Veterans Stories

by Paul Birkhead  Rowan Public Library

     
    This is the time of year when veterans are given the attention they rightfully deserve.  One way to honor veterans is by listening to them and reading their stories.  Rowan Public Library is a good place to visit if you are looking for those stories.

    The War Came Home with Him is a recently published book that the library just put on its shelves.  Written by Catherine Madison, it tells her experience growing up with a father who was a career army surgeon.  Her father, known as ‘Doc’, served in the Korean War and survived three years in captivity as a prisoner of war.  The brutal marches he endured, the deplorable camps he lived in, and the suffering he witnessed and withstood changed him as a person and he came home a different father.  In the years that followed his return, Catherine lived in a turbulent household where she never knew when her father might explode in a fit of rage.  What she did know were the values he held dear and roughly taught her over time: character is the most important thing a person has, food wasn’t to be wasted, and weakness wouldn’t be tolerated.  After leaving home as an adult, Catherine still feared her father’s moods and yet somehow wished she could feel closer to him.  It was only when she found documents about his prisoner of war experience that she began to understand the reasons behind his shattered psyche.  Throughout the book, Catherine’s tale of growing up is interwoven with her father’s horrific experiences as a POW and will be sure to keep you turning the pages.

    Breaking the Code: A Father’s Secret, a Daughter’s Journey, and the Question that Changed Everything is another book about a daughter discovering things about her WWII veteran father.  When author Karen Fisher-Alaniz’s father, Murray Fisher, was 81 he started suffering from nightmares related to his time in the service.  Why he would be having such intense flashbacks was a mystery to Karen who had been told her father had only performed clerical duties for the Navy.  When she is given two thick books containing hundreds of letters Murray wrote home during the war, she slowly began to decipher his true role in the conflict.  With time running out, father and daughter get to know each other on a deeper level and secrets are revealed that otherwise would have been taken to the grave.

     Yet another book written about growing up in the shadow of World War II vets is Our Fathers’ War by Tom Mathews.  Mathews, like many others in his generation, had a tumultuous relationship with his father.  He discovered this was a common trait between WWII veterans and their sons when he interviewed nine other families.  The stories in the book are compelling and it is interesting to see the father and son dynamic play out in each relationship.  The last chapter of the book features Mathews and his father visiting Italy and retracing the steps of his unit during the last year of the war.  Some of the discussions father and son have are very emotional and truly heartwarming as walls between them begin to break down.

    Whether you are a veteran or a child of one, service in wartime quite possibly has had lingering effects on you.  Since wartime experiences can be so traumatic, veterans and their families can be affected for years on end.  On a positive note, research has shown that sharing painful experiences can minimize its hold on the mind.  Take time this month to thank a veteran and come to Rowan Public Library and honor them by reading some of their stories.