Eutrusca
20-05-2005, 16:02
NOTE: This article got to me ... big time.
Troops Back From Iraq Relate To Vets (http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,FL_relate_051905,00.html?ESRC=eb.nl)
Associated Press
May 19, 2005
MINNEAPOLIS - When Josh Krook came home from Iraq, he had to contend with a struggling marriage and was haunted by memories of people dying in a war zone.
To make it through, Krook turned to his father, Allen, who had gone through the same thing more than 35 years ago after serving in Army intelligence in Vietnam.
"You relate with someone else who's been through it, and you can cling together," said Josh, who served with an armored cavalry unit.
Many soldiers returning from Iraq are finding common ground with a father who served in Vietnam, say veterans officials and psychologists who work with returning soldiers. And that shared experience is helping them adjust to life after the war.
"You share something, so you're more at ease talking about stuff," said Dave Whaley, president of Ohio's chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America. Whaley was a Marine; his son, David, served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.
It's the post-Sept. 11 context of troops overseas that has made it easier for Vietnam veterans to open up, said Keith Armstrong, who teaches social work at the University of California in San Francisco and is co-writing a guidebook for returning soldiers.
"They're able to use that experience of war to really connect with their kids," he said.
The Krooks' relationship wasn't always close. Allen talks of breaking a lot of promises to his son. His son talks of a childhood made rough by his father's anger - something both of them now attribute to post-traumatic stress disorder.
The relationship began to improve in 2001, when Josh was finishing infantry training in Fort Benning, Georgia, right after the Sept. 11 attacks. With planes grounded, Allen - who suffers from chronic neck and back pain - boarded a bus and rode 26 hours to see his son graduate.
"That pretty much just ripped my heart right out of my chest when I saw that," Josh recalled. "He couldn't move for three days afterward, but he sure showed up."
When Josh came home after a year in Iraq, it was to a marriage that was already in trouble. The talks with his father became more frequent, and when it became clear the marriage couldn't last, he moved from Colorado to Minnesota and stayed with Allen and his wife.
Josh has some good memories of Iraq - hugs from children, for example. But he also saw things that still bother him, such as the last moments of a young girl who died when the car she was riding in failed to stop at an Army checkpoint. Josh was among the soldiers ordered to fire on the car.
His father listened to those stories. But Allen also let Josh in on some of his own painful memories, such as the day he called in an air strike to destroy an ammunition cache in a village. The strike went too far, Allen remembers.
"All that was left was a burning hole, bodies, women and children," Allen said. "They wiped out everything."
For the first time, Josh said, he understood why his father had a hard time after Vietnam.
Aimee Osborne and her father, Mark Adamski, are typical of family members drawn closer by military service. They say it started as soon as Osborne joined the Army.
Before she left for basic training, Osborne's father gave her a medal with the picture of St. George, the patron saint of soldiers. Osborne, who served in Kuwait after Sept. 11, still keeps the medal in a box along with pictures from Kuwait and her first pair of army boots.
When she finished basic training, her dad started telling her about his experiences in Vietnam. And one day, he showed her his boot box.
"He opened up this box of all these medals," she said. "It was looking at my dad in a whole new light. Now that I have my own box, I understand it even more."
Troops Back From Iraq Relate To Vets (http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,FL_relate_051905,00.html?ESRC=eb.nl)
Associated Press
May 19, 2005
MINNEAPOLIS - When Josh Krook came home from Iraq, he had to contend with a struggling marriage and was haunted by memories of people dying in a war zone.
To make it through, Krook turned to his father, Allen, who had gone through the same thing more than 35 years ago after serving in Army intelligence in Vietnam.
"You relate with someone else who's been through it, and you can cling together," said Josh, who served with an armored cavalry unit.
Many soldiers returning from Iraq are finding common ground with a father who served in Vietnam, say veterans officials and psychologists who work with returning soldiers. And that shared experience is helping them adjust to life after the war.
"You share something, so you're more at ease talking about stuff," said Dave Whaley, president of Ohio's chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America. Whaley was a Marine; his son, David, served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.
It's the post-Sept. 11 context of troops overseas that has made it easier for Vietnam veterans to open up, said Keith Armstrong, who teaches social work at the University of California in San Francisco and is co-writing a guidebook for returning soldiers.
"They're able to use that experience of war to really connect with their kids," he said.
The Krooks' relationship wasn't always close. Allen talks of breaking a lot of promises to his son. His son talks of a childhood made rough by his father's anger - something both of them now attribute to post-traumatic stress disorder.
The relationship began to improve in 2001, when Josh was finishing infantry training in Fort Benning, Georgia, right after the Sept. 11 attacks. With planes grounded, Allen - who suffers from chronic neck and back pain - boarded a bus and rode 26 hours to see his son graduate.
"That pretty much just ripped my heart right out of my chest when I saw that," Josh recalled. "He couldn't move for three days afterward, but he sure showed up."
When Josh came home after a year in Iraq, it was to a marriage that was already in trouble. The talks with his father became more frequent, and when it became clear the marriage couldn't last, he moved from Colorado to Minnesota and stayed with Allen and his wife.
Josh has some good memories of Iraq - hugs from children, for example. But he also saw things that still bother him, such as the last moments of a young girl who died when the car she was riding in failed to stop at an Army checkpoint. Josh was among the soldiers ordered to fire on the car.
His father listened to those stories. But Allen also let Josh in on some of his own painful memories, such as the day he called in an air strike to destroy an ammunition cache in a village. The strike went too far, Allen remembers.
"All that was left was a burning hole, bodies, women and children," Allen said. "They wiped out everything."
For the first time, Josh said, he understood why his father had a hard time after Vietnam.
Aimee Osborne and her father, Mark Adamski, are typical of family members drawn closer by military service. They say it started as soon as Osborne joined the Army.
Before she left for basic training, Osborne's father gave her a medal with the picture of St. George, the patron saint of soldiers. Osborne, who served in Kuwait after Sept. 11, still keeps the medal in a box along with pictures from Kuwait and her first pair of army boots.
When she finished basic training, her dad started telling her about his experiences in Vietnam. And one day, he showed her his boot box.
"He opened up this box of all these medals," she said. "It was looking at my dad in a whole new light. Now that I have my own box, I understand it even more."