Clearwater VFW Post remodels to be more inviting to younger veterans

Clearwater VFW Post remodels to be more inviting to younger veterans
By Theodora Aggeles, Times Correspondent
In Print: Tuesday, June 30, 2009


CLEARWATER — Ray Riley wanted to forget the horrors of Vietnam.

He lost a brother there. Sgt. William A. Riley has been missing in action for 49 years.

Riley himself escaped the jungles of Vietnam and made it back home with Silver and Bronze Star medals.

But he could not flee from the images that crept into bed with him each night. In dreams, he heard gunfire. Saw bloodshed. Felt the heat and attacked his enemies.

"I was like a lot of older guys who came back and didn't talk about what we'd been through," Riley said. "Years later when I talked, let's just say for years what I pushed down had been eating me up inside."

Now 66, Riley understands post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition that caused him to relive the hell of Vietnam every night for decades.

That's why he and the other 550 or so members of VFW Post No. 2473 are sprucing up the post and starting a post-traumatic stress disorder training program.

It's all part of $75,000 in renovations to make the facility a more comfortable, therapeutic and fun place to come for younger veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
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