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I am not only responding to this article but also to Patricia Schwartz's comments. I totally agree that there has been no recognition of the effect of WWII on the combatants. First, only about 1 in 8 actually saw combat in WWII, but that is never mentioned. My father, a decorated paratrooper with the 82nd airborne, has been portrayed in a movie (The Longest Day) and his war experiences have been written up in about 10 books. However, what happened when he came back from the war hasn't gotten the same kind of attention. His alcoholism and multiple marriages, his struggles to get sober, have not been publicized because the "good war" myth gets in the way of acknowledging the trauma these men went through in combat. He told me that no one wanted to hear about what he went through when he came home and it wasn't till many years later when the nation got nostalgic for their dying WWII vets that attention was finally paid. My website, www.daughtersofd-day.com, collects stories from children of WWII vets in an attempt to get the full truth about that war into public consciousness.
Carol Schultz Vento
