Another year and too many are still sacrificing life and limb. Bring ’em home!
Psyche and Spirit/Richard B. Patterson PhD
At Mass this morning, the priest (an Army chaplain himself) asked all veterans to stand and be blessed. I looked around and saw young and old, male and female. I wondered what their stories are. Who served in combat? What stories do they have to tell?
I have spoken with veterans of every war from World War II to the present conflicts. Here are a few things they have taught me:
- A World War II veteran gave me the best definition I know of for PTSD. When I asked him about the daily nightmares he suffered, he said simply “I assumed it was the price men pay for going to war.”
- Another World War II taught me how important it is to talk about trauma. He had carried within him for 60 years the belief he was a coward for being afraid. When I managed to help him see the…
View original post 406 more words