very unhealthy ways.”

But John Liebsack, adjutant quartermaster for the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Lincoln, said his group welcomes women veterans.

“A veteran is a veteran,” he said.

Liebsack estimated fewer than 5 percent of his group’s members are women, although the group appointed someone to specifically work with women.

Still, Liebsack said, he understands why some women would prefer their own group.

“It’s not easy for them to come in and discuss some issues or even want to be around male veterans,” he said. “I see that.”

In Nebraska, 518 women serve in the National Guard, 67 of whom are deployed.

And nationwide, the number of women serving in active duty is now more than 200,000, according to Census statistics.

With numbers like those, chapters like Nebraska’s should spring up elsewhere, said Wanda Story, who leads the United Female Veterans of America’s national efforts.

“I’ve seen what the war is doing to these women firsthand,” she said. “They need help. And they need it bad. This is somewhere they can get it.”

Since starting a year ago, national membership has climbed to more than 100 women in 12 chapters.

“We’ve always been the caregivers, not the killers,” she said. “To do that takes a lot out of us. It creates a different kind of traumatic stress. We give care, we nurture, and now we’re out they’re killing.”

Reach Drew Kerr at (402) 473-7223 or dkerr@journalstar.com.