One of the central reasons that FAIRHOPE Hospice and Palliative Care is such a blessing to families is that we redirect attention away from the illness and back to the person on service.
For example part of our intake process is to discuss various aspects of the ill person’s life, including if they were a veteran. Realizing the sacrifices incurred as a member of the military, FAIRHOPE Hospice and Palliative Care offers a military pinning ceremony to individually honor each veteran under our care. This ceremony emphasizes that the veteran is appreciated.
This ceremony is part of the We Honor Veterans program of the Department of Veterans Affairs and is in association with the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). The ceremony takes place where the veteran lives and is performed on a 24/7 basis. The actual pinning ceremony itself is not hurried. Time is often given to listen to the veterans stories, whether told by the veteran or the family. We listen to the stories and ask questions. This part of the event can be lively, especially when FAIRHOPE’s volunteers, themselves veterans, share war stories with the honoree.
To give you an idea of the stories told by local veterans, the following are mostly snippets of some of the veteran’s stories and memories they’ve told us over the years. As you read these, you’ll notice that some experienced active combat and some “only” saw the aftermath and horror of combat. Some were in the military during peace time, yet experienced apprehension due to a world crisis that potentially could involve the military. Some were prisoners of war, many never left our shores. Some of the veterans want to talk about their experiences, even combat; I don’t want to think about the stories of those who don’t want to share.
To wit, a fragment of their experiences:
-A veteran on our service was a tail gunner on a B-17 bomber in WWII. He said he felt like he was bravely serving his country until a German fighter shot the tail off of his plane about three feet over his head. “That’s when it became war....and frightening.” he said. Upon landing after each mission, his crew always kissed the ground…evidently the Pope wasn’t the first.
-A veteran told me, at one of our military pinning ceremonies, that his job was to pick up bodies floating in the water, the day after the Normandy invasion. He said he’d scoop up a body, “or body part” put it on the floor of the boat. Take a swig out of a bottle of wine then scoop up another body, or body part, out of the water. Then he’d the take another swig of wine. He said the job took a few days.
-Another guarded the A-Bomb and the plane that delivered it before it took off for Hiroshima.
-During the Korean War, a veteran’s duty was to open body bags containing those killed in combat and confirm they were properly identified. He said often when he opened the bag, “I didn’t know what part of the body I was looking at.”
-Another veteran was a tank mechanic and a crane operator during Korean War. He lifted Ted William’s F9F Navy fighter out of a ravine after it made a belling landing. The event was national news because Ted Williams was a nationally famous professional baseball player. (He was the last player to hit over .400)
-When asked about his service, a veteran told one of our nurses, “I killed people.” Then began to cry.
-The son of a veteran said that his dad always kept their refrigerator stuffed with food. Later in life he learned his dad had been a starving POW and never wanted to be out of food again.
- The family of a veteran on service told me he was the actual person whom the movie “Platoon” was based upon.
-A veteran on our service said in late 1959 he was in the honor guard when Cuban dictator Fidel Castro arrived in Washington D.C. to meet with Vice President Nixon. He said he stood directly behind Castro and said he had a “…bad case of dandruff.” (Well, now we know.)
-Speaking of Castro, a veteran on service in the National Guard during peacetime was deployed combat ready, to the Gulf Coast area during the Cuban Missile Crisis in the Fall of 1962.
-A veteran told me he was in Vietnam’s DMZ during 1969-1970. All he said was, “A very dangerous place.” He then looked away.
-The wife of a veteran we pinned said her husband was a crew member “ of a submarine in the River” in Vietnam. Their mission was to drop off Navy Seals involved in covert operations.
-The wife of a Vietnam War POW told me that many years later her husband mentioned that surviving the experience proved he was stronger than he thought.
-One of those honored with our military pinning ceremony had served several years as part a security detail that kept constant vigilance of the airspace over Washington D.C. During 9/11 the security detail was ordered to shoot down everything they saw in the air. The plane that hit the Pentagon was undetected because it flew below the radar. He said that he was so afraid that he would have to kill innocent civilians.
The stories I’ve heard convince me that the transition from military service to civilian life is never fully complete.
Thank you, veterans.
