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Wednesday, Jan. 8
The Indiana Daily Student

opinion

COLUMN: Veterans have something to say

He started to tell us about the bombing of Nagasaki, a story I had heard dozens of times but has always left me in awe.

My grandpa, like many veterans, wants an audience to talk.

More veterans who wish to share their stories should be granted audiences.

In addition to support groups or patient friends and family, these veterans should be incorporated into classrooms and lesson plans when discussing past or current wars, as opposed to relying solely on novels or textbooks.

The History Channel has brought veterans into the classroom through the Mission to Honor program.

The program has facilitated hundreds of visits aimed at high school students or other younger audiences across the country by inviting veterans to speak in college classrooms.

Students would hear first-hand experiences, and veterans would share stories with their peers or the next generation.

Novels like Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five” or Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” are singular monologues rather than conversations.

It would give students a wider perspective of conflicts from sweeping events to daily procedures.

After reading and hearing about war stories, students will have questions a novel can’t answer.

While a Google search could answer factual questions, a soldier can give a personal, emotional answer that can’t be found online.

We learn from living history.

Veterans have stories that haven’t been recorded in any article, short story or novel, but they have just as much power.

Students could compare the stories of the novels to what the soldiers themeslves have experienced.

Students would be learning from the front lines.

This is especially important for World War II and Korean War veterans because their numbers are shrinking.

According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, only 850,000 of the 16.1 million Americans who fought in World War II are still alive.

Despite this, their stories will live on alongside famous novels.

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