Wounded vets find normalcy in shooting event

When you wake up everyday the same way, eat at the same time, drink the same coffee, have your "normal" routine un-interupted, that is what is "normal" for you. Drive into work on the same road in New England, and the first snow storm comes, normal goes out the window. That first snow storm causes all kinds of issues as if people forgot what it was like to drive in the snow even though they lived there all their lives.

This second is what we see "normal" as. I'm sitting at my computer, hacking away at the keys, reading the reports I track and my puppy is sleeping behind me. This is normal for this second but I know any second an email can come in from someone needing help or a phone call I'll have to take and what is my "normal" routine ends. I just go with the flow but there are times when the phone call or email is a bit too much to take and I have to go off and do something other than read more reports about people suffering. This is my life and I'm used to it now but it wasn't always this way.

Before I met my husband, I didn't have a clue what Vietnam did to anyone. I grew up with veterans all my life and honestly, never really gave their time in war much thought at all. I went to work, hung out with friends and watched nighttime soaps like Dallas and Dynasty. I had my own issues to come to terms with after my ex-husband tried to kill me one night. First being with him was "normal" but once he did what he did, it was "normal" to want to be away from him. Then it was "normal" to go through the grieving process while trying to find who I was all over again. I knew I had changed and so did my life.

Then I met a skinny Vietnam Vet with beautiful brown eyes and I was changed again. I had a new "normal" life to live but this one included PTSD and a lot of emotional highs and lows.

That is what happens when veterans come back home especially after combat. That time away became "normal" to them. What most do not understand is that new "normal" world became a part of them just as every event in our lives becomes a part of us. The trauma they endure engrains those events into their soul. It doesn't have to be tragic. It doesn't have to be sad. Once they face the truth they may never be cured, they can rejoice over healing instead. They can heal when they make peace with themselves, others and the things they survived if they get the right kind of help.

When it comes to what "normal" is, it depends on each one of us and the life we've had this far.

Wounded vets find normalcy in shooting event
NORTH ANSON -- For a few minutes Sunday, Tim Valliere, 25, of Portland, felt normal.

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Dwight Dodge, 56, of Paris, takes aim in the Warrior Legacy Foundation’s Wounded Heroes Machine Gun Shoot on Sunday in North Anson.
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The Deering High School graduate, who served his country with the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan and Iraq, sustained a traumatic brain injury, is deaf in his right ear, has torn muscles in his lower back and has post-traumatic stress disorder.

But Sunday, at the Warrior Legacy Foundation's Wounded Heroes Machine Gun Shoot, Valliere was in his prime.

"It's an opportunity to feel like I'm back in the military," said Valliere, who played lacrosse for the Rams.

"A lot of us who are injured strive for a sense of normalcy. This puts me back to where I was when I was healthy ... at least for a few minutes."

Lt. Col. Bill Crowley organized the shooting event for Valliere and 20-plus other veterans at Williams Machine Gun Range, built by veteran Andy Williams after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

The veterans were presented swag bags that included gift cards from Cabela's and musical gifts from rocker Ted Nugent and country star Toby Keith.
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Wounded vets find normalcy in shooting event