meet a war veteran and thank him/her

i covered a SB high school event where a vietnam vet came to talk to a class and told them about (among other things) the hollywoodification of war movies, the horrific things he saw, how coming home was just as hard as fighting in a war and how he refused to talk about the experience for (i think) 25 years. this was the first time he had spoken to a large group, and i felt so lucky to be a part of that experience. it killed me to hear his voice ripple with emotion as he wrestled with his memories and tried to form them into words and explained why he isn’t quite ready to visit the memorial in d.c.

but what i really like was how RIVETED the students were and how they all ate up everything he had to say. it was really refreshing to see a bunch of high school kids so emotionally and intellectually in something like this. and the questions they asked! i was really blown away by their response.

anyway, i made sure i thanked him as he left the classroom and said something about how it’s a shame vietnam vets didn’t get the hero’s welcome they deserved, and he really took what i said to heart.

and the teacher who was running the class sent me SUCH a wonderful thank-you letter after the article ran. that was an article i really wanted to nail and i put SO MUCH effort into making it a quality piece of writing, so it’s good to know that someone at the source of the article was pleased and thought i did the event justice.

so i’ve talked to a lot of war vets on the phone since i started this job, but i’ve never actually had any face time with them.

when i came into work today, a local vet (he fought in WWII, the same war my granfather was in) was chatting with my news editor, so i stopped and listened and talked to him a bit. i asked him if he had served, and he said yes, that he was a commander and then saluted me. i thanked him and shook his hand and…. he looked shocked and said something like “YOU’RE thanking ME?” as if he was genuinely (though pleasantly) surprised that someone was extending their gratitude to him.

i got to talk to him a little bit, and he mentioned some of the things he had seen and discussed his overall thoughts on the futility of this war and how soldiers these days don’t get the kind of recognition they deserve. and i almost started crying, because…. it was one thing to visit the WWII memorial in DC (which was the closest i’ve ever felt to my grandfather, who died three years before i was born), but to actually hear a firsthand account from someone who fought in the same war? it was surreal and somehow heartbreaking and something i wish i could experence more often.

and i am so, so glad to finally say that i’ve done this. i’ve waited for YEARS to see this goal come to fruition.

on 28 september, i’m covering a story about a local retirement home that’s holding an event called “honouring our war veterans.” i know that the guest of honour is a resident at this retirement home who is a purple heart recipient and i think he was in the same war as my grandfather. but i need to double check that.

either way, this might be a goal that’ll see completion soon, which makes me very happy.

my grandfather fought in world war II. he died in the winter of 1981; i was born in the spring of 1984, so i never got to meet him. he was always an abstract ideal (though my father told the most wonderful stories about him) until i went to the world war II memorial in january of 2005. i have never felt so close to the grandfather i never knew before or since then. and, while i don’t agree with the concept of war and would never go into armed combat willingly, i have a strange respect for those who have fought in a war. for all of the people who condemn them for such a thing, they still were willing to die for something they believe in. not many people have those kind of convictions.