(Editorâs note: While this article was published a decade ago today, the issues are still as relevant as they have ever been. There are many local organizations in the region that help veterans, and we feature them on a regular basis in the Tribune)
Following long-established tradition, on Memorial Day, May 25, I visited cemeteries to place flowers on family graves. Lovely as were the lower arrangements, the United States flags waving in a brisk spring breeze beside veteransâ headstones, created the awe-inspiring reverence that embodies the essence of Memorial Day; veteransâbrave men and women who serve in the military and are willing to sacrifice their lives to keep our nation free. In return for their service, is enough provided for vets in need? . . . and, can they ever be thanked enough?
These questions were poignantly raised in my mind earlier that day by two unrelated occurrences: first, a segment on a TV news station regarding Californiaâs âSave a Warriorâ organization, and second, two Facebook posts by my niece, Debbie (Ruzanski) Watts.
In order to assist veterans returning from battlefields, Save a Warrior is designed to heal the effects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (from which some 150,000 Vietnam and 800,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffer). Suicide by affected vets is an epidemic; Save a Warrior is working to change this. During an intensive five-and-a-half-day program, vets participate in various sessionsâmeditation, cliff-climbing, a high-ropes course, and (especially interesting to me), horse-inspired therapy.
Under the direction of experienced horsemen (and women), troubled vets work with horses on the ground and in the saddle. Horse-inspired therapy has been credited with saving PTSD victims from deep despair, suicide attempts, and institutionalization in mental hospitals. This unorthodox method of therapy often works when anti-psychotic and anti-anxiety drugs do not.
When I encountered my nieceâs Facebook posts, I was awakened to the fact that some of us (specifically me) do not always adequately thank veterans. I was deeply touched by the photos of her dad, Karl Ruzanski, in Marine uniform and my husband, George Ruzanski, in Navy uniform, along with her heartfelt comments thanking them for their service in Korea and proudly proclaiming her dad as her hero.
The brothers had completed their military obligations before I knew them; I had little information about their service. Karl never spoke of it; George seldom did. I learned from the family that Karl had been in the midst of heavy, bloody battles and that George had come home with stressful memories. But I actively thought of them as treasured family members rather than as veterans.
I realized that people we know and love, and those we only know of, are often overlooked as âveterans.â We tend to perceive them in terms of their current status and how they relate to us. Winston Churchill, for example, is celebrated as the former brilliant British Prime Minister; Ronald Reagan is remembered primarily as an outstanding former United States President. The fact that they are veterans is not always considered when their achievements are acclaimed. Still, their military experience undoubtedly helped shape their value systems, just as in their later political positions, they helped shape world events.
I also realized that my âunrelated occurrencesâ (watching the Save a Warrior segment and reading Facebook posts concerning remembrance) are connected. As veterans are more actively appreciated, more attention is given to their needs, i.e., scientific research to understand and find appropriate therapy to address PTSD.
It is interesting to note that before PTSD was officially diagnosed, two great world leaders had an inherent understanding (or premonition or unintentional prophecy) of a therapy that would someday help cure the disorder.
These famous veterans, Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan, made âdown-home, tidbit historyâ when they each, at different times and on separate occasions, publicly recited the age-old adage:
âThere is nothing so good for the inside of a man as the outside of a horse!â
-Willdra Walker
