Following is a quote from, War and the Soul by Edward Tick, PH.D., chapter 15, page 254.
“Nonetheless, modern men and women experience the spiritual motivations that call them onto the warrior’s path. The initiatory route that leads to the full level of maturity this path offers can and must be rediscovered, even in the twenty first century. The war survivor must accept and finally affirm his or her war experiences. The veteran must grow a new identity large enough to surround and carry those traumatic experiences. And he or she must call the soul back into service as the community’s witness not only to horror but also to love.”
In my book, Reconciliation: A Son’s Story, my Dad, Vernon H. Sparks, after 66 months of continuous combat duty from the China Sea, to Pearl Harbor, and finally the Asiatic Pacific Theater, and the end of WWII, was not given the opportunity to know love again. The horror of war lived with him until his later years when he finally received good treatment. It was too little, and too late, and the pain of his own symptoms of PTSD transferred to family members became a legacy of war. We can choose now to break this cycle of horror and help our modern warriors to know love again when they return home.
