Veterans Day 2015

An American soldier greets his wife and son after returning home from a 14-month
deployment to Iraq (Getty Images), BBC News

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Nineteen million veterans (2014 census) of war live among us in America, yet what do we do to help them transition from military life to civilian life? First, learn about their experience.

Here are two stories told by people who experienced war as active participants.

Wes Moore: How to talk to veterans about the war

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Sebastion Junger: Why veterans miss war

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Journalist Sebastian Junger wrote about veterans returning from war an opinion piece in the Washington Post:

Civilians tend to do things that make them, not the veterans, feel better. Yellow ribbons and parades do little to help with the emotional aftermath of combat. War has been part of human culture for tens of thousands of years, and most tribal societies were engaged in some form of warfare when encountered by Western explorers. It might be productive to study how some societies reintegrated their young fighters after the intimate carnage of Stone Age combat. It is striking, in fact, how rarely combat trauma is mentioned in ethnographic studies of cultures.

Typically, warriors were welcomed home by their entire community and underwent rituals to spiritually cleanse them of the effect of killing. Otherwise, they were considered too polluted to be around women and children. Often there was a celebration in which the fighters described the battle in great, bloody detail. Every man knew he was fighting for his community, and every person in the community knew that their lives depended on these young men. These gatherings must have been enormously cathartic for both the fighters and the people they were defending. A question like the one recently posed to me wouldn’t begin to make sense in a culture such as the Yanomami of Brazil and Venezuela or the Comanche.

-- Marge

Tomorrow is Veterans Day

Veterans Day 2014, Running Network

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While we're all veterans of something, maybe just life itself, tomorrow honors the veterans of the armed services. Not to be confused with Memorial Day, Veterans Day is explained by AL.com:

Difference between Veterans Day and Memorial Day: Veterans Day is a federal holiday that is celebrated on Nov. 11 each year. It's often confused with Memorial Day, which is set aside to honor those who died serving their country. Veterans Day is for all those who have served in the armed forces. 

Armistice Day: The origins of the holiday date back to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, who proclaimed Armistice Day on Nov. 11, 1919 to mark the end of World War I. The armistice between Germany and the Allied nations that ended WWI was signed on that day and a ceasefire went into effect on the 11th hour of Nov. 11, 1918. An interesting note on that day, however. The war didn't have its official end until seven months later, when, on June 28, 1919, the parties signed the Treaty of Versailles in the Palace of Versailles in France.

While looking at the topic of veterans, particularly veterans of Vietnam (a conflict that marked a tumultuous time in American history), I came across some enlightening information. One of the more outrageous reports from the period was the story of war protestors spitting on the returning veterans.  This article in Wikipedia says it's a myth and offers no image. An article at Cracked gives "5 Lies About the Vietnam War You Probably Believe."

Looking at more recent veterans, Joe Klein at Time Magazine's Swampland writes--

We hear a lot about the troops who come home suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder; we hear about the suicides and domestic violence. We hear about the unemployment and homelessness. All of which is sad and true But there’s another side to the story…

While you must have a subscription to read the Time cover story, "The New Greatest Generation" (2011), a number of sites have published articles about it. Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). Being Chief. Forbes Magazine.

From the Forbes article, there's this:

Make no mistake about it, more young vet movers and shakers are in-bound to American communities across the nation. Investing in their future now is the best thing we as a country can do for our collective future, from their education to their health care to their employment.

BTW, ABC News offers a list of deals and freebies being offered veterans as thanks.

I offer my thanks, too.

-- Marge

Veteran's Day, 2013

To honor the brave men and women who served to protect our country here are two outstanding images.

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JimboJones2456, "VeteransDay," DeviantART

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koopastar, "A Soldier's Anguish," deviantART

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A collection of images related to Veteran's Day can be found at YouTheDesigner's Tribute to Our Unsung Heroes.

Our returning veterans have a hard time adjusting to 'normal' daily life.  Seems to me a large part of it is the loss of camaraderie and of the sense of purpose military service gives.  Team Rubicon offers a renewed sense of purpose.  A PBS article, Coming Home, links to a wealth of resources for the returning soldier, some of them governmental, some of them not.

A crisis line is available.

Soldier, you are remembered and valued.

-- Marge

DIY: troop therapy

Despite lack of support from the Veteran's Administration, soldiers returning from war are finding a way to help themselves and each other.  And it's heart-warming to see how they're doing it.  You can find a detailed description of some groups' efforts in an article at Time online (open to the public) by Joe Klein, titled "Can Service Save Us?".

Quoting from Joe's article:

This self-help ethos stands in stark contrast to that of the more traditional military-related charities. Eric Greitens, the founder and CEO of the Mission Continues, is notoriously tough on veterans who come to him with service-related excuses. “People understand the tremendous sacrifices that veterans have made — and they instinctively want to do something for them,” he says. “And that sometimes leads people to give veterans an excuse: Oh, you didn’t show up for work on time. It must be that you have posttraumatic stress disorder. Oh, you’re disabled. Don’t even try. Or, you’re being a bad partner to your husband or wife, or a bad father or mother. It must be that you lost a bunch of friends. We simply do not accept those excuses.” Jake Wood has little tolerance for veterans who see themselves as victims. Posttraumatic stress is, he believes, a condition that can be battled and defeated. “If you’re out doing disaster relief,” Wood says, “you’re less likely to be thinking about yourself and more likely to be thinking about the people you’re helping. You’re also presenting yourself, and other veterans, as a model, as a potential community leader.”

My favorite group of volunteer veterans is Team Rubicon. These guys put muscle and skills where needed.  They helped clean up after Hurricane Sandy, the recent Oklahoma tornado, and other disasters -- as shown in this video.
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The Mission Continues and Team Rubicon are not the only service-oriented groups out there.  There's also All for Good (geared to local needs), ServeNet.org (offering youth opportunities to help and funding for projects), VolunteerMatch  (a portal for matching volunteers with local causes), and Catchafire (a portal for professionals to volunteer their skills).

In case you didn't know there's currently an epidemic of suicides among veterans and active duty military.  Whatever we can do to help diminish these harsh numbers, we must do.

From Forbes comes this thought for the day:

“ The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing. ”                                        — Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

-- Marge