Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, August 3, 1993                   TAG: 9308030327
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

NOBODY INTERESTED IN WAR STORIES

I am a veteran of World War II. I was at the Elbe river with the Ninth Army when the war ended and I thought to myself, Now I can go home and tell the people about all the destruction, the death, and even the humor that I experienced during the war. But, lo and behold, no one wanted to listen. Whenever I would try to speak of those things, I was told to forget them. Leave the past behind, people said.

Forty-eight years later and it's the same; no one wants to listen. No one, that is, except a couple of times when I have had the privilege of speaking to fifth- and sixth-grade students in our local school systems.

Sometimes when we speak of the war years, we cry, but still we want to speak of them. In our veterans' medical centers, there are thousands upon thousands of veterans who sit and stare out of the windows all day - just because they were told to forget it. Some of those veterans could have been doctors, lawyers, or even become presidents of this country had they not been told to forget it. Everyone that experiences combat becomes a casualty. You don't have to be wounded, you just have to be there. To you, Garland, and to you, Eugene, thanks for what you did in Korea and good luck to both of you. PAUL SAUNDERS SALEM