Movies and TV have had a terrible tendency of glorifying war. And I don’t think anyone with a working brain cell thinks that actual combat or military service has any similarity to what  they might experience in “Call of Duty” or the like. What my dad went through serving in Korea probably was far different from what my older uncles experienced in World War II, or my cousins and relatives experienced in Vietnam or my classmates and students have experienced in all the conflicts since. But the sudden and seemingly arbitrary loss of ones friends and squad members, that is a brutal possibility that has been shared throughout the generations of veterans. I appreciate Marine Lance Corporal Travis Williams sharing his story and his struggle to keep going and honor the lives of his friends. Our veterans deserve all the respect and support we can give them and we need to do whatever we can to prevent others from having to take up arms because our leaders cannot resolve conflicts otherwise. How do you respond to hearing these stories? What can we do to help our veterans? What else can we do?

1st squad 3rd platoon - storycorps
1st squad 3rd platoon – storycorps

My generation didn’t do a very good job in how we treated veterans returning from the Vietnam War. Maybe we over-compensated with the Gulf Wars but while trying to support our troops we allowed for our leaders to wage war under false pretenses and rekindle an “Imperial America” mindset around the world. That’s neither here nor there, my point is there are folks in our communities who have suffered in service to our country, including some who were not born here but have chosen to serve, that deserve support and the means to have their best post-service life, regardless of how we might personally feel about the conflict they were engaged in. 

There is an excellent 7-episode podcast called Taking Cover that was created by NPR/Embedded that touched on survivor’s guilt and dealing with the aftermath of the sudden unanticipated loss of soldiers’ lives. Unlike today’s story, Taking Cover investigates a friendly fire incident that took years to uncover. Please check it out at the following link: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510368/taking-cover

I cannot imagine what these people went through and the struggles that stay with them. Respect. 

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