ON THE SCENE: Warriors in transition
NAJ WIKOFF
“I am a warrior in transition. My job is to heal as I transition back to duty or continue serving this nation as a veteran in my community. This is not a status but a mission. I will succeed in this mission. I am a warrior. I am strong. I am ever moving forward.” So reads a mission statement on the wall of the Wounded Warrior unit at Fort Drum.
On Friday, storyteller Fran Yardley and I traveled to Ft. Drum to gain some insights on how Creative Healing Connections retreats can better support veterans and people currently serving in the military, specifically help them reintegrate into society. Last summer we held a retreat for women veterans, hosted by Wiawaka Holiday House on Lake George, based on the model we have developed over the past 11 years to support women living with cancer and other chronic diseases, retreats normally held at Great Camp Sagamore during the summer and fall.
Those who participated were extremely grateful to have a safe place where they could share their stories, learn new techniques for expressing their emotions and experiences individually and collectively, and build a support network of people who have served our country — a network that includes people from different branches of the armed services and different rank. As a consequence we are planning to host a second retreat for women veterans, add a new one for men, and develop programs for retreats offered to members of the New York State National Guard that includes the Army and Air Force.
Our guide and mentor is the New York National Guard State Chaplain Lt. Col. Eric Olsen, of Saranac Lake, who was stationed in the Sunni Triangle north of Baghdad in 2004 and is an architect of the N.Y. Army National Guard’s Yellow Ribbon program to reintegrate vets. One of the first things he put me onto was reading “War and the Soul” by Dr. Edward Tick, a psychotherapist who has been treating Vietnam veterans since 1979 and has expanded his work to include those who have served in other wars.
“We must not deny or deaden our feelings about war,” writes Tick. Rather we must learn to walk through hell with our hearts wide open. If we do not, we deaden ourselves, while abandoning the victims past and present to hopeless suffering.”
“Why do I love the army?” said Arlene Holt, a military health care provider. “Several years ago, shortly after 9/11, I was with my father at a Big Tire store. My father was suffering with dementia. He was in the beginning stages, was having a harder time remembering, having a harder time taking care of himself. We went into the store. I was at the counter talking with a clerk and I could see my father out of the corner of my eye. I saw that he had turned and was heading toward the door. A soldier was coming in, a soldier in uniform. My father said to him I served and gave the name of his infantry. The soldier smiled at my father, told him the name of his company and said, “We can still use a few good men.”
They bumped shoulders as soldiers will do, sharing a bond only they experienced. Then my father said, “I’m not a good man anymore. I’ve put in my time.”
I had come over, and I said, “Dad, put in your time? You did your part! You were in Normandy.”
The soldier stepped back, clicked his heels, and slowly saluted my dad. While my father was having a hard time remembering my name or where he lived, he remembered his company, his rank, his experiences, and the army respected that.”
“Words hold secrets,” wrote Tick. “Tears that rend and tears that fall are homonyms. We must melt the salt pillar of Lot’s wife that dwells in each of our hearts and, contemplating destruction, release our fountain of tears. Especially regarding war and its healing, the tears in our world are repaired with our tears.”
“I like the Army because it gives me the chance to do something important for people who I care about,” said Chaplain (MAJ) Robert Gilbert of the Warrior Transition Battalion. “The Army gives me a chance to demonstrate that I care by listening and giving support to the soldiers and their families.”
I have learned that soldiers need civilians to help them transition back into civilian life. As a soldier, as a warrior, they will have gained certain life experiences that will have changed them and always be with them. Living with those experiences and the results of those experiences is part of their mission and healing process. Their answering the call to duty and sacrifice makes our way of life possible.
What can we do? Be there for the soldiers and their families; take time during a Memorial Day or Veterans Day to attend activities that honor those who have given the ultimate sacrifice to guarantee our freedom; support programs, like the Creative Healing Connections retreats for vets, that provide services to help soldiers and their families reintegrate into society; and most importantly, open your heart to healing, a process that takes time and never truly ends.
POSTED: December 26, 2009
“I am a warrior in transition. My job is to heal as I transition back to duty or continue serving this nation as a veteran in my community. This is not a status but a mission. I will succeed in this mission. I am a warrior. I am strong. I am ever moving forward.” So reads a mission statement on the wall of the Wounded Warrior unit at Fort Drum.
On Friday, storyteller Fran Yardley and I traveled to Ft. Drum to gain some insights on how Creative Healing Connections retreats can better support veterans and people currently serving in the military, specifically help them reintegrate into society. Last summer we held a retreat for women veterans, hosted by Wiawaka Holiday House on Lake George, based on the model we have developed over the past 11 years to support women living with cancer and other chronic diseases, retreats normally held at Great Camp Sagamore during the summer and fall.
Those who participated were extremely grateful to have a safe place where they could share their stories, learn new techniques for expressing their emotions and experiences individually and collectively, and build a support network of people who have served our country — a network that includes people from different branches of the armed services and different rank. As a consequence we are planning to host a second retreat for women veterans, add a new one for men, and develop programs for retreats offered to members of the New York State National Guard that includes the Army and Air Force.
Our guide and mentor is the New York National Guard State Chaplain Lt. Col. Eric Olsen, of Saranac Lake, who was stationed in the Sunni Triangle north of Baghdad in 2004 and is an architect of the N.Y. Army National Guard’s Yellow Ribbon program to reintegrate vets. One of the first things he put me onto was reading “War and the Soul” by Dr. Edward Tick, a psychotherapist who has been treating Vietnam veterans since 1979 and has expanded his work to include those who have served in other wars.
“We must not deny or deaden our feelings about war,” writes Tick. Rather we must learn to walk through hell with our hearts wide open. If we do not, we deaden ourselves, while abandoning the victims past and present to hopeless suffering.”
“Why do I love the army?” said Arlene Holt, a military health care provider. “Several years ago, shortly after 9/11, I was with my father at a Big Tire store. My father was suffering with dementia. He was in the beginning stages, was having a harder time remembering, having a harder time taking care of himself. We went into the store. I was at the counter talking with a clerk and I could see my father out of the corner of my eye. I saw that he had turned and was heading toward the door. A soldier was coming in, a soldier in uniform. My father said to him I served and gave the name of his infantry. The soldier smiled at my father, told him the name of his company and said, “We can still use a few good men.”
They bumped shoulders as soldiers will do, sharing a bond only they experienced. Then my father said, “I’m not a good man anymore. I’ve put in my time.”
I had come over, and I said, “Dad, put in your time? You did your part! You were in Normandy.”
The soldier stepped back, clicked his heels, and slowly saluted my dad. While my father was having a hard time remembering my name or where he lived, he remembered his company, his rank, his experiences, and the army respected that.”
“Words hold secrets,” wrote Tick. “Tears that rend and tears that fall are homonyms. We must melt the salt pillar of Lot’s wife that dwells in each of our hearts and, contemplating destruction, release our fountain of tears. Especially regarding war and its healing, the tears in our world are repaired with our tears.”
“I like the Army because it gives me the chance to do something important for people who I care about,” said Chaplain (MAJ) Robert Gilbert of the Warrior Transition Battalion. “The Army gives me a chance to demonstrate that I care by listening and giving support to the soldiers and their families.”
I have learned that soldiers need civilians to help them transition back into civilian life. As a soldier, as a warrior, they will have gained certain life experiences that will have changed them and always be with them. Living with those experiences and the results of those experiences is part of their mission and healing process. Their answering the call to duty and sacrifice makes our way of life possible.
What can we do? Be there for the soldiers and their families; take time during a Memorial Day or Veterans Day to attend activities that honor those who have given the ultimate sacrifice to guarantee our freedom; support programs, like the Creative Healing Connections retreats for vets, that provide services to help soldiers and their families reintegrate into society; and most importantly, open your heart to healing, a process that takes time and never truly ends.
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