American Veterans Art Wall December Spotlight

The December Spotlight represents three groups of veterans who are underrepresented on The American Veterans Art Wall: veterans of WW II, Korea and the Cold War. As their numbers become few, we should all encourage them to post, because part of aging is the feeling that your thoughts, ideas and remembrances are no longer of interest to the young. The truth is that their wisdom and experiences, not told, vanish forever.

Of particular interest to veterans who served since Vietnam, these veterans experienced conflicts that the nation as a whole supported. They were all treated like heroes. If your son was not serving then certainly a neighbor’s son was, so the nation - as a nation - was a personally invested.

There are pros and cons to an all volunteer military and to the draft as well. The draft represented a true economic cross section of America from rich to poor. Serving was a duty not a right. The effect of this melding of social strata, partnered with the GI Bill would lead to the burgeoning of the middle class. General Eisenhower’s decision to integrate troops and Eleanor Roosevelt’s pressure to do the same with the Navy, culminated with Harry Truman integrating the entire U.S. Military, which lead to the burgeoning of racial equality. Given the race and class structure of the nation at that time, in an all volunteer army that might have been a lot more difficult to achieve.

The other and bigger difference between the generations before and after Vietnam is how they were taught to think. Those over sixty were taught to look backwards for knowledge then take that knowledge and transfigure it into the future. Thinking was done in many shades of gray. Today thinking is binary, black and white, and all thinking is done looking to the future. That’s why American Legion posts are empty when once they hosted the last survivors of the civil war, Spanish American War, WWI and WWII at the same time. It is true that the Internet better serves the needs of those who are returning now. It is true you can only move into the future and must flow with how the future lays itself out. However, to not have some understanding of where we as veterans came from is a waste of valuable resources.

At the West Los Angeles VA Holiday Festival, many veterans in attendance brought things that identified them and their service. Both, Dr. George Stanley, WW II Army Medical Service Corps, and Bob Stiles, Cold War Air Force and Navy carried small photo albums from their service and were eager to share stories to anyone who was interested. But few were.

They were not there for the meal or the services. They were there out of pride and their support for those who had followed them. The AVAW mission statement talks about accepting works of art, professional or not but things created by the veteran. The AVAW isn’t looking for pictures that move you but pictures taken that have meaning to the veteran. But the faded black and white captioned “Young Love” and the hand tinted Air Force graduation photo in combination with what they had to say, more than meets the submission threshold. Had the photos and stories not been accepted as art they would have been denied their voice in the way only they could express it. Please read and enjoy these expressions.

The Korean veteran is The AVAW President David Hahn’s uncle, Fred Hahn. He now lives in a retirement community in San Diego, and posted a very sweet, very simple photograph and poem. There is no trace of bitterness or having been treated unfairly in his life. This is not a contrived feeling, it is how he sees the world. Yet when he was a child in Nazi Germany, his class, under the direction of the schoolteacher, tied the Jew in a sack and threw him in the river.

Luckily a farmer saw this and saved him. Even more luck in the fact that there was an established relative in Chicago, who could sponsor him, my stepfather, his sister and his parents. They had to pay with all the money, land and belongings they had in order to get away from the Nazi’s. In Germany, they were well-to-do famers. In America, my grandfather was never more than a laborer, and my grandmother a seamstress. They were the only branch of the family who did get out. There is no bitterness.

Nor is there any in the brief thoughts of the doctor who was thankful to be able to fight for his country, and more thankful to be able to do that by saving lives and not taking them. Nor in the story of the Airman 2nd class who had just been accepted to go the Air Force Academy. The certified but novice pilot, because of the over confidence of youth crashed his plan in the deep snow of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. He and his buddy took almost five days to hike out of the ten-foot deep snow. His friend died within hours of being rescued. He was lucky enough to save his feet from amputations but after months of recovery was medically discharged from the Air Force, killing his dreams of going to the Academy. What did he do? He joined the Navy.

Although easy to romanticize, the 1940’s and ‘50’s were terrible in terms of racial and gender inequality. There were the concentration camps. The firebombing of Dresden and Tokyo, and then there was Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The McCarthy hearings. An innocent time? Hardly. Songs were crooned, but black men were lynched, while entire towns watched -- picnicking. People were blacklisted for doing what the Constitution specifically allowed them to do. In the 1940’s the idea of changing the national anthem to God Bless America was unapologetically rejected because it was written by a Jew. It was no romantic innocent time that should be longed for. Norman Rockwell was a fantasy of America; not America. But it is a time to be understood because those three generations have made today what it is.

These stories may not be as immediate as those coming from the Middle East but they are no less important. The American Veterans Art Wall is a perfect place for these stories to live, to be as important as the ones to their left and right.

Every Veteran is connected to every other veteran in an unbroken chain that leads back to those who lifted muskets in defense of a dream of freedom and liberty. If we are fortunate we know veterans from World War II, Korea and the Cold War. We call these people Grandpa and Grandma, and event Great Grandpa and Grandma. Please encourage them to post their stories. If they can’t, or don’t feel anyone cares, tell them you care, have them tell you the story and then please post it for them.

The AVAW will work with you to preserve this precious art. It is sad when those who served feel that no one cares, that their lives don’t really matter. Their lives do matter, just as your lives and your stories matter.

Post! And prove it to yourselves and them. If you can, also please consider giving a donation. The AVAW needs your help. Thank you!

Happy Holidays and to a New Year where all voices are heard with no censorship, judgment or comment: The American Veterans Art Wall.