My poster 
Veterans and health disorders Josh Giersch
Many soldiers return from war suffering and experiencing trauma they may have never dealt with before in their life; returning not knowing how to cope with their stress in a proper way. In World War two alone, an estimated 415,000 US soldiers were killed (archives.gov) and in the Iraq war alone, 31% of 220,000 US soldiers polled said they had visited mental health facilities at least once in their first year of deployment. Many veterans experience seeing death and lots of violence which makes things worse when they come home struggling to cope with bad memories and moving on with their own personal life which often leads to a bad path. Having read war novels All Quiet on the Western Front and Slaughterhouse Five in class, we find the main characters named Billy Pilgrim and Paul are soldiers struggling with coping with past memories when they return home from war in the stories. These books relate to current and past wars where many soldiers like these characters struggle with memories of war and are always trying to find inner peace from war trauma. The truth of war of war is that a soldier’s experiences will affect their life and often lead to many negative coping skills. Billy from Slaughterhouse Five is a veteran who ends up being deeply affected after fighting in war even when he has a good job and family years after war he is still affected and disconnected from focusing on things going on at the moment. Like Billy, many soldier’s lives get disconnected from what’s going on in the present. In chapter 8 of his book, Vonnegut shows Billy disconnected from himself when Billy states, “And he was too-except he could find no explanation for why the song had affected him so grotesquely.” (173) This quote is a strong example of Billy Pilgrim not able to understand himself fully and many veterans get disconnected after war from things someone could usually handle such as listening to a song. Enrich Remarque describes main character Paul, a German soldier who experiences war trauma and notices the war impacting him in chapter 7 of Remarque’s book, “All Quiet on the Western Front”: Paul says: “The way he wants me to tell him about the front; he is curious in a way that I find stupid and distressing; I no longer have any real contact with him”. Paul and Billy in these quotes are back in their personal lives feeling separated from their families since they are separated from themselves. Characters Paul and Bill are surprised at how fast the war has affected their home life. War often impacts veterans unusually quickly from seeing bodies to seeing friends being killed. This is why war affected veterans have trouble fitting in back at home with things they once connected with in their home lives. These two quotes are great examples of what happens in all war to some soldiers with soldiers coming home from war and suffering mentally which will eventually impact their way of thinking and their personal lives. Many of the soldiers who fight in war are young with brains still growing and unfortunately war often affects the brain which can damage a soldier’s health for the rest of their life. According to americanbar.org, the brain is still developing all the way up to someone’s early 20’s. Wars awful for younger soldiers because a process called myelination which is where white matter serves as an insulation to help protect the brains circuitry which is needed for the brain to process more precise and efficient, war often affects this process and that will damage a soldiers brain processing substantially. Having seen a lot in war and coming back to deal with their home lives and cope with all the memories and horror of war, trauma may overtake a soldier’s brain to the point where unfortunately many end up suffering from depression. Alcohol often takes over many soldiers’ lives as an escape route from the trauma of war memories challenging a soldiers mind. In Kurt Vonnegut’s book, “Slaughterhouse Five,” in chapter 1 a quote describing Billy shows a good example of affects of alcohol: “Billy usually didn’t drink much because the war had ruined his stomach, but he certainly had a soothful now and he was being unfaithful to his wife Valencia for the first and only time.”(7) Billy is drunk in this scene doing something he knows he shouldn’t which is a great example of alcohol with its bad effects on some people, even those who barely drink. According to alcoholmonitoring.com, 1 in 4 Afghanistan and Iraq veterans have substance abuse issues. 75% of just 135,000 Vietnam veterans who are homeless also reportedly have substance abuse issues. With many soldiers using alcohol as an escape to feel better, many families will get saddened seeing their family member suffer and start enabling their family members coping habits by buying alcohol thinking they are helping their family member, but instead this is only leading to an increase in alcohol use since alcohol is a depressant. A soldier will see and experience things many will never experience. Past experiences put many bad memories into a soldiers mind saddening them and can lead to a long road of depression. In Erich Remarque’s book, “All Quiet on the western Front,” the main character Paul says, “Now if we go back, we will be weary, broken, burn out, rootless and without hope.” According to oas.samhsa.gov, over 51% of veterans aged 21 to 39 reported of having suffered at least once from depression and only 59% reported getting treatment. In war, you don’t just see men injured; you could have a close friend killed right in front of you along with all of the other violence and all of the sounds of soldiers in pain. With all of the things soldiers experience and see in war, this will make things hard for soldiers to handle mentally and affect many when they come home when they also have to deal with stress going on at home and move on from war stress. Looking at some of the current wars, many veterans still come home a mess even if the military tries helping them. Many Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have suffered so much mentally that in some cases they commit suicide to relieve the stress of war. According to psychiatric-disorders.com, Post Traumatic Stress disorder is an emotional illness people have after being exposed to a dangerous and life threatening event. Looking at current war statistics, one in six veterans will develop PTSD. Enlisted men are also twice more likely to get PTSD than an officer. Many veterans struggle with finding a release when they return from current wars and suffer with PTSD which often leads to other negative things I listed above from alcohol to drugs. PTSD has been seen by some as the main reason soldiers go to alcohol. In Erich Remarque’s book in chapter 4 of, “All Quiet on the Western Front”, a quote describing soldiers never being happy in life is Paul saying: “He had fallen forward and lay on the earth as though sleeping. (295) Turning him over, one saw that he could not have suffered long; his face had an expression of calm, as though almost glad the end had come.” This quote shows clearly Paul is happier dead than when he was alive. It comes this way often since many soldiers experiences give them enough trauma they eventually feel miserable for life which leads to negative coping skills. Unfortunately, many soldiers can get treatment to help some of the things they are going through, but treatment won’t work for all which is why soldiers need all the support they can get. Looking at all of the above examples of how a soldier copes negatively with the trauma and memories of war, it shows how even if times like now where we have advanced medical treatment, these things still happen. According to disorders.com, treatments a soldier can get are counseling and medication prescribed by a doctor. Soldiers who return from current wars should be aware of the affects war will have and seek treatment to help reduce stress or just get a hobby that will keep their mind occupied before negative coping starts. Looking back at the history of wars, it seems many Americans have become more aware of how soldiers become affected. Looking at archives.gov statistics shows an increase in treatment options and a decrease in the amount of soldiers suffering from war. Many soldiers will face a tough life after war with harsh memories and will need all the support they can get to cope in a way that’s healthy. Being aware of the affects war has on soldiers helps to be aware rather than not knowing things war does to a soldier’s health.
Truth of War project Reflection
For this project, in humanities we read two war novels called All Quiet on the western front and Slaughterhouse 5. These books are focused around ww1 and 2 with characters who are soldiers and it shows their home life being tough due to war. We looked at some of the events mentioned in the books that really actually happened such as the Dresden bombing where thousands of civilians died which is mentioned in slaughterhouse 5. We had to decide what the authors of these stories were trying to show as the message for readers and you had to figure out what you think is the truth of war In a writing or other format along with our essay we wrote focusing on how we saw the truth of war. I learned the truth of war is soldiers come back home and don’t know how to cope with war trauma. I learned a lot of interesting stats for veterans and health disorder. The habit of heart and mind I used the most for this project was refinement. I changed my essay a ton and rewrote it multiple times. I used my resources around me to give me feedback on what I could do to fix my writing. On my Photoshop poster, I couldn’t decide on the background I was going to use and I did multiple posters over and over until I used peer critique and that helped me decide I which background I liked and eventually stuck with one poster and just looked for things I could do to make it look neater and get the message of m poster across. Two substantial changes I did two m essay revision wise was I added an entire new paragraph right in the middle of my writing. I had one big long paragraph that seemed to be getting scattered with different subjects, so I decided to make the paragraph into two paragraphs and organize it so they were clearer. A 2nd big change I did revision wise was I changed around my original format a little with the quotes. I used my quotes followed by evidence from other sites such as a quote about alcohol abuse in All Quiet on the western front and then I would research alcohol stats for veterans. These changes improve my essay so its organized and has a better flow. If I had an extra week, if I could make extra changes to my Photoshop poster and essay, than I would make my poster background have more things. To me my background looks boring and kind of blank. It looks alright, but I would change the background and remove the color to a photo background instead of the blue. For my essay, I would change some of the information in my paragraphs because I feel sometimes I am repeating myself.
Veterans History Project
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CN6GA6wgmNA)
The Vietnam veteran’s project was where we read a story called The Things They Carried and then were assigned a partner from the class to write a list of questions to ask when we were assigned a Vietnam veteran who we interviewed to send to the Library of Congress.
Reflection:
1. How the interview changed my perspective was when the veteran I interviewed started saying that with the anti-war Vietnam protests, the American people should have shown more support for the troops. He also said in a war, no matter what your beliefs are, you should still show support for the troops. My original stance has mostly always been a country doesn’t have to have their peoples support to win, but now I realize with high support, your country usually does better in war.
2. The most interesting thing I learned was that my veteran was in a helicopter when it was shot down. Another interesting thing that I learned was that he won the bronze medal for fighting off a bunch of enemy soldiers.
3. As a historian, if I were to use my Vietnam interview, I would use it for gathering information on some of the combat stories that American soldiers were in. I might also use the interview to gather information on some of the medals that other soldiers in Vietnam were awarded.
4. The most valuable part of the process during the Vietnam project was the group work because you had to have your Interview papers ready and the interview filmed and ready to go so the tech person could edit and burn the discs. Group work I think is the most important overall because you need to have all of the work done and ready and you have to know what has been done so people don’t get confused and disorganized.
Gulf of Tonkin Writing:
Poem ProjectGulf of Tonkin Writing:
Even though the reasons the United States went into Vietnam sounded good, the sinking of the Tonkin ship lacks sufficient evidence that the ship was attacked unprovoked making the ship sinking an unjustifiable reason to go into Vietnam. The United States was attacked “unprovoked” making this a justifiable reason to go to Vietnam is what the American people were told for even more anti-communism and support for the war. The United States at the time around Vietnam was in the middle of the Cold War with nuclear armed Russia a communist country that despised the United States as much as the United States despised Russia. The United States was looking for many chances to challenge Russia indirectly knowing the last thing needed was a nuclear war, but wanted Russia to be challenged through other means of action and one example is the Vietnam War. The United States sent troops in to the middle of nowhere with soldiers not really sure what they were fighting for. While the soldiers may not know really why the United States was in war considering the United States just said the North Vietnamese, “Trains military, political cadres, terrorists, spies, saboteurs, providing VC leadership.” (Document 6) With this being a quote from a pamphlet handed out to soldiers before they reached Vietnam, this was the most they were told. With soldiers of the United States troops on their countries side doing as their told, in case people started complaining or questioning the reasons for being in war, the United States ship Maddox that was supposedly attacked unprovoked allowed an even better reason for the United States to say they needed to be in Vietnam. The United States just said they were attacked and left no real evidence why they were randomly unprovokingly attacked and expect the American people to believe what they were told. Troops had somewhat of an idea why we were in Vietnam, but not even all of the top government guys planning the war knew exact reasons why a United States ship that wasn’t provoking the Vietnamese would randomly be attacked. The secretary of state Dean Rusk, at the time the United States went to war didn’t even have an answer why their ship was attacked. “Well I haven’t been able, quite frankly, to come to a full satisfactory explanation.” (Document 3) The captain of the Maddox, Captain Herrick didn’t even agree with what the United States was saying. “Review of action makes many reported contacts and torpedoes fired appear doubtful.” (Document 7) These words being from top officials involved with Vietnam makes the situation look even more suspicious. The American people weren’t told the truth to what really happened. If you look through things going on at the time, you will notice a contradictory. Looking at the Tonkin resolution passed by congress saying, “Whereas these attacks are part of a deliberate and systematic campaign of aggression that the communist regime in North Vietnam had been waging.” (Document 1) Now what President Johnson said doesn’t match up with what congress says happened. “There have been some covert operations in that areas that we have been carrying on-blowing up some bridges, and things of that kind, roads and so forth. So I imagine they wanted to put a stop to it. So they fired and we responded immediately with five inch artillery shells from the destroyer and with planes overhead.” (Document 3) This is what the President of the United States said in his own word which contradicts what congress is saying. This is where you can tell Americans weren’t told the truth. The congressional resolution saying we were attacked and the president of the United States saying we were doing military operations prior and engaged with the enemy. Looking at the United States now, we still have a 700 billion dollar military budget and were still considered the world’s police by many. The United States still doesn’t tell Americans the truth at times for example when Bush lied about Iraq having nuclear weapons and invaded the country. The sinking of the Maddox I think wasn’t a justifiable reason to attack Vietnam and instead was for political reasons such as politics being brought up in the same conversation where Johnson said we had been already doing military operations. “You’re going to be running against a man who’s wild on this subject.” (Document 3) The United States foreign policy was the same in Vietnam as its now which is the United States first and fighting Russian aggression is what we went into Vietnam for. Considering Vietnam is still communist today, Vietnam wasn’t justified and American soldiers unfortunately died fighting in an unjustifiable war.
Final Poem
Tanks smash through rubble in the streets of Homs,
Like the blood stained homes of Damascus.
Babies crying puddles of raindrops as they watch their
mothers die,
Dozens of bodies thrown into holes deeper than one to China.
Protestors stand like pins being knocked down by bowling
balls as soldiers score their first strike,
Indestructible maps lead a person’s hope to a path of
prosperity.
Signs replaced with guns
Marchers shot by archers of artillery.
Planes dropping bombs turning streets into tides of dust,
Mines exploding through the empty streets,
Soldiers sniping children looking for their dead parent.
Countries just watching, leaders condemning slaughter yet
fearing war.
Diplomats flee embassies fearing their life as countries
turn into civil war.
Darkness is all around,
Dust and ash covers the light of the day like a bright light
moving through the night.
Screaming pierces
throughout the night,
And yet, the hope of children lies tougher than any
dictator’s largest bomb
People resist the wailing hatred covering the paths to a
brighter future,
People stop their consciousness from leading them off the
right path.
Like a stray puppy on a lost path looking for a home,
For the strength of the people will always win.
Artist Statement
I did my poem about the violence that is going on
right now in the Middle East with the Arab uprisings. Whenever I watch the news on TV to see what
is going on in the world or whenever I just read an article in the news, I see
people who live in countries that are ruled by dictators protesting for basic
human rights and the right to an elected government. These people want to have the same
opportunities as people in the USA have but instead are met with arrests and
tanks which are killing little children and people who protest. I talked in my poem about how people who are
protesting are shot and killed which makes the person want to defend themselves
and fight back which is why on one of the lines I talk about signs being
replaced with guns. Another thing I
talked about was cities in countries like Homs where cities are destroyed and
turned into dust. I felt I would have a
better poem if I used no rhymes since it would slow my process down and the
poem quality may not be strong. I used
no rhymes and I put in different metaphors and similes to show the reader what
type of violence is going on in these countries.
With the different readings I have read in class
this year, I used a speech called, “An ideal for which I am prepared to die
for” by Nelson Mandela because it relates a lot to what my poem is about how he
tried to protest peacefully for better rights for blacks but instead he had to
use violence. I used personification to
show what I wanted to say such as comparing guns to human characteristics. I used imagery to show the reader current
events happening where people are fighting back against oppressive dictators
while countries seem to just be sitting there saying they want the violence to
end nothing happens.
I thought it would look cool if I presented my poem
at exhibition with a Photoshop poster based on imagery. I want the reader an image of what is going
on in the poem with a visual for people to see which is why I have a
poster. I am confident with my poem quality since I started
poem revisions. My poem started out different
grammar errors. I did corrections on sentences
that had confusing similes and metaphors.
I struggled with finding sentences I liked and ended up even erasing sentences
that were good. I got teacher and
student feedback multiple times which helped me have a poem that I was happy
with.
