In a very real sense, we did not separate the war from those who fought it. Having done that, it was easier to forget them than to confront their pain and anger. When faced with that pain and anger, we admonished them to forget. We told them that time would mend their wounds and heal their emotional scars. The depth of their grief, loss, and guilt has become intensified with the passing years.
Time is now an all too familiar enemy in a seemingly unending battle.
Its legacy continues to haunt us in the eyes, heads, and hearts of its veterans and in those who love them. Indeed, as a Nation, it is within us all. It is defined by the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual as a disorder involving stress responses caused by events outside the range of common experience. The trauma tries to surface, though the individual tries to keep it submerged. The stress syndromes usually develop after the disaster or catastrophe has ended.