The Impacts of Wartime Experiences on Veterans

An AP Seminar Task 2 Individual Written Argument — 2,150 words — on the more than 18 million living U.S. veterans and the difficulty of transitioning out of military life. The thesis is built on Johan Norberg's concept of 'false nostalgia' (longing for a past that wasn't actually as good as remembered) and argues that wartime experiences negatively impact veterans through memory, PTSD, and injuries, all of which produce that nostalgia.

The first body section is on memory — Colin Powell at the Vietnam War Memorial, Vietnam veterans interviewed by Nancy Hill who 'saw so many awful things I can't forget,' and Jack Seale's analysis of veterans whose attitudes shifted from dehumanizing the enemy to joining anti-war protests. The second section is on PTSD, using the stories of Luke (a former Marine whose post-war drinking and fighting recreated combat states) and Air Force Sergeant Dave Hanson, whose untreated PTSD eventually produced flashbacks, nightmares, and three suicide attempts.

The third section covers injuries — Rich Morin's Pew data that 1 in 10 veterans was seriously injured, Staff Sergeant Robert Henline (third-degree burns across his body, 'I wish the old dad was here too'), and Sergeant Aaron Cornelius, who lost both eyes in Iraq a week after pulling deceased soldiers from a burning vehicle. A counter-argument section engages the social benefits of military service — camaraderie and brotherhood — before the conclusion proposes therapy and support groups as solutions, while flagging VA overcrowding as a real limitation.