‘I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams’
Communities need to reintegrate veterans
‘I’ll Be Home For Christmas.” This was the title of a 1943 hit song by Bing Crosby, originally written to honor soldiers serving overseas. It is an all -time classic that tears at your heartstrings when you are serving away from home. The song must also echo hauntingly for some of the veterans of today, even 75 years later, who cannot find the gleam of love and light called “home” upon return. It is a new, tragic phenomenon, a product of our time, and while millions express patriotic feelings, the formula that once welcomed veterans home somehow aged out and needs to be reinvented.
Should you walk into our local Veterans Affairs facility and inquire about some of our homeless veterans living “off the grid” in our own region, you may hear opinions expressed about how this phenomenon might be attributable to “their choice of lifestyle.” That may be a view hard to accept, when some veterans in our community are homeless and live in broken down cars, self-medicating while baking in the desert heat in the summer and freezing in the winter.
What happened to the young breed of returning veterans, who after 9/11 beset by a surge of patriotism fought like lions, but are now seemingly closing themselves off from society? While this behavior is not a general trend, even a small segment of our veteran population being homeless is unacceptable.
We must accept that veterans of today are a new breed. They have not been “selected” by their friends and neighbors, but they volunteered to serve, were trained with brutal effectiveness and are better taken care of than soldiers of previous wars.
Service in a combat unit now is void of many ‘irritants” of KP (kitchen patrol) and other housekeeping chores, but exposure to enemy fire and the risk of death and injury is more frequent. Multiple deployments since 9/11 are the order of the day, and the heartbreaks of telling the family of one more departure and separation have therefore increased.
This perpetual stress begins to take its toll not only on the service member but also on the family. The combat environment is acceptable to most but leaving the military community and the loss of comradeship upon return to civilian life is a major issue, almost a reversal of previous attitudes.
The recent performance and cohesion of our military has been magnificent. This new breed takes pride in being part of the military, being part of something bigger in serving the country.
For many, leaving is an emotional step down because the normal world has moved on without taking notice of the service member’s absence. No one knows the exact impact of this problem, of a “cultural transition.” Veterans who become “at risk” often do so upon return, generally after the breakup of a treasured relationship or family unit.
Some 49 years ago when then-President Nixon mandated abolishing the draft, valid concerns were raised about the consequences of changing the citizen army to an all-volunteer one. Those concerns, all valid, now have come home to roost.
We now have a professional force, much improved in both esprit de corps and combat effectiveness. A separate “cultural entity” has evolved in terms of values and creeds, deeply divorced from the electorate as evidenced by the traditional patriarchal concerns of Congress for the welfare of their troops have all but disappeared. While both the branches of the military and the VA fulfill their responsibilities for their constituencies, the presence of homeless veterans shows that a gap exists in transitioning veterans from this new era of perpetual war to normalcy.
Communities really have no choice but to assume greater responsibility to reintegrate veterans. It is a more complex problem today, than after World War II or the Korean War, when the hometown boys return signaled the end of a conflict.
Today, “Thank you for your service” needs to be embellished with employment and a promise of a future in the community. It should be a concern of community leaders to deal with returning warriors, who unlike their earlier counterparts are not civilians who briefly donned the uniform to straighten things out somewhere “over there,” but young professionals who have been living in a perpetual state of war.
We are dealing with a new cultural challenge that requires serious attention and the caring efforts of the community, especially around Christmas. Ultimately all returning veterans should find their way to that special place called home.
Taos Behavioral Health has the largest licensed and credentialed behavioral health staff in northern New Mexico. Reach us at Taosbehavioralhealth.org, 575-758-3297 or at 105 Bertha St. in Taos.
George Geczy is a retired USA Colonel living in Taos and a member of the TBH Board.