US Veterans and Their Reception

Michael Z Posting #3

Topic: Civil Rights

Posting #3 US History 1 period A

"A Different Reception for Today's War Veterans"

  Today's wounded warriors have something previous generations did not: the empowerment of social media and a reality culture marinated in deacdes of self-help movements seeking to draw meaning and lessons in the trials of others. "Our servicemembers really have stories that can relate to a big world out there," says Army Infantryman J. R. Martinez, a native of Shreveport, La., who was badly burned in Iraq. "We all go through wars-military, economic, relationships. The one thing that really connects us all is adversity." Martinez says his most memorable moment came when a young woman wrote him that a speech he had given kept her from commiting suicide.  Jonathan Shay, one of the Veterans Administration's leading clinical psychiatrists on combat trauma, says healing soldiers can benefit by telling their stories to trusting listeners. Anderson says living in the moment became his recovery philosophy. He gives 30-40 speeches a year. He acted in the movie "The Wrestler" , appeared on CSI: NY, and wrote a book, "No Turning Back". He is now national spokesman for the veterans' aid group, USA cares. He says, "Why settle for a normal life when you can have an extraordinary one?"

  40 years ago, wounded veterans came home to a very different America. In his autobiography Born on the Fourth of July, paralyzed Vietnam Marine veteran Ron Kovic describes a self-destructive spiral as he fixated on the hospital in 1968. "Their face changes- the eyes, the voice, the way they look at you," says Kovic's character in the movie, played by Tom Cruise. Kovic found a public voice in the antiwar movement. Therapists, veterans and oral historians say the shock of 9/11, the memories of Vietnam and the accessibility of social media have created a very different environment for returning troops. "Our country (was) attacked on our own soil," says Stephen Tolman, a Nashville agent who books speaking engagements for Army Spc. Robert Jackson of Orlando. Tolman says 9/11 led to a broad consensus that "no matter where you were politically, that these veterans were defending and protecting all of us." Jackson lost both legs and was severly burned in Iraq in 2003. Two of his uncles- both veterans of the Vietnam war- inspired him to go into public speaking. "The most rewarding thing I have been able to do is learn how to relate my story, injury and experience and transform it to a message that will touch those that may be struggling with an illness or divorce or just the stress of life, or even those that just want to hear an interesting story." says Jackson, the father of six.

  He has named his public speaking company The Right to Bear Stumps. It symbolizes what some say is another difference of these wars. "Amputees- they don't  cover it up," says Dick McLance, Anderson's mentor at Pride Mobility, the Pennsylvania-based wheelchair manufacturer for which Anderson is a national spokesman. "In previous wars, guys that suffered amputations always covered it up."

   Wounded Vietnam veteran Dave Roever, himself a successful public speaker, says he has trained about 500 wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in public speaking at Eagles Summit ranches in Colorado and Texas. Telling their stories, he says, helps wounded vets "offload a lot ofo stress that before became a disorder." One of Roever's pupils, former Army sergeant Brian Fleming, 27, of Fort Worth, was burned over his face and nearly half his body when the military truck he was riding in was blown up by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan in 2006. Fleming gave his first speech to 2,000 people while still in burn bandages. Afterward, he says, a young woman approached him, delared, "if you can get through what you have gone through, I can get through this." "That was a game-changer," Fleming says. "All of a sudden, all of the pain I had gone through had helped someone else." His message includes a survivior's defiant humor. His Texas license plate bears a Purple Heart and the vanity insignia: "NICETRY" "A guy blew himself up trying to kill me, and he was the only one who died that day," explains Fleming.

  As a minority in American population, the reaction of the public and civilians to the unnamed heroes are slowly changing for the better. As the next century progresses, and as more war veterans are becoming confident in sharing their injuries and experiences, civilians and soldiers are once more united under the American flag. Veterans are beginning to be able to hope for normal lives again, with the improvement of social media and as the public's reaction to their reentry into the world outside of the battlefield.