A New Generation of Children Suffers

This USA Today article outlines how at least a quarter of the children of today's soldiers are suffering from the effects of their fathers' or mothers' war. Behavior problems and depression are associated with the family strains brought about by multiple deployments. The author states that programs to help are available, but few ask for help. I question whether it is known that programs are available, and how accessible they are to the families.

Click on title for link.

Lifetime of Post War Suffering

A sad article about a World War II veteran who landed on Omaha Beach and fought through to Germany. His younger sister said her brother came home physically, but not mentally. He spent his entire post war life in a VA hospital, barely speaking. After he returned home, prior to his hospitalization, he paced the floors silently and continually. He died at age 86, having been living with war trauma for 62 years. (click on title for link)

Emotional numbing of combat

The article by Mark Van Ells (click on post title for link) published in VFW magazine in 2002 demonstrates how for a small number of WWII vets the war never ended. According to the author, only about 6% of the 16 million servicemen actually saw sustained combat. Maybe that's why the myth of the well-adjusted WWII vet began. So many had not seen combat and therefore had not experienced the trauma of war. My dad, a paratrooper, told me that when he came home, nobody wanted hear about that side of war. So they were left silent with no outlet or support.