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The decision to flee one’s homeland is a complex event that can have a life-long impact. The diaspora of the Cuban people has occurred throughout the United States since 1959. Their stories can shed light on the health challenge of leaving one’s homeland and can contribute to a body of knowledge that can inform nursing and health care. This study presents the qualitative findings from the stories of 13 participants who arrived in the U.S. from Cuba during the Mariel Boatlift of 1980. A story inquiry research design, grounded in the theoretical underpinnings of story theory (Smith & Liehr, 2014), was utilized to explore the dimensions of the health challenge of fleeing one’s homeland, turning points and movement to resolve. Deductive and inductive analysis of the health challenge of fleeing one’s homeland revealed the dimensions of trauma related to the pre-migration, migration, and post migration experience, associated losses, and stigma. The upheaval induced stress in the lives of the participants tested their ability to cope. Managing day-to-day and utilizing internal and external resources, the participants moved to resolve the challenge of fleeing their homeland over time. Many turning points shaped the direction of their experience over decades and contributed to their ability to find meaning by becoming self-sufficient, recreating home, and reconstructing a sense of self-identity. Their unique experiences and stories have provided a voice to empower future studies to expand nursing science, influence empathy and understanding through education, foster awareness in practice, and inspire the potential for policy change for the well-being of refugee populations., 2020, Includes bibliography., Degree granted: Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2020., Collection: FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The fire in Yellowstone National Forest in 1988, the Exxon Oil spill of 1989 and now the War on Drugs are all examples of the military participating in operations that are inter-agency. This operational environment is truly joint in nature, and an environment in which the military will find itself many times in the future if the past is any indicator. One such inter-agency operation was the Cuban Refugee Operation of 1980 (known by some as the Mariel Boat Lift). It involved the Army, the Air Force, the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Department of Justice, the Department of State, the Red Cross and a number of volunteer agencies. The study of the Cuban Refugee Operation raises some interesting questions in such a joint operation. Could the Army have reasonably anticipated the mission as it developed by June, 1980? To what extent did the Army relate with civilian agencies in this operation? And how effectively did the Army organize itself to meet the mission? To facilitate this study, we limit it to three of the four refugee sites, viz. Fort Chaffee, Arkansas; Fort McCoy, Wisconsin and Fort Indiantown Gap. At each of these sites, the Army was not only the largest force, but in many ways functioned as the executive agent. The scope of this study is further limited to only two areas that highlight the lessons: the understanding of the operation's mission and the organization to meet this mission.