Listen to a veteran

EDITOR,
Thank you, Bob McMurtry, for saying it plain and bold for the rest of us in your June 19 letter, “War is not fun and games.”
As a veteran who has been in action, we need to hear it from you to get the right perspective. You lived it.
It would appear that no one really wants to know too much about war, so it gets sensationalized as something exciting or wonderful, like the made-up story of a child’s absent parent.
Before my father, a veteran of action in World War II, died, my family learned that besides construction of camps, roads and air strips, which he readily talked about, my father also buried the dead before any construction could be done. It was the part of his story left untold all those years.
Maybe veterans should host classes and tell their stories of war and the painful lessons it brandishes on their hearts. Think about it: This would be a good way to honor the dead as well as our living veterans, lend insight to avoidable war and change how we remember.
History only repeats itself when we forget the nuggets of truth and do nothing to create healing.
Paula Cordes, Felton