"One of the first things we can do is learn more about what people go through following trauma," writes Erik Marks, a clinical social worker in Framingham, MA.

"This does not mean clinical training. It just means getting an overview of what the person is experiencing. For some of you, this article will be considered enough, I encourage you to find more.

"Rather than re-tell you specific stories I’ve heard over the last thirty years, I’ll point you to two web sites of veterans stories in their own words: Veterans Voices-Story Corps and Veteran Voices: The Oral History Podcast."
_______________________________

Producer's Note: Except for the rightful notoriety around Veterans Day or Memorial Day, veterans’ experiences typically go unnoticed and underappreciated by the public. Every veteran has an important story to tell, yet, saying “thank you for your service” rarely extends to “will you tell me your story of service and sacrifice."

To listen to veterans’ stories—more important, to ask them to tell their stories—is to better understand what veterans endured. Some served on the battle field, others on the chow line. But every veteran stood the watch in harm's way so you didn’t have to.

Some paid the ultimate price, and far too many carried their physical, psychological, emotional, and moral wounds into civilian life—where you see them shopping at Walmart, in church, school, or at work. Here they probably won’t tell you their stories. Not on the fly at least, not in passing, not as you’re walking away after a half-sincere “thank you for your service.”

For many years our oral history work has given veterans an opportunity to tell their stories, if for no other reason than the experience is important to them. Storytelling can be cathartic, uplifting, and healing. When veterans tell their stories, the experience is very often transformative. As listeners, we’re changed too. Storytelling is a humanizing experience.

So, we are always grateful when people find a useful humanity in our veterans oral history work, as Erik Marks does in his work around trauma and PTSD. If the stories we capture, preserve, and share are helpful and healing, our efforts have purpose and value.

~Kevin Farkas, executive producer
The Social Voice Project

VISIT VETERAN VOICES: THE PODCAST
https://thesocialvoiceproject.org/veteran-voices-podcast/ ... See more

by Midnight Freemason Contributor Bro. Erik Marks I recently made the acquaintance of brother Dave Pechey who introduced me to the...

Ralph Stoner of Brackenridge, Pennsylvania spent more than three decades in the Air Force and Army, an enlistment that runs from the Vietnam War to the Global War on Terror.

By his own admission, the Rev. Joseph R. Grosko of Braddock, Pennsylvania was always breaking the rules and looking for adventure. That’s why his ordination as a Catholic Priest in 1959 and commission as a Navy Chaplain during the Vietnam War were such peculiar life choices for him.

In this TSVP Community Oral History interview, Father Grosko talks about his life before and after war. He discusses the role of combat chaplains with the Marines and aboard the USS Roosevelt—providing faithful counsel, hope, inspiration, and oftentimes administrative authorization for leave or discharge from the service.

After twelve years in the navy, Commander Grosko moved on to regular parish life in Pittsburgh—duty that was safer and more stable, but wholly mundane and routine. “I should have stayed in the navy and retired,” he laments, not only for the pension but also the worldly adventure and travel.

Father Grosko died January 6, 2020 at the age of 87.

WATCH THE INTERVIEW
https://thesocialvoiceproject.org/oral-history-collections/ ... See more

By his own admission, the Rev. Joseph R. Grosko of Braddock, Pennsylvania was always breaking the rules and looking for adventure. That’s why his ordination ...

“Throughout the period of the Vietnam War, soldiers and Marines of the United States Military were accompanied into the combat zones by members of the clergy who were also part of the military. These chaplains attempted to bring God to the men in the field by providing spiritual and moral support through worship services and certain counseling duties.

"A number of chaplains, however, believed so strongly in their ministry that they refused to simply stay “on base” and instead shouldered their packs and journeyed with their troops into the most perilous combat zones.

"In so doing, these combat chaplains took upon themselves a “double burden” in that they not only bore upon themselves the spiritual and moral well-being of their troops but also suffered the same hardships, privations, and consequences of seeing and experiencing the worst that combat had to offer.”

~ John Donellan Fitzmorris III, from Bearing the “Double Burdon:” Chaplains in Combat During the Vietnam War ... See more

Silent Night | A Christmas Vigil

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE
https://wp.me/p8nTyT-II

On this episode of Argot: Audio Short Stories from the Veteran Voices of Pittsburgh Oral History Initiative Collection, we visit with members of Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 862 as they hold their annual overnight Christmas Vigil in remembrance of those from Beaver County killed during the Vietnam War. ... See more

Silent Night | A Christmas Vigil On this episode of Argot: Audio Short Stories from the Veteran Voices of Pittsburgh Oral History Initiative Collection, we visit with members of Vietnam Veterans …

We remember and honor the sacrifices of those who were there by listening to their stories and hearing their voices.

On this 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, we remember the stories of those who were there.

LISTEN: https://wp.me/p8nTyT-8b

On this episode of Argot: Audio Short Stories from the Veteran Voices of Pittsburgh Oral History Initiative, WWII veteran Robert Rose of Rochester, Pennsylvania shares a story about the cold during the Battle of the Bulge.

In Memoriam
Robert J Rose
1925 - 2017

During WWII, Robert J. Rose of New Brighton, Pa served as a cannoneer with Battery “A” of the 574th AAA Auto Weapons Battalion, 13th Armored Division. Patton’s Army. After landing in France, he and his unit moved across Europe towards a particularly stubborn German entrenchment known as The Bulge. Mr. Rose’s job was to take out enemy aircraft by engaging the swooping threats from his M16 Halftrack–those peculiar looking war vehicles, much like the front of a commercial cargo truck welded to a tank. Atop the halftrack are swiveling machine guns–exposed and without much armor–but capable of striking the enemy at 7,000 yards.

And there sat Robert Rose on April 12, 1945, feeding four, red-hot .50 caliber machine guns during an ambush at Urbach in the Ruhr Valley of Southern Germany.

ACK ACK ACK ACK! ACK ACK ACK! ACK ACK ACK!

The guns roared, sweeping the surroundings, striking at everything and anything flashing around them. And then a hot piece of well-aimed German steel knocked Robert to the ground. “I’m shot,” he cried out before settling in and losing consciousness in the freezing snow and cold. ... See more

The Last Voices of Pearl Harbor Survivors

“I was a bad kid,” Alex recalls, and so it was probably with great relief that the nuns shipped him off to the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) as soon as he turned sixteen.

After two years working in the outdoors of Washington state, Alex returned to the orphanage, where the nuns promptly marched him to downtown Pittsburgh and enlisted him in the Army.

“Send him to Hawaii!” the nuns instructed the recruiter. And so he went.

WATCH THE INTERVIEW
https://thesocialvoiceproject.org/oral-history-collections/ ... See more

Oral History Feature The Last Voices of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Alex Dyga of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is a Pearl Harbor survivor. He joined the Army just months prior to the Japanese attack on t…

Coming soon, our conversation with Brigadier General Roger C. Smith, who helped negotiate the nuclear Strategic Arms Limitation Agreements (SALT) with the Soviet Union.

Long before our current 18 year Global War on Terror, the US spent nearly 50 years fighting the Cold War with the Soviet Union.

During this time, thousands of Americans were killed in proxy wars in Korea, Vietnam, and many lesser known hot spots around the world fighting against the perceived threat of communism.

But always looming over this era was the very real possibility of an all-out nuclear war with the Soviet Union. It would have been total annihilation of the world.

Except for climate change, many young people today don't know what it was like to live under such a threat to humanity.

But thankfully, this doom was lessened in the 1970s when the US and USSR started talks to scale back and disarm much of their nuclear weapons. Military tensions were eased and the world started to breathe a little easier as nuclear arms negotiations progressed around the table of diplomacy.

Sitting at that table was Roger Smith.

__________________________________
LEARN MORE ABOUT GEN. SMITH
https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/105621/brigadier-general-roger-c-smith/ ... See more