Letter to the Editor: Fireworks trigger memories of firefights for local veteran

Dear editor:

We all love the display of fireworks... To celebrate our independence. Also to honor our those who fought for our independence....

But those who fought have come home with injuries no one sees... They are silent. Deep-seated. And come out during times like the Fourth of July.

We love our town of Cowley, but it was Vietnam overload for my husband. He had nowhere to go. I voiced it on classifieds and a couple people said, “Well, it’s only 30 minutes.” No, it was four hours.

These comments had to come from non-service personnel who have never seen combat.  Mama’s babies, as my husband calls them. See, he got his draft papers before he even graduated from Cody High School. Arrived in Vietnam. Given a gun. Told to kill. No training.

Then he started flying missions.  Seen stuff he wished he would have never had to witness. Eighteen-year-old boys drafted into a political war. Seeing children killed with bombs attached to them. Soldiers losing limbs by stepping on land mines. He picked them up. In the mist of fire fights. Shot down twice.

Sleeps in the living room with the lights on. TV. By God, don’t touch him while he’s sleeping.  His PTSD dreams are real. So real.

But just not his alone.

Ask any Veteran from Vietnam. Desert Storm. Afghanistan. Iraq. Iran. They will tell you all the same.

My husband attended the first class held in the area of “REBOOT “ It saved him. He was able to talk. He attended the second one and that one I went with him. Came home and cried from the stories of my husband’s and other veterans in the class.

PTSD is real. Who picks up the pieces? The wives. Our men need understanding. We need to show them love but give them space when needed. A lot of younger Soldiers and Marines have been divorced once, even twice due to their PTSD. It tears families apart.

Us...Vietnam Veteran wives. We love our ole’ vets. We’ve fought VA for their disability rights, for they are dying from “Agent Orange” chemical agent. President Johnson assured our troops it was non-lethal to them. My husband’s chopper dumped it. Tons of it. His health is affected by it.

So, we stay and struggle. Fight the VA every day for their health issues. Just to keep them healthy. We wake up hearing them still after 43 years yell out from a dream.

My husband’s is the firefights at night. He said that’s when the worse of it hit. Being sound to sleep. Children hitting the wires. But these off-color remarks by those who have never seen combat is horrible.

Olaf & Susan Aagard

Cowley, Wyoming