MetaFilter posts tagged with veterans

"I find myself looking for catharsis."

amyms — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 19:35:33 -0800

The Boneyard. I’ve come to bear witness to American folly, to rest my eyes on the flying machines that flattened the forests of Southeast Asia, poisoned its people, and changed my life. A personal essay about the long-reaching effects of Agent Orange. For more information about the AMARC [now AMARG] facility visited by the above article's author, go to The AMARC Experience or the Air Force's official page about the site. The Agent Orange Website. Agent Orange Project from Oxfam and the Fund for Reconciliation and Development. Blood Debt, an article about the effects of Agent Orange on the children of Southeast Asia [warning: graphic images]. Previous MetaFilter posts about Agent Orange.

Interactive Vietnam Veterans Memorial

flapjax at midnite — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:03:29 -0800

Interactive Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Winter Soldier

homunculus — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:15:30 -0800

Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan. "Like Vietnam vets did decades ago, a group of soldiers are poised to speak out about atrocities they say the U.S. committed in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Move, Shoot, and Communicate

lelilo — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 21:36:42 -0800

Warrior Writers express themselves using Combat Paper made from their old military uniforms. FAQ. Videos. An associated RI art show has its opening reception tonight. Sunday night there’s a program as well at The Beat Museum in San Francisco.

Last Call

IndigoJones — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 12:40:58 -0800

With the death of Louis de Cazenave, Lazare Ponticelli is the last surviving French veteran of World War One, and the country has been wondering how to mark the inevitable. By contrast, Germany's response to the recent death of Erich Kaestner has been a more muted affair, indeed, all but unnoted. Meanwhile, Britain's Henry Allingham and Harry Patch and William Stone just keep on going. (For those interested, more comprehensive international lists can be found here and here)

rolling on

madamjujujive — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 11:58:48 -0800

Coming Home - in honor of Veteran's Day, it might be fitting to check in on the recovery of J.R. Salzman, known here on mefi as Logboy.

"What dreams / Will be left / undreamed tonight?"

orthogonality — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 11:10:31 -0800

For 11/11, soldiers' poems of MACV (and interstitial matter):
I can feel traces of my heart / leaving wet rivers / down my manly cheeks.
∞
Stunned now / angry / helpless / bits of torn paper beside / empty red mailbag.
∞
So / You averted looking directly / at their eyes / (That last graveyard / for their fears)
∞
It's getting hard to talk to you, / You don't seem to communicate; / You get upset too easily, / I only asked what it was really like.
∞ (Previously, previously) More from The Vietnam Experience by Bill McDonald: • She begged us, / With her child like screams • Time slipped past us, standing in separate places / ... / He graduated cum laude / And I flunked Vietnam. • But children / My dearest children / I’ve killed / Someone else’s / children And Bill McDonald's "Guest Poets": • I was nothing more / than U.S. Grade A American meat / used for some bureaucrat's political gain. • Weird shadows dance against the twisted strands / And men stare anxiously / Until the glare dies down and they relax once more. / It is night in Vietnam • This weekend is our reunion of the men of the 2/47 Infantry / I won’t be going they remind me of a war fought long ago / It is not memories that I seek but freedom for my sick and weary soul. • While protestors heaped ridicule upon us / And newspapers treated us with scorn / We did what had to be done / For the nation to which we were born More from Deserts and Oases: A Veteran's Poetry, by by Jackson H. Day: • How can I tell her / about the screaming of the rockets / about the shaking of the ground close by / about the terror in the bunkers / asking if the time had really come; •I feel such anger. / I rage at all who do not know, / who have not heard, / who do not share / the burden of your pain, / the burden of our shame. • Infantry commander, eyes moist / against all resistance a tear / conquers stubbled cheek. More: But I left my legs in a foreign graveyard / and I leave them now as a memorial to John Wayne./ He is the only American who would have saluted me / as I was rolled unceremoniously down that ramp. More from Poetry of the Vietnam War by Curt Bennett: • In helpless, grim fascination, we watched him go / Plunging down through the quiet morning sun. / At the last moment, he spread his arms out wide, / Like Jesus on a cross, he swan dived and seemed to float, / For a brief moment skimming the clouds • The men lay still / In the rich, red mud / In awkward configurations. / It was difficult to tell / Which one belonged? / To which nation? / Their stiff arms / Seemed to stretch out / Reaching for each other. / It was almost, as if / Universal brotherhood / Had at last…been realized.

"There's three times they tried flying me out, and all three times I died on a helicopter."

kirkaracha — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 12:14:06 -0800

"Everyone I've talked to knows the exact date when they've been hit."
"Yeah. It's burned into your memory."
James Gandolfini interviews 10 wounded Iraq war veterans in Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq [review]. The documentary is viewable online. "Alive Day" is what wounded soldiers call the day they didn't die. Bryan Anderson, Crystal Davis, Dawn Halfaker, Dexter Pitts, Eddie Ryan, Jay Wilkerson, Jake Schick, John Jones, Jonathan Bartlett, and Michael Jernigan tell their own stories. (The profiles have before-and-after photos.)

Iraq Vets Bear Witness

homunculus — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 13:20:28 -0800

The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness. "Investigating the impact of the war on Iraqi civilians, Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian reveal disturbing patterns of behavior by US troops in Iraq--brutal acts that often go unreported and almost always go unpunished." [Via No Quarter.]

Iraq Veterans Memorial

homunculus — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 21:55:25 -0800

The Iraq Veterans Memorial is "an online war memorial that honors the members of the U.S. armed forces who have lost their lives serving in the Iraq War. The Memorial is a collection of video memories from family, friends, military colleagues, and co-workers of those that have fallen." A project of the Brave New Foundation. [Via Bushflash.]