Healing Combat Trauma

Women Veterans and Oral History: Is It Time to Collect and Preserve Your Stories?

Recently I had the absolute pleasure to watch two women veterans, from very different eras, connect and thank each other for their service. The vets were a 92-year-old WAAC from World War II, who served stateside and also in Karachi, which was India at the time and would later become Pakistan -- and a 44-year-old Gulf War vet, who served in the Marine Corps as a combat correspondent. It was beyond heartwarming to feel the love that emanated from both of them, during this "chance" meeting in a big Midwestern VA healthcare facility, as they both exuded gratefulness and appreciation for what the other meant to them, symbolically and now in person.

If you're a woman who's served in the U.S. military, and you've been thinking about preserving your story -- or capturing someone else's before it's too late -- please do.

And especially if you know any World War II, Korean War or Vietnam-era veterans, the time is really now. 

"Our elder WWII sister vets will all be gone in a few years. Whenever you have an opportunity to spend time with one or more of them, relish the moments, sear them in your memory and share their contributions. An amazing and generous generation," says longtime advocate and woman veteran, Diana Danis.

Women veterans' stories have traditionally gotten much less play, but they're just as important -- maybe even more so because they're harder to find. Even where they're collected is somewhat of a hodge-podge of locations.

Here are a few places that collect them -- although further down in this post you will see that it's probably most efficient to think of doing it through the StoryCorps "app," which will get it to the Library of Congress seamlessly. (If you have an interest in getting it somewhere else, you can check out this list below.)

"There are a number of stories that have been collected over the years. Boston University did a bunch years ago with an oral history project as did the Minerva Project under the able guidance of Dr. Linda Grant DePauw. The University of North Carolina has an archive as does the National Archive, the Library of Congress, the VA has a number through the Women Veterans Center as does the Women in Military Service to America Memorial (WIMSA), the Women's Army Corps Association (WAC), the Women's Army Corps museum, the Women Marines Association, the Women Air Force Association and a few others right off hand," says Danis.

Sylvie Lubow, program manager for the Military Voices Initiative at StoryCorps, also mentioned several other sites of potential interest:

• "Always Coming Home Always Coming Home: The American Female Veteran Experience Archive" at the University of South Carolina -- which appears to collect digital stories and is an ongoing project (there are several dozen videos available at present, appearing to represent women veterans of multiple eras as well as women veterans of color);
• The "Bras & Boots" blog of American Women Veterans, which collects women veterans' stories.

There's also a collection of women veterans' stories in a special collection for the Women's Overseas Service League (WOSL), housed at the University of Texas at San Antonio. That collection can be viewed by special permission, and is not ongoing -- the project that collected the narratives is over but the results are housed there. To learn more about the WOSL collection at UTSA, go here.

StoryCorps, familiar to many from their excellent show on NPR, or their current podcast series, are in many ways responsible for popularizing a method of capturing others' stories through conversation in a recording booth. They created a military voices initiative to capture service members and veterans' stories. And recently, they've turned the whole StoryCorps method into something available to anyone, through a smartphone app. Take advantage of this (free) opportunity to start a conversation that captures history, while you still can.

Note: If you have suggestions for other archives that collect women veterans history narratives in the first person, please advise.

(This post is inspired in part, too, by a side conversation with Kristine Hesse, the fab women veterans outreach coordinator at the National Veterans Foundation, who feels strongly that older women veterans "telling their stories" will encourage generations of younger women veterans as well.)

 

Quotable Quotes -- Chief Dan George on the Necessity of Love

It's not always easy to love a combat veteran with PTSD. Heck, it's not even easy to BE a combat veteran with PTSD and manage to love yourself, or those around you the way that you want to.

But part of healing is getting back in touch with how important love is, and even respecting its own form of therapeutic, healing power. Listen to these words from a very wise sage about just how important love is, in the natural order of things:

"Love is something you and I must have. We must have it because our spirit feeds upon it. We must have it because without it we become weak and faint. Without love our self-esteem weakens. Without it our courage fails. Without love we can no longer look out confidently at the world." -- Chief Dan George, Canadian First Nations chief, poet, author and Academy Award-winning actor.

The Sacred Brotherhood -- and Sisterhood -- of Those Who Understand

We read a few days ago Larry Heinemann's excellent quote about veterans after combat "carrying the darkness with us," linked here. And yesterday, in "War Creates Brothers," we learned about an historic gathering, a sacred ceremony of sorts, where Vietnam veterans like Heinemann met with Russian Afghansti veterans, at least a decade younger, and shared their stories with one another, bonding in the wet blood of brotherhood (and sisterhood, because it now applies to women veterans as well) from war. (That piece is linked here.) Now we synthesize the two together, with a quote from the article Heinemann wrote in 1989 in a national magazine, describing both the gathering mentioned above (lightly), and a much more extensive retelling of what the same Vietnam veterans' trip to Russia to meet with the Afghansti initially was like, a few months before.

Heinemann describes at great length the similarities and the bonds among the men that were formed, and tells the story of how the Russian veterans became involved in their own war in Afghanistan, leaving generally bruised and beaten "after nine years and 15,000 dead." Much of the article focuses on the stories of the Afghansti veterans they met in Russia, the grief of the devastated families of those who'd served, and the generalized indifference of the Russian government -- all of which he can compare, to one degree or another, to situations in our own country, after Vietnam. (As an aside, the bureaucracy of the VA seems to stand in for that of the Russian government in his analogy.)

As clearly as he paints the picture of the Russian veterans' suffering, and how it's mirrored in our own, one of the strongest descriptions he suggests is why the veterans on both sides of the conversation, separated by decades and culture, are nevertheless able to bond so strongly, through telling stories about their experiences, horrific and otherwise. This is the same principle we've been alluding to recently in the series about ritual, and the unburdening that can come from individual warriors when they meet up with one another, and have the safe "container" in which to share their suffering, confusion and grief. Here's Heinemann's remarkable quote:

"These stories and many others, came forward because the Afghansti finally had someone in their midst -- as we surely did not two decades ago [returning from Vietnam] -- who knew what they were talking about. We were fellow soldiers who could listen to the madness and know they were not mad; someone who could validate their worst blood-bath nightmares; someone who had an inkling of the brutality they had endured and inflicted; someone whom they could trust with stories about the deadest, darkest places in their hearts." -- Larry Heinemann.

Circling back around to Heinemann's earlier quote, mentioned a few days ago, we read in this article that it comes at the end of a longer declaration. As food for thought, I now include the full paragraph, in case it now adds fuller context, in light of the above.

"The Afghansti have caused a great many people a great deal of grief and have themselves suffered -- for a lie, let us not forget -- the same was we in the United States have caused much suffering in Southeast Asia, and have also suffered much in return, also for a lie. It was no small betrayal, no small lesson for a man to learn at the age of 19. Any soldier returning home must rediscover his humanity and establish a livable peace with the discovered, liberated, permanently dark places in his own heart --the darkness that is always with us."

Embracing the Warrior Spirit: Native Americans and Storytelling for Healing

Did you know that "large numbers of Native Americans enlist for military service and represent the highest per capita enlistment of any ethnic group in the United States?" It's true. 

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's Administration for Native Americans, "Tribes view service, sacrifice, and courage as important values and part of an individual’s journey to becoming a leader, protector, and agent of change for his/her family or tribe."

I'd heard through the grapevine that a national museum devoted to Native American culture had a special exhibit about warrior veterans telling their stories. The Smithsonian exhibit, "Native Words, Native Warriors," is still on tour, through 2011. (In January through July of 2011, it will be at the National Museum of the Marine Corps.) Find out more about the exhibit, here.

In the meantime, I've uncovered some good resources about Native American warriors as veterans, and the extent to which their culture celebrates them and welcomes them home.

From the National Museum of the American Indian (part of the Smithsonian), a "workbook" online called "Coming Home: Strength through Culture."

From a segment entitled, "Healing after the War": 

"According to American Indian traditional beliefs, war affects a soldier’s well being, and makes it difficult for him to live in the everyday world. For American Indians, returning home means returning to a place — a land, a community, a family, and a culture — that you are part of, a place that you have a special relationship with. Participating in war interferes with your ability to be part of this place. It upsets the balance of life. This is why American Indian cultures have special ceremonies to help bring the soldier’s life back into balance — to make it possible for the soldier to once again live in peace and to be physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally healthy."

From a segment entitled, "Giving Honor to Veterans":

"American Indian communities remember their veterans’ sacrifices forever. Veterans are always respected and honored. Sometimes they are remembered in special songs that are sung in their honor. Native people often go to veterans for advice because they have strong mental abilities as a result of their many experiences. Depending on the community, veterans are given special prominence at different kinds of tribal events. For example, at powwows veterans always lead the grand entry of dancers. They carry the American Indian Eagle Staff, the flag of the United States, their tribal flag, and other important banners. Veterans are recognized and honored on special occasions with ceremonies and dances that relate their sacrifices to the community. For example, the Comanche Gourd Dance honors veterans. Sometimes a family member or a friend might hold a special dance or ceremony to honor a veteran. These are the lasting traditions that show respect to veterans for what they have done for the people."

In another section it describes how a Native American Marine Corps veteran of World War II, Navajo Code Talker Carl Gorman, experienced a ceremony upon returning home that helped allow him to put the past behind him and move on with his life:

"After the war, Carl Gorman returned home to Arizona for a short time. Even though he had been raised as a Christian, he talked about how the traditional Navajo ceremonies for warriors became important to him: "I didn't have a ceremony when I came home," he said. "I didn't quite believe in it anymore. A medicine man that was an old friend suggested that I have one, but I didn't have the money to pay him to perform it. He agreed to do a one-night sing over me for free. I participated in the sing and felt a great weight leave my mind and body. I felt very rested afterwards. I realized then that I needed to make peace with what I had experienced during the war." (Navajo Weapon by Sally McClain, 2001)

And from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's Administration for Native Americans, an entire resource guide online about storytelling for Native American veterans. Segments include:  

• The healing power of stories;
• Tips on using storytelling for healing (with facilitation questions);
• Native American service in the U.S. military;
• Resources for Native veterans; and a
• Native American Veterans: Storytelling for Healing DVD that can be ordered, here.

We'll be developing this segment more in the weeks and months ahead, but for now this should provide some useful resources to start thinking about Native Americans and ceremony -- particularly storytelling -- for healing in community.

Editor's note: The painting at top is "First Furlough," by Native American artist Quincy Tahoma.