World War II Experiences Left Him Shattered But Not Broken

VA helps Iowa veterans tell their life stories 
Des Moines Register
Tony Leys
March 23, 2015

"I cleaned out wounds. I patched them. I gave them morphine. I didn't have the stomach for it. I treated German soldiers and U.S. soldiers. They died just like we did. They were just like us, they had to do what they had to do. I felt helpless to alleviate terrible suffering, no matter how much I tried. Then over six years later, I came to realize that the work I did with so many other casualties helped prevent them from developing horrible consequences."

U.S. Army veteran John Gualtier, 89, of Vinton holds a photo of himself from World War II at the VA Outpatient Clinic in Coralville on Tuesday. He served as a medic in the war.
(Photo: David Scrivner/Iowa City Press-Citizen)

CORALVILLE, Ia. –If the Department of Veterans Affairs wants to take down John Gualtier's life story, it's going to take a while.

The Vinton retiree was one of the first to volunteer for a new project in which VA staffers interview veterans and write up short biographies. The resulting essays are to be attached to the veterans' medical charts, to help VA health care providers understand their patients' perspectives.

Gualtier, 89, went decades without discussing the World War II experiences that left him shattered. But he's opened up in the past few years, because he wants younger veterans to avoid the mistake of trying to bury troubling memories.

"During combat, when I was into some really gory stuff, I never gave any thought about the effects it might have on me later," he told Stephanie Henrickson, a nurse who coordinates a mental health program for the regional VA system based in Iowa City.

Henrickson sat across from Gualtier at the VA's Coralville clinic one morning last week, taking notes in pen and capturing his gravelly voice on a digital recorder. She plans to write up his story, go over it with him, then put it in his medical file and give him a copy to share with his family. She has interviewed about 15 veterans so far as part of a pilot project in the Iowa City area and five other U.S. locations.

Most of Henrickson's interviews have taken an hour or so, but Gualtier's has required several sessions. He has so much to say.

In the most recent session, Henrickson asked Gualtier about his childhood in a small Ohio town during the Depression. "It seems like we always had it rough until the war broke out," he said. "It was a very, very hard time."

About the project
The Iowa City VA is one of six sites recently chosen to try the "My Life, My Story" project, which was pioneered in Madison, Wis.

Nurse Stephanie Henrickson said her agency plans to hire a full-time writer to do more such interviews and work up the stories.

Regular medical appointments usually focus on specific ailments, Henrickson explained. If a patient has heart issues, he'll get cardiac tests and questions. If a patient has a dermatology issue, the doctor will ask her about her skin. The storytelling project is an attempt to step back and get a sense of the patients as people and to understand what's important to them.
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