Real Change

While attending the Plymouth Veterans Day Ceremony on Saturday, speaker Matt Bauman reminded me of something about my own family I hadn’t really realized.He noted World War II veterans are all passing on and there are very few to get a perspective from anymore. What struck me was that the generation that went off to fight during WWII, was not the generation that came back.Those men put the country on their backs, coming back from the most gruesome, horrific fighting in human history, and built this nation into the global powerhouse it is today, never once complaining, silently building and moving forward. My maternal grandfather was a prime example. He returned from the war, physically injured, and raised my mom and aunt, had a wife, had a good job, was a union president, took care of his mother until the day she passed, made sure his neighborhood was safe and his church never had a need.He didn’t smile much when we would visit. He didn’t joke a lot. Plainly, he just didn’t talk a lot. He was a HAM radio operator and would sit for hours talking to people from all over the planet.Family folklore had many different explanations for his leg wound, but none of them ever came from him.After my mother passed, I was going through her stuff and came across a story book. It was about a group of robbers that stole treasure and hid it deep in caves, only to be thwarted by a heroic figure.There was passion to the writing. Life. Enthusiasm. Later I found out it was my grandfather, as a teenager, as the author. Photos of him before the war had a glint in his eye, a broad, big grin.Not the man I called grandpa.He had a forever clenched jaw. He would expel advice like, ‘you pick your rhubarb, I’ll pick mine,’ and ‘if you want sympathy, it is between Shinola and syphilis in the dictionary.’I now realize Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a very real thing. I believe every soldier that served in combat has, to a degree, PTSD. You come back changed. I encourage everyone that served in the military to please contact the Veterans Service Office, wherever you live, and see if there are services available to you, or if you can help those in need in your community. If you did not serve, I still suggest volunteering or donating funds if you can to help veteran organizations.

Thayer Central Titans Give It Their All At State Volleyball Tournament

Fairbury PTA Receives Donation

Related Articles

Are Marshmallow Peeps the New Pumpkin Spice?

Again

Time Marches On (But I Don’t)

The Year of the Fire Horse