TROY — They remain silent when someone asks, “Didn’t you serve in Afghanistan and wasn’t your dad in Vietnam?”

Current research is reporting that large numbers of Americans are experiencing alienation, feelings of loneliness, abandonment. They believe few understand the trauma that has informed their lives.

Among these groups are combat veterans, those men and women who have been deployed around the world in dangerous zones where an IED might take their lives at any moment if a sniper’s fire doesn’t reach them first. They have seen their friends with missing limbs or chest wounds evacuated to a hospital or transported to Dover in a body bag. And the sound of explosives, the heat of the country, the disorder, the smells of war interrupt their sleep or their waking moments.

To work to assist combat veterans, the Miami Valley Veterans Museum in Troy is working with Dayton Vet Center located in Kettering (a branch of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA0/ Readjustment Counseling Services Dayton Vet Center|Veterans Affairs (va.gov) to bring a pilot talk therapy counseling program to the museum.

Although there are counseling services in the area, this initiative is driven by the 120 plus, primarily Vietnam War/Era veterans, who attend the monthly meetings of the museum to hear speaker share their military stories.

Museum board President Ted Jones says, “Many of these veterans know each other and have been attending our monthly meetings since the museum was founded in 2009. There is a comfort level here, and they feel it when they arrive at our facility on 25A.”

The proposal is that a counselor from Dayton Vet Center will facilitate the sessions, and the sessions will be driven by the veterans and the needs they perceive they are having.

A flyer about the program will be available at the museum after June 5, 2023, and combat veterans may also email volunteer Dr. Jo Wildermuth for a copy ([email protected]).

On June 26, 2023, from 10 until 4:30, Scott Page will be at the museum to complete forms for combat veterans interested in participating in the counseling sessions. On July 17, 2023, Vet Center-Readjustment counselor Patrick Whitecar will be at the museum from 10 until 4:30 to complete the in-take process. The first session is scheduled to begin on Aug. 7, 2023.

For questions, contact volunteer Dr. Vivian Blevins at [email protected].