Soldiers live by plans.

When they enter the Army, Reserve or National Guard, Soldiers choose a military occupational specialty, and are given a plan that sets out a course of training and experience.

When they are qualified in their MOS, they are assigned to their unit, given job responsibilities and provided a plan that defines their military career.

When they deploy to a wartime environment, Soldiers are given a plan that outlines their duties, assigns them to a team and battle buddy, and gives them a timetable for their return.

It is on their return from a deployment when planning - with the details of what they may experience emotionally and psychologically, what they can do to help themselves recover, how they can regain the life they left at home — often falls short of what a Soldier needs to reintegrate back into a normal military routine, family life and society as a whole.

The Army has been working to make that transition back into society easier on its wartime Soldiers. To augment those efforts, several community agencies and organizations have stepped up across the nation to provide assistance to the returning Soldier and other servicemembers.

And now there is a plan - known as the Reintegration Action Plan - to help returning servicemembers, many who are unwilling to seek help and support through official channels. RAP was developed by the Alabama Returning Veterans Committee, consisting of Laura Ayers of Redstone Arsenal’s AMRDEC, Tracey Daniell of Veterans Affairs, Lorne Dann of the Alabama Psychological Association, Alan Hinson of the state’s Operation Grateful Heart program and Acquanetta Knight of the Alabama Department of Mental Health. It is endorsed by Gov. Bob Riley as a plan of action for servicemembers returning home and to civilian life.

“This book is a tool. Our goal is to help the families and those who have served our country,” Ayers said. “We don’t want to lose another friend to PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder).

“The five of us who put this book together - we all feel the individuals serving our nation have really given us their best. We feel we owe these servicemembers. This is our small means of paying back and helping to give comfort beyond what our hands can do.”

Ayers, an engineer who designs helicopters for the Army, has more than 20 years experience volunteering with people with learning and physical disabilities. But it was her work in 2003 to field a computer network system with three Army battalions deploying to Baghdad, Iraq, out of Fort Campbell, Ky., that set her on the path toward the book’s development.

“I built a personal relationship with many of the families there,” Ayers said of her work at Fort Campbell. “During the deployment, there was a lot of e-mailing back and forth 24/7. They would tell me what they need and I would work to get it for them.

But, Ayers also wanted to develop a comprehensive document that would provide information to returning servicemembers and veterans on all aspects of reintegration. She went to Gov. Riley with her idea, and he assisted in establishing the Alabama Returning Veterans Committee.

“For the next two years, we wrote the book. We wrote the book on evenings and weekends,” she said. “We apologize that it took so long. But we wanted to get it right.”

Since being released in November 2008, about 5,000 copies have been circulated through Veterans Affairs, the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Alabama Department of Mental Health. The Redstone-Huntsville Chapter of the Association of the U.S. Army has endorsed it and is working with the national AUSA to provide copies to Soldiers, and the North Alabama Veterans & Fraternal Organizations Coalition is publicizing the book.