Veterans' Memories Can Haunt, But Also Heal, on Memorial Day

Veterans' Memories Can Haunt, But Also Heal, on Memorial Day
By Josh Farley (Contact)
Monday, May 25, 2009


POULSBO

So quickly the wounded came aboard USS Sanctuary that MaryAnne Harris recalls the "mud on their cammies was still wet."

Harris, a retired nurse and commander who served in the Vietnam War aboard the Sanctuary, a hospital ship, had once been unable to reminisce on the horrors she witnessed while on duty. Harris felt she would cry, "and never stop," she said.

But on Monday, Harris addressed a gathered crowd of veterans and non-vets alike at the Poulsbo waterfront gazebo at a Memorial Day ceremony, not only revisiting her Vietnam experiences, but encouraging others to let their own memories surface.

The event was hosted by Poulsbo American Legion Post 245 and Kingston VFW Post 2463.

She told the crowd of her post-traumatic stress disorder, which for years kept her from recognizing a holiday like Memorial Day.

But she would learn to face her fears, and — just as she helped heal the physical wounds during the war — Harris has learned to counsel veterans to face their own emotional wounds following combat.

One in three veterans suffer from PTSD, she told a crowd at the Poulsbo event. Some don't report it, and some even take their own lives, succumbing to it.

In 1991, Harris collected the courage to visit Washington D.C., and see the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. At first she couldn't go to the site, because, "it represented my failures," she felt.

She finally went and began looking at the names on the wall. When she came upon a 19-year-old's name she recognized, Harris said she began to look back on her painful past.
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Veterans Memories Can Haunt, But Also Heal, on Memorial Day