Thoughts from Dr. Joe: Collecting war stories seldom told
Harold Krebs was like any other boy in the one-horse Oklahoma town. The only difference was, he returned from World War I well after the Marine Second Division came home. Krebs arrived home too late to a hero’s welcome and struggled with integrating back into a post-war society. He had been at Belleau Wood, Soissons, the Champagne and in the Argonne; subsequently, his soul was torn by a raging conflict caused by what he had encountered.
By the time he was ready to talk about his horrific experiences, no one wanted to listen. People had enough! What he saw and did remained ensnared in his mind. The experiences of war are like an angry wolf trapped in a cage. The wolf destroys everything inside as it attempts to break free.
Like many soldiers today, Krebs found himself isolated, trying to mesh with a society that could not relate nor could it understand what he had experienced in France. He didn’t fit his old world. He had changed but Oklahoma did not.
The above is a synopsis of a story called “Soldier’s Home” and it was written by Earnest Hemingway in 1925. It’s a facsimile of his experiences during World War I. The gut-wrenching turmoil Hemingway experienced may have caused him to take his life. I read the story via a serendipitous circumstance: Mr. Valassidis, an English teacher at La Cañada High School, suggested I read “Soldier’s Home” and comment.
Last Sunday morning I was sitting in Starbucks reading the story and nursing a black tea. I like my tea in a thick ceramic white cup. A friend of mine who is familiar with the story told me “Soldier’s Home” reminded him of an acquaintance who had passed away. His friend had two combat tours in Vietnam and was wounded three times. Upon returning home, the soldier became reclusive, bitter and angry. My friend mentioned the soldier kept his demons bottled up inside and eventually drank himself to death.
The research is conclusive that the process of communicating personal war experiences for veterans returning from war is a definite adjunct in their assimilation. My own experience speaking and writing about my war experience confirms this for me. While this may seem like common sense to many veterans, the research suggests that engaging in “serious talk” may ease the transition veterans face when returning to civilian life.
The Veterans History Project of the American Folk Life Center at the Smithsonian Institute and affiliated with the Library of Congress, collects, preserves and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war veterans. Future generations may hear directly from veterans and better understand the realities of war. In addition, United States citizen civilians, who were actively involved in supporting war efforts, are also invited to share their valuable stories. I have viewed many such accounts and note their cathartic effects on the soldiers.
My daughter Sabine chose to conduct an oral history of soldiers serving in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Shield and Desert Storm for her Girl Scout Gold Award Project. Since World War I, soldiers, the likes of Harold Krebs in Hemingway’s story “Soldier’s Home,” have passed, all we will remember of them are their letters, mementos and memoirs. Sabine is actively recruiting veterans from these conflicts. She has developed a script of questions wherein she will film the interview and submit her work to the Library of Congress. If you are a veteran from any of the aforementioned eras or if you know of an interested veteran, please contact her at g.sabinepuglia@gmail.com.
Back to Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home.” Harold Krebs continues to find himself adrift, in a society that he no longer feels he belongs in. The small Oklahoma town was never affected by the war, not as Krebs had been; subsequently, he descended into a self-induced paralysis. The story ends there.
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JOE PUGLIA is a practicing counselor, a retired professor of education and a former officer in the Marines. Reach him at doctorjoe@ymail.com. Visit his website at doctorjoe.us.
