Coming Home: A History of War Veterans
Between the global recession and the swine flu pandemic, news about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has become scanty-at-best. What little coverage there is tends to focus on developments overseas. In this Veterans’ Day special, the History Guys look at what happens when vets return home. Sons of Confederate Veterans spokesman Frank Earnest makes a case for separating the politics of war from our remembrance of its veterans. Historian Rebecca Jo Plant discusses the changing expectations for veterans’ wives and mothers. And psychologist Ed Tick talks about PTSD in the pre-psychological age.
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Show Highlights:
- Conflicting Loyalties
Sons of Confederate Veterans spokesman Frank Earnest tells 19th Century History Guy Ed Ayers how he reconciles his Confederate heritage with his identity as a veteran of the U.S. Navy. And he explains what the Confederate flag means to him. - Soldier’s Heart
Psychologist Edward Tick counsels combat veterans and studies historical accounts of war. He discusses the ways war was understood in the years before Post Traumatic Stress Disorder existed as a diagnosis.
Related Links
- Video of Navy veteran Bobby J. Wallace recounting his experience as a black sailor in WWII.
- Youth Radio’s collection of stories from Iraq war vets.
- Psychotherapist Ed Tick’s article on healing the traumas of war.
- Historian Rebecca Jo Plant explains the effects of war on WWII wives and mothers.
- Army Specialist Elizabeth Sartain talks about her struggle with PTSD.
- Information about the Bonus Army march and a featured webcast.
- Learn more about the psychological problems vets currently face.
- “Directions for Preserving the Health of Soldiers,” by Benjamin Rush (1808)
I just listened to the “Coming Home” program about war veterans. It was the clearest description of what it might be like to be a vet that I have ever heard. I was born to a vet– my mother was a Wave in WWII and she was apparently one of the few who did go to college on the GI bill, graduating from Northwestern U. when I was 5 years old. I was also interested in the contrast in WWI and !!. My grandfather was in the SOS in France during WWI and I have nearly 100 letters that he wrote home that I have been transcribing. As a result I could relate to some of the ideas put forward. He made it clear, for example, that his parents were his primary mentors in life. As an officer in the SOS he refers to the role of “Negro” soldiers in the QM Corps. I did a little research on that, too, so it was interesting to put it into perspective as to what was hoped for didn’t come until after WWII. My grandfather’s son, my mother’s brother, was killed in Belgium on his 21st birthday. It had a huge impact on our family which I believe suffered from PTSD as a family group.
QuoteCharlanne, How wonderful to hear from a real live listener. We know you are out there, but it is always a thrill to hear from one of you. In thinking about this topic, I was struck by just how different the vets’ experiences are — war to war. Your posting just underscores that point. Keep tuning in and keep writing. 20th century guy.
QuoteThe questions i’ve never heard the Sons of the Confederacy (or any similar group) answer are: Why do you think the losers in *any* war should be allowed to fly their flag? Do you think Vietnam would allow the South Vietnamese flag to be flown from cars, houses, and provincial offices? If our nation had lost the Revolutionary War, do you think the British Empire would have allowed former rebels to continue flying the Stars and Stripes — or the Gadsden Flag (“Don’t Tread on Me”)?
I recognize that Reconstruction was stopped in its tracks by the disputed election of 1876. Perhaps, if Reconstruction had been allowed to continue, that first generation would have been very bitter. But subsequent generations, of both races, would have had less trauma. I look at the reconstruction of Germany and Japan, Post-WWII, for enlightenment about how our former Confederate states might have profited.
QuoteI’m in the middle of the episode on my ipod and had to write. The interview with the man from the Sons of Confederates was fascinating! I especially liked how Brian treated him–respectful and yet unwilling to let a misstatement slide. It is a balance I am always trying to achieve with my students. Having never lived in the South, I have also never understood the pride over the Confederate flag (understanding much better African Americans’ disgust with it). Thank you for asking him such a pointed question and not allowing him to squeeze out of it.
I am amazed at how many ideas about the Civil War popularized during the Jim Crow era are still around. I was taught in a small AZ high school that the Radical Reconstructionists were really rather misguided and Andrew Johnson was the hero of Reconstruction. When I got to university and heard a more accurate view, I was astounded.
QuoteInteresting program. I was taken by the comment referring to soldiers as being and/or choosing to be apart from mainstream society. It’s strikes me that it is the theme of the oldest literature in the world, The Epic of Gilgamesh. You train young men to kill to protect your society—and to kill with relative impunity—but then how do you then reintegrate them back into that society which values peace?
QuoteWhen working as a news reporter in Hopewell, I accepted an invitation to an SCV meeting. The speaker was a great storyteller, the members were very friendly and their belief that the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery was entirely without historical justification.
It’s pretty easy to see how this belief came into being; after losing the heck out of the war, no one wanted to admit it was fought in defense of the Peculiar Institution. But the facts suggest it was.
The issue of the spread of slavery into new states as they joined the union sundered the 1860 Democratic National Convention in Charlston. That scism resulted in two Democratic candidates running against Lincoln, which got Abraham Lincoln elected as a plurality president, which in turn caused the South Carolina secession.
Also, the vice president of the CSA, Alexander Stevens, publicly identified the slavery as the cornerstone of the CSA in a widely published speech. Finally, in letters and diaries written by CSA soldiers, white racial supremacy was repeatedly identified as the reason they were willing to fight and die. The CSA has a lot of good guys in it, but a lot of what they believe is pure horse hockey.
Great show! Keep up the good work!
QuoteThanks so much for today’s show with so much compelling content, and for making Ed Tick of Soldier’s Heart part of the line up. Have you seen his thoughtful comments (made from Viet Nam where he is leading an international healing veterans mission) re: the Fort Hood tragedy? You can see them online at http://www.soldiersheart.net/resources/pdf_articles/Fort_Hood_Belongs_to_All.pdf
and I’ll try to paste in here as well:
” THE FT. HOOD TRAGEDY BELONGS TO US ALL
Edward Tick, Ph.D.
I have had the great honor of working with our fine and dedicated troops at Ft. Hood. I have spent time with the clergy, behavioral staff, officers and troops. I was deeply impressed and moved by their degree of commitment, sincerity, love of country and service, and willingness to sacrifice.
I am also heartbroken to admit that I saw massive numbers and degrees of visible and invisible wounds at Ft. Hood. Countless troops with every wound from missing body parts to extreme Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Countless recycling of these wounded for further deployments where troops are needed. Untold frustration and despair among our dedicated clergy and behavioral staff in trying to treat more legions of wounded than anyone can possibly adequately help.
I do not know the psychiatrist who committed these killings. But I do know that we are asking our troops to perform incredibly difficult and demanding missions — both abroad and at home — that exceed our human ability to digest, integrate and respond to. Ft. Hood is a massive sanctuary of the wounded. Many behavioral staff confided to me, sometimes numbed out and sometimes with secret tears, that they are in despair over the degree of wounding and numbers of wounded and are strained beyond human capacity to try to effectively treat them.
Our hearts should go out to every one of the victims of this tragedy, including the killer. A person must be under unbearable strain to snap as he did. He must have already been in an inner hell created by all the stories he heard and horror he witnessed. One does not have to be a combat veteran to be a combat victim. Now his private hell has spread its fires to our nation.
We must hear this tragedy as a wake up call to our nation. There is a stress point beyond which all people break, from which they cannot return. As a nation we must stop pushing our troops and their caregivers so far and expect performance beyond what is humanly possible. Every one, including the psychiatrist, is a tragic victim here. We must not do more violence by demonizing one person or his religion. Rather, let our broken hearts open and realize that all our troops and their caregivers are carrying more pain than is tolerable, more demand than can be answered.
Please — let your broken hearts open to every victim. Judge not. Realize we are asking too much from too few and giving them too little help, too little support, too little to work with. This tragedy is all of our making. It is up to all of us to respond and help our nation and its overwrought troops everywhere to heal. ”
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History Guys,
Thanks for a great program on Veteran’s Day. This is the first time I’ve heard your show (on 94.9 FM KUOW Seattle public radio) and I was very impressed. I so appreciated Ed Ayer’s interview method with the member of the Sons of the Confederacy. It was a great interview, but when the Son’s of the Confederacy fellow tried to claim that the civil war was not about slavery, that was just too much. It is frustrating on radio (especially public radio) when the reporter or interviewer does not challenge false statements or propoganda made by the interviewee. I thought Mr. Ayers handled the situation very deftly. He remained respectful, but he made sure the listeners were not given misinformation about history. He then gave the interviewee another chance to address the issue and in the end I think he was able to tell his side of the story.
Thank you for your intelligent program. I intend to do more listening.
Port Townsend, WA
QuoteTotally fascinating show. I’ve never heard of you guys and I will seek you out in the future. I especially appreciated the explanation of the link between civil rights and WWII and how the aftereffects of WWI and WWII were so different for African-American soldiers. Keep up the good work.!
QuoteThank you for your thoughtful programming on this Veteran’s Day, 2009. I am the mother of a just-returned Afghanistan war Vet who served there as a mental health practitioner in a remote FOB and I am the wife of a Viet Nam Vet who suffered decades of un-named and untreated PTSD. I appreciated your adding the woman at home’s perspective on your program.
You touched on many of the vital questions of this complicated issue. I didn’t like being reminded that how we understand history is through our wars — ouch! but it’s a cold dose of reality and I’m left wondering, will we ever learn?
Quotei enjoy your show a great deal. i was struck by the final conversation with Ed Tick. As someone who studies the international peace movement, I am uneasy about the warrior ethos- i understand it may be a solace or a way to heal, but what happens when the warrior ethos is used by cynical politicans to turn on a civilian population? Are there historcal examples of cases where veterans turned on civilians?
QuoteDear American History Guys: It’s Saturday night November 14. I was attempting to go in to my office at the University of Virginia hospital when the football game crowd was loosed from the stadium. I never made it. What a gift! I’ve never enjoyed a traffic snafu more. Your Veteran’s Day program was aired again tonight. It was informative, insightful and moving. You guys are great! I feel a kinship with your listeners as well. I agree that Brian managed a sensitive moment with the SCV spokesman gracefully. Dr. Tick’s work with The Soldier’s Heart is inspirational. And I, too, wonder when we will stop this devastating habit of sending young people to war. General Douglas MacArthur once said: “I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more revolting. I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its very destructivenss on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a method of sttling international disputes.” Our football team may not be all some would want, but I’d much rather C’ville be put on the map by the likes of you. Thank you so much for your show.
QuoteJill, what a lovely note. And I know that you will enjoy the show even more when I point out that it was my 19th century guy colleague who did that SCV interview. Informed? Sensitive? That has got to be Ayers, not Balogh. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. Twentieth-century guy, Brian
QuoteI was very disappointed with this show — but, not surprised, given the leftist cast of your programs. Why is it so hard for those of your political stripe to simply praise valor, commitment, endurance, sacrifice — all of the martial virtues that all civiliations have cherished. But, instead of simple, heart-felt appreciation for men and women who have done far more than you three academics would ever do (and you’ll tell me if I’m wrong that none of you rendered any military service)…instead of that, you have to focus on — your favorites — racism and sexism. It’s sad that you can’t see anything but through the lenses of your two favorite obsessions. While you insist on highlighting the one in a hundred veterans who talks about racism, you ignore the fact that — if you want to talk disproportionality — rural white southerners are far more overrepresented in the ranks of those who have historically defended this country than any other demographic group. Certainly more than college professors. And, then, not content to dishonor those who’ve served by highlighting the negative, you lead off with an organization honoring confederate veterans so you can mount your liberal soapbox and damn — again, your favorite, racism. Let me ask you something. What was the Civil War about? Was it just about whether one race should be held in subjugation or was it an economic struggle in which capitalist of the North sought to defeat a hostile economic system in the South? How many Union troops thought afro-americans were their social or juridical equals? Did Lincoln think that? I don’t know how many confederate veterans who perished were slave owners, but I’m guessing only a very small number. What did the stars and bars that these men died under — what did it represent? For these Confederate dead, it represented that one group of people should not be able to impose their way of life on another. Unfortunately, the way of life they defended embraced a moral evil, but their willingness to die for a cause which they identified as good does not make the perpetuation of their memory something that people of your ilk should have the temerity to scant. Your moral posturing is infuriating enough — but when it’s directed at men that three politically-correct, liberal college professors like you couldn’t hope to match in fortitude and backbone, it’s outrageous. If you do not know how to praise courage and bravery, then you need to be silent.
QuoteA few years back I transcribed the Civil War journal of a Gonzales County, Texas, man who was overage for the military. He had concerns after the fall of Vicksburg about the future, including the eventual returning veterans:
“Vicksburg has fallen—no doubt of it. I am heart sick. Whether in our struggle for independence we sink or swim, this I regard as no longer my country. If we should finally succeed, in addition to a debt, which if repudiated will stamp us with eternal disgrace—if recognized will paralyze the energies of our people during many years—then will be returned upon us a body of men, familiar with blood, their habits of industry destroyed—their moral education lost, their sensibilities blunted, moral lepers are a curse to any community. This I regard as the most favorable termination possible. And I would not that my children should have such associates. On the other hand, if we are overrun, our state will for years be the theatre of guerrilla warfare, and should we finally be subjugated a system of oppression, which will put to the blush the English atrocities in India. And I want not that my children should be slaves.—Ergo—this is no longer my country—and henceforth my thoughts & energies shall be directed towards finding a suitable asylum, and the means of reaching it.”
He never left Gonzales County, although acquaintances became Confederados in Brazil.
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