Each year, there are fewer and fewer veterans of WWII. My dad was a veteran of that war. He died many years ago, and sometimes I still think about how he never really talked to me about it. Oh, he told me an amusing story or two from his basic training days at Fort Dix, and I subsequently found some pictures of him in France and working in a laboratory, but he never really talked about things or wanted to. I didn’t even know he was in Army Intelligence until after he died and I found some of his papers and the Army’s files on him.
I was not alone in my ignorance. One of my best friends also had no idea what her father had been through in WWII. He was a bomber pilot who was shot down and became a prisoner of war in Stalag Luft 1. She had no idea of any of that until after his death.
Why didn’t our fathers talk to us about their experiences? Were they trying to escape their own bad memories or were they trying to protect us from the horrors of war?
How many veterans today aren’t talking to their spouses or their children about what they have gone through in Korea or Vietnam or the Persian Gulf War or Iraq or Afghanistan?
We have this one day each year where we are supposed to honor veterans, but the “thank you for your service” falls far short of what many of them may need and that we are not giving them, such as mental health help, housing help, and medical help.
Some veterans have visible reminders of their sacrifice for our country. My father’s visible reminder affected his use of his hand, but most people would likely not have noticed. But so many likely carry their reminders inside and never let us see how much they may need. What are we doing for them today?