November 19, 2016

November 19, 2016 Greetings My Friend, We recently celebrated Veteran's Day. I have learned in the last year or two how important these holiday's are to our military. We ourselves took advantage of Applebee's offer of a free meal for veteran's. Junior understands that many veteran's are there feel lonely and not appreciated. Junior takes time to walk around and talk to fellow veteran's while we wait for our food. My heart see's the need of being able to talk to another veteran so he talks to them. I believe Junior receives something from those he talks with, this need is deep. We have a friend who is often at home alone for these holiday's and he reaches out to Junior wanting a chance to be accepted. Unfortunately the Vietnam veteran's came home to a country who was rude to them and shouted out very ugly statements. What the general population does not know is that this ugliness resonates deep in a lot of veteran's from that war to this day. They still feel the lonleiness and disrespect. Many veteran's also feel bitterness toward our government because the rights to care is difficult to receive or a problem acknowledged. PTSD has been around under different names for years and more often than not the veteran's are not made known what is going on with their strange behavior. Some spouses have given up on the military spouse due to extreme anger and depression. Some have nightmares that are so vivid that the veteran wakes up back in a battle they fought, holding their spouse captive. Other spouses may stay but leave emotionally, they may make their own life with family and friends excluding the veteran. Then are the spouses that hung on for the ride and stayed with the veteran with time eventually revealing the struggle the military veteran was dealing with, such as PTSD. The VA knew that Junior's good leg was going to get worse, more than likely he would need a knee replacement and his back would suffer due to the amputation throwing his back way off. Junior learned this when he needed to retire due to back problems. His work also required a heavy demand on his back, if he had known he might not have taken on such a heavy load to his back. Equal rights were coming into focus around the time Junior came back from Vietnam and he was turned down for job training because his disabilities were not the focus of equal rights at that time. Finding a job was difficult for him, getting training to better himself was difficult and he wound up taking a job in a factory making paint. He wanted to move on but his PTSD made it hard for him to be employable in most work situations. Today I understand how veteran's feel more fully, some want to be acknowledged while others are happiest just being accepted for the gift they gave to their country. I do know that the men and women relish the military holiday's and feel lonely when family and friends take the holiday lightly like for the long weekends or picnic's without time spent in reflection of the price of freedom on our military. I sat eating by myself at Aplebee's the other day while Junior walked around talking to other veterans and I was thankful for my husband's need to reach other's. My goal now is to allow Junior to reach out as he needs to so other veteran's can have a chance to remember, to let go and to live more comfortable with the war they fought. May God bless you and keep you make His face shine on you. Love Janet