After a dozen years of writing and reading our work to each other, our Veterans’ Writing Group will release a book in September. Edited by award-winning author Maxine Hong Kingston and published by Koa Books, it is entitled “Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace.” (Information at www.vowvop.org.) It includes storytelling— nonfiction, fiction and poetry-- by 80 veterans spanning five wars. The writers are combat veterans, medics, others who served in war, gang members and victims of violence, draft resisters, deserters and peace activists. Unfortunately, our book is timely, as the war drums grow louder every day.

Our group emerged from workshops given by Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. By writing within the group and listening to the stories of others I have been supported to understand, describe, and heal from some of my military trauma. Our writers’ community seeks to heal war trauma through art and produce writing that can communicate to those both in the service and civilians.

After decades of counseling in groups, at Vets Centers, and with therapists, I still have more work to do. My sound trauma still gets triggered, and I typically respond with the classic flight or fight. Certain sounds agitate and irritate me, so I usually just leave the scene. Leaf blowers, ticking clocks, people talking while chewing gum or eating, and other sounds can literally drive me crazy.

My contribution to the book is about sound trauma and is entitled “Sound Shy,” a play on the term “gun shy.” It is an insider’s personal account of a military family and a veterans group. My childhood was filled with loud sounds—including planes taking off near our house, rifles and other weapons being fired, and men yelling orders at each other and responding “Yes, Sir!” My adult life has been characterized by sound avoidance. I can go to considerable extremes to get away from sounds that others do not even notice or tolerate.

I never saw combat in Vietnam, though I have war wounds to heal. While still in the Army I went with a friend to hear Martin Luther King, Jr. His way of being was such a contrast to the many military men who had been my models. I decided to resign my officer’s commission and joined the resistance.

Such memories often seem distant, like they did not really happen to me, but to someone in a novel. Being in the Veterans’ Writing Group has enabled me to process some of my feelings within a structure that provided support. I always look forward to our gatherings, even when I cannot attend. Just knowing that a group of veterans that I am a part of is meeting to write and heal supports me.

But war continues to happen, making more casualties and spreading its destruction. I remember a few years of relative peace. But when the bombs start falling, they seem to head right for my stomach. I feel them in my body. The casualties may be distant, but they feel close to home to me. So I keep writing, though usually from a safe enough distance, leaving some of the more difficult things inside.

Things happen. When the first Iraq War erupted, I remember sitting with a Chicano friend whose son was in the military, watching television. “Brown on brown,” she commented, noting how much the Chicano and other dark youth on the American front look like the Iraqi boys fighting. Things happen. On Sept. 11, 2001, war had once again reached me. Sept. 11 was also the date that the Chilean military launched its coup, 1973, so it has long been an anniversary date of loss for me.

Now we have another Iraq War. Iran may be next. I try to lead a normal civilian life. But I know what is happening. I do not need to watch it on TV, which obscures much of the real story. Books like “Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace” and documentary films like “Sir!, Nor Sir,” in which two members of our vets group appear, are more helpful to reveal the realities of war than the sanitized, corporate media.

Though she is not in our book, many years ago Deena Metzger wrote a poem that our book echoes:
There are those who are trying to set fire to the world.
We are in danger.
There is time only to work slowly.
There is no time not to love.

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Mini-Review of Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace

I have the somewhat mixed pleasure of reading the book: Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace edited by Maxine Hong Kingston, Koa Books: 2006, ISBN 10:0-9773338-3-3. I say somewhat mixed because some of the stories reminded me of the pain our country inflicted upon the Vietnamese people in the 1960s. I was reminded, too, of the pain that men brought home with them from Vietnam.

I was a Marine from 1968-1971 and performed body escort in 1969. That is, I escorted the remains of dead Marines home to their families. That’s the extremely condensed version of the story I tell high school students.

The essays in the book grew out of writing workshops that Ms. Kingston offered for veterans in the San Francisco bay area in the 80s and 90s. These men poured their souls into their works. If you want to get a taste of what war is like from the point of view of the men who walked the trails and watched good men suffer and die, I recommend you seek out this book.

Jim Lovestar, Minneapolis

Ed. Note: to read more about the Veterans Writers Group, go to: <http://www.vowvop.org/>