A Marine, An Airman, and Two Soldiers Walk into a Meeting

Victory Parade in New York City at the end of World War I

Tonight I went to the third session of a monthly veterans meeting held at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The meeting is called:

The Art of Reintegration: Veterans and the Silences of War. The group also includes family members of veterans, teachers, and a student who hopes to work in counseling veterans.  

In the meeting we watch videos, and talk about art and poetry that relates to the theme of the month.  This month was "Homecoming." We talked about homecoming for veterans of World War I since this year is the centennial of the end of that terrible war. We talked about parades in major cities for returning veterans and a country that greeted the soldiers as heroes.  

Then we talked about coming home from the Vietnam War and the Global War on Terror.  

One of the veterans is a Marine who served in the Vietnam War. He talked about his experience of coming home. He got called a babykiller in the airport and in his home town.

Another is an Airman who loaded bombers for missions in Afghanistan near the beginning of the war.  He, like the two of us who are Iraq War veterans, got the "Thank You For Your Service" welcome home.  We talked about how the thank you can seem shallow, but it is better than the hate from the Vietnam era.

The Marine and I also served in the Cold War.

I heard about this group from a friend who works at the historical society.  I like discussing art and poetry with veterans. It reminded me of talking about the "Divine Comedy" and the "Aeneid" in Iraq. 

The group starts again in January. I'm looking forward to talking about more art and poetry with this new veterans group.  This morning I was in my other, more informal veterans group.  After 45 years of not belonging to a veterans group, now I am in two. 

I guess I'm just slow.

Along with the Historical Society, the group is co-sponsored by WarriorWriters.