{"id":143366,"date":"2021-05-31T23:56:41","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T04:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=143366"},"modified":"2021-06-02T06:40:09","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T11:40:09","slug":"myers-talks-about-soldier-suicides-ptsd-on-memorial-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2021\/05\/31\/myers-talks-about-soldier-suicides-ptsd-on-memorial-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Myers talks about PTSD on Memorial Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Area communities honored their fallen military veterans on Monday, with several veterans groups partnering for a memorial service in Woodland Cemetery that morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Shown are scenes from Monday’s Memorial Day service in Van Wert’s Woodland Cemetery. photos by Dave Mosier and Karen Marshall for the VW independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The local Amvets, Disabled American Veterans (DAV), American Legion, Sons of the Legion, and Veterans of Foreign Wars organizations were involved in the program, whose aim was to remember the sacrifices made by local veterans who made \u201cthe ultimate sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Legion Riders led off the program as members rode their motorcycles in patriotic gear to where the memorial ceremony was being held.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

American Legion Post 178 Commander Bill Marshall welcomed a nice crowd of attendees to the ceremony, while Legion Chaplain Dick Elder provided opening and closing prayers for the service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van Wert Mayor Ken Markward introduced the guest speaker: Clint Myers, a former U.S. Army Ranger who is director of the Legion\u2019s PSTD program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myers\u2019 talk was on \u201cGeneration Sacrifices\u201d and he opened by talking about the sacrifices made in his own immediate family by his uncle and grandfather, both of whom were World War II veterans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He first talked about his Uncle Howard, who earned a journalism degree from The Ohio State University and was made a lieutenant and tank commander. He was later killed when his tank exploded in a small French village not long after D-Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Myers\u2019 Grandfather Harold made it through the war, he suffered both physically and mentally from his experience in World War II. After returning to his unit after having his eardrums burst from an exploding mortar round, Myers\u2019 grandfather was captured with his unit during the Battle of the Bulge and spent the remainder of the war in a German POW camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The mental and physical strain — the 6-4 GI weighed just 110 pounds when liberated from the POW camp — took a toll on his psyche.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t die there (in the camp), but a part of him died there,\u201d Myers said, noting that his grandfather remained in the hospital and in treatment for more than a year and a half after returning to the States after the war was over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His grandfather\u2019s experience also created suffering for Myers\u2019 grandmother, who had also lost her brother during the war and was raising two children on her own while trying to cope with the changes her husband was going through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t talk about that part,\u201d Myers said, \u201cthe husband and wives who have to endure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While there have been more than 1 million American soldiers who have died since 1775, Myers said nearly half of those didn\u2019t die on a battlefield. They died from disease or accidents or from the extremes of Mother Nature, which he called \u201cone of your toughest foes when you\u2019re in the military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Americans are blessed today that, because of advances in medical treatment, fewer and fewer soldiers die on the battlefield, those that die there do leave behind families who suffer from their loss. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myers talked about how battlefield soldiers must endure knowing that they could die at any time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat in itself causes stress, it changes your psyche, it changes your viewpoint,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Myers said that more and more soldiers are unable to deal with the trauma of war, with an average of 22 soldiers a day committing suicide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile we\u2019re not losing as many in battle, we\u2019re losing a bigger battle here at home,\u201d he said. \u201cBecause they just don\u2019t know how to deal with it anymore, they haven\u2019t been able to talk about it, they\u2019ve been told they can\u2019t talk about it or they feel it\u2019s not appropriate to talk about it, or they\u2019re weak if they talk about what\u2019s going on inside\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myers said the high number of suicides is a great tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s a shame; 22 a day that we\u2019re losing to suicide,\u201d he said. \u201cThey make it through all that (war) and they come home and can\u2019t figure out how to fit back in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s one of the reasons the Legion developed its PTSD program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t do therapy there, we support one another, we educate one another, and we encourage: that\u2019s what we do,\u201d Myers said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also invited anyone suffering from PTSD, not just soldiers, but members of their families and others, to attend the meetings, which are held the first Monday of every month, starting at 8 a.m., at the Legion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following Myers\u2019 speech, Ray Kiehl and Libby Gardner placed wreaths on the soldier\u2019s memorial at Woodland Cemetery, and an honor guard comprised of members of local veterans groups provided a 21-gun salute and played \u201cTaps\u201d to end the service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Veterans and their families were then invited back to the Legion for lunch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor Area communities honored their fallen military veterans on Monday, with several veterans groups partnering for a memorial service in Woodland Cemetery that morning. The local Amvets, Disabled American Veterans (DAV), American Legion, Sons of the Legion, and Veterans of Foreign Wars organizations were involved in the program, whose aim was to remember […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 18:18:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}