But why even to this day is there not enough in place to secure the help our soldiers need to “armor down” when transitioning back to civilian life?
PTSD is a silent weapon attacking our soldiers of yesterday, today and tomorrow affecting the soldier and his loved ones back home.
My father, David Tharp also suffered from the silent post traumatic stress disorder from WWII and briefly speaks of the survivor’s guilt in his letters, articulately written in COMES A SOLDIER’S WHISPER. He even refrained from wearing his ribbons and medals until a Colonel told him to wear them. Although the men returning from WWII received a heroes welcome, this did not address the PTSD that accompanied them and weighed heavy upon them and continues to visit them and their children after all these years. They didn’t talk about it back then. Let us individually and collectively change that.
The featured photo today is of a lone soldier, with thoughts of home and family, reflecting on the day’s battle in the Mekong Delta of Viet Nam. As I graduated in the class of 1969 in Portage, Indiana, so many of the male classmates were receiving their draft notices. It was surreal for me. I felt frozen and did not know how to offer my support for them back then. A good friend and lunch companion was Larry Meier. I have wondered many times throughout my life if he ever made it back from Vietnam… He was soft-spoken, very kind and laughed at everybody’s jokes.
If you know a veteran, embrace him, thank him or her for their service and listen to what they may have to say after all these years. There is a story in what they say and don’t say.
As my father wrote in his retirement speech, “Let us listen and learn, let us explore, question and understand.”
Comes A Soldier’s Whisper, remembering history and our veterans one day at a time…
Coming In October: VIETNAM & BEYOND
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Photo Source: My 1969 Portage High School Year Book, THE LEGEND
