Table 1.

Vignettes from Our Conversations with Veterans

Having navigated the medical landscape of war, a former Vietnam nurse parallels her experiences triaging and treating wounded soldiers to the challenges of our current pandemic. “We are in a war zone, but this time it's invisible bullets. It's even more frightening,” she says. Decisions about who will live and die and who will receive the gear necessary to defend themselves are all too familiar. They are memories from another continent, decades ago, now unearthed in our backyards, demanding our attention.

A retired army colonel with New Hampshire roots, he remains sharp in his mid‐80s and exudes the warmth of a cherished old friend. He refers often and lovingly to his wife, his high school sweetheart and admired companion for the last six decades. He gravitated toward the armed services at first for “money I desperately needed.” Soon, however, he found the connection he had long been seeking. “I made fast friends in the military. I stayed because I admired the people.” Relationships, seemingly so difficult to build as a rural working‐class 18‐year‐old surrounded by the wealth and privilege of an Ivy League college, came naturally in the military. It was a community that understood his life and struggles as others had not. In this unexpected place he found beauty and belonging.

A Marine in his 70s served in Vietnam for 2 months, during which time he sustained significant life‐altering injuries. He laments the abandonment and loneliness he felt upon returning home but shares his secret for making it through the darkest stretches: “You got to keep positive. You cannot dwell. You got to go on with your life. Dwelling just makes it worse. You kind of put your head on your shoulder and think positive.”

A 94‐year‐old World War II veteran shares story after story, his mind still sharp as a tack although his body is failing. He landed on the Normandy beaches; fought through hedges and trenches; dug foxholes; fell in love with a Jewish woman working with the Resistance in Paris; found his brother lying under a tank during combat, writing a letter to him; surprised himself with how peacefully he accepted death during a gas attack. He has spent his entire life trying but concludes, “It's difficult for me to understand the behavior of mankind,” and as he advises me to keep reading about history, his voice takes on a new urgency.