If you’ve been around veterans long enough, you’ve heard someone mention the veteran suicide phenomenon plaguing our community. The statistics range from seventeen to twenty-two veterans a day who are taking their own lives. Those numbers span all generations of veterans. They include both combat and non-combat veterans. I’m not sure if this is something that has always gone on or if it’s a new occurrence. Previously, we didn’t have the weight of social media to track it. So maybe that’s why it feels so in your face now. Regardless, it’s almost all that most people seem to know about veterans these days. That’s a shame.
I existed in “communities” and was a part of them but not in or of them as I spent a lifetime being an introvert acting like I was an extrovert. Always there but apart. Most of my life I was so happy to get home and take off the acting makeup and be alone. I had many friends, close ones too, but I so enjoyed being alone. I felt it the only place I could be me. But when hit with the isolation of the pandemic, I learned I needed community more than I ever thought I did, and in particular, one community. If the pandemic had any positiveness it was to allow me to look in the mirror and confront things I had run from for a very long time. For over 50 years I had denied and let fester at the heart of my soul the lie that I was not affected by being drafted and sent to Vietnam. I told myself it was a mere speed bump in my life, nothing that important to who I was. Confronting that lie made me feel a deep need to be a part of a community with the shared experience of wearing a uniform in war time. I cannot put adequately into words what connecting with veterans groups, including your writing and discussion group, meant to me in addressing the issues I had repressed for 50 years. Thanks for putting so much of your precious time into making available a portal for me and others in the veterans community. I am sure that others in need are out there and I encourage others to participate in the next one. It is truly a safe place to take off the acting makeup and be yourself.
I always appreciate your input and friendship man! Looking forward to the next iteration of “community” with Worth’s group and/or mine whichever comes first. I think many of us have had a similar reckoning about the effects of war long term.
I am so happy you’re speaking out about this. My stepdad was in Danang during Jan 1966 until April 1967. There were so many adjustments for my mom & us three kids. I felt the Vietnam vets could not have been trained enough to prepare for what they went through. The daily weather changes, the rats. Danang was bombed twice while my stepdad was there. He had so many nightmares, was unbelievable how it affected his overall health. It is a crying shame that Veterans see no way out but suicide. We need to do so much more for them. They definitely need community support! You & every person who chose to go & fight for our freedom deserves our help. Their families also need our support to help them understand what their loved ones had to face.
Thank for giving us a way to share these opportunities to those who so desperately needed!!!
Thank you. I think the biggest hurtle we are overcoming is the stratification of service, meaning people bottle it up and assume people don’t care about what they did if they weren’t on the front lines or some sexy job over seas and inversely if they were those people they bottle it up because they don’t believe anyone can understand. There’s a little truth to both but the beauty of these groups is the quick community and comradery that is build and soon those walls fall down. Many share things they’ve never shared and the weigh begins to fall away mentally. I hope telling our stories helps each other and those we love understand and if anything it’s a good place to start. We are all just figuring it out as we go.
Thankful you all are talking! I am so glad that you & your groups are getting the support they deserve & that it is relieving them and you of some of your pain!
Stan, Great stuff. Please join us at the Heroes Wellness Collective. It's an online platform where we're building a community for Veterans, Healthcare Providers, Veteran-focused nonprofits, and Researchers to collaborate on building a community and helping others find healing. https://www.heroeswellnesscollective.org
You care so deeply and that is something we don’t see much anymore. Too much social media and the me, me, me today. I’m so glad you are following your passion and helping others. That’s what it’s all about! Love and hugs!!
Yea, I just hate how everything is over spiritualized by way of modern evangelicalism. Could just be serving a community I care about without further labeling.
Community. Another great piece of writing.
I existed in “communities” and was a part of them but not in or of them as I spent a lifetime being an introvert acting like I was an extrovert. Always there but apart. Most of my life I was so happy to get home and take off the acting makeup and be alone. I had many friends, close ones too, but I so enjoyed being alone. I felt it the only place I could be me. But when hit with the isolation of the pandemic, I learned I needed community more than I ever thought I did, and in particular, one community. If the pandemic had any positiveness it was to allow me to look in the mirror and confront things I had run from for a very long time. For over 50 years I had denied and let fester at the heart of my soul the lie that I was not affected by being drafted and sent to Vietnam. I told myself it was a mere speed bump in my life, nothing that important to who I was. Confronting that lie made me feel a deep need to be a part of a community with the shared experience of wearing a uniform in war time. I cannot put adequately into words what connecting with veterans groups, including your writing and discussion group, meant to me in addressing the issues I had repressed for 50 years. Thanks for putting so much of your precious time into making available a portal for me and others in the veterans community. I am sure that others in need are out there and I encourage others to participate in the next one. It is truly a safe place to take off the acting makeup and be yourself.
I always appreciate your input and friendship man! Looking forward to the next iteration of “community” with Worth’s group and/or mine whichever comes first. I think many of us have had a similar reckoning about the effects of war long term.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Thanks bro
I am so happy you’re speaking out about this. My stepdad was in Danang during Jan 1966 until April 1967. There were so many adjustments for my mom & us three kids. I felt the Vietnam vets could not have been trained enough to prepare for what they went through. The daily weather changes, the rats. Danang was bombed twice while my stepdad was there. He had so many nightmares, was unbelievable how it affected his overall health. It is a crying shame that Veterans see no way out but suicide. We need to do so much more for them. They definitely need community support! You & every person who chose to go & fight for our freedom deserves our help. Their families also need our support to help them understand what their loved ones had to face.
Thank for giving us a way to share these opportunities to those who so desperately needed!!!
Keep doing what you are doing!!! Thank you!!!
Thank you. I think the biggest hurtle we are overcoming is the stratification of service, meaning people bottle it up and assume people don’t care about what they did if they weren’t on the front lines or some sexy job over seas and inversely if they were those people they bottle it up because they don’t believe anyone can understand. There’s a little truth to both but the beauty of these groups is the quick community and comradery that is build and soon those walls fall down. Many share things they’ve never shared and the weigh begins to fall away mentally. I hope telling our stories helps each other and those we love understand and if anything it’s a good place to start. We are all just figuring it out as we go.
Thankful you all are talking! I am so glad that you & your groups are getting the support they deserve & that it is relieving them and you of some of your pain!
Brilliant write up, Stan. Thank you for continuing to be a force of nature in our community.
Thanks bro, likewise!
Stan, Great stuff. Please join us at the Heroes Wellness Collective. It's an online platform where we're building a community for Veterans, Healthcare Providers, Veteran-focused nonprofits, and Researchers to collaborate on building a community and helping others find healing. https://www.heroeswellnesscollective.org
Sounds cool, I’ll take a look. Thanks man.
You care so deeply and that is something we don’t see much anymore. Too much social media and the me, me, me today. I’m so glad you are following your passion and helping others. That’s what it’s all about! Love and hugs!!
It’s helping me for sure, lol I likely need it more than they do.
Sounds like you've found your true calling! Ministry is ministry!
Yea, I just hate how everything is over spiritualized by way of modern evangelicalism. Could just be serving a community I care about without further labeling.