In Wake of Fort Hood Shootings, a Speech on the Need for “Psychic Healing” for Combat Soldiers

At the time of this writing, there has been no definitive word on the motivation of the gunman in the tragic shootings at Fort Hood today.   Whatever the truth turns out to be, I wanted to share this  powerful speech about the psychic damage of battle, which was recently delivered at a Veterans Expo in New York.  I initially studied it as an excellent example of the speechwriter’s craft, but today it seems more significant , shedding needed light on an important issue that gets little attention — until it erupts in tragedy.  My compliments again to Vital Speeches of the Day for first bringing it to my attention. — John Patella

Let’s Start the Stream of Psychic Healing

Address by STEPHEN T. BANKO III
Delivered to the Veterans Expo, Utica, N.Y., October 14, 2009

Most Vietnam veterans I know still cling to the notion they could handle one more war and at least two more women. But all that I know of war and all I have heard of peace disavowed me long ago of such romantic illusions. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to understand, much less handle, any women and I didn’t handle my only war all that well. I once thought that made me less of a man, being traumatized by something we had all been told was some kind of rite of passage from adolescence to maturity. I never heard my father or his brother talk about being overwhelmed by World War II and his brother had flown bomber missions over Germany. They survived and didn’t complain so I thought there must be something intrinsically wrong with me. I was afraid that we were the “least” generation of soldier: that we complained too often and too loud and that in so doing, we cheapened our service; we blurred our sacrifice, and we wallowed in our suffering.

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