Please come to my book talk in Oakton, Virginia!

I want to issue an enthusiastic invitation to you to come hear my talk this week. I'll be discussing my book as part of The Speaker's Series, sponsored by the Friends of the Oakton Library on Wednesday, January 20 at the Oakton library, 10304 Lynnhaven Place, Oakton, Virginia at 7 p.m. The phone number if you want to call to reserve a spot is 703/242-4020. But you can also just show up at 7 p.m.

I wrote this book about my father, who served as a lieutenant in Patton's Third Army and was involved in the liberation of the Ebensee Concentration Camp. His civilian life was plagued by nightmares of combat and the camps. After his death at age 86, I read the riveting WWII diary he kept of the Allied offensive in Europe and was able to incorporate it into my book. I also interviewed family members and fellow soldiers in a rewarding but sometimes painful journey to understand the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder on my father and our family.

I hope you will be able to come - we'll have plenty of time for questions afterwards. There will be books available for purchase and signing also.

Here are just a few of the recent comments I've gotten about the book:

"I was so moved by your scholarship, sensitivity, persistence, insight and wisdom...it had a profound impact on me."

This was from a man whose father-in-law had suffered from dementia for many years: "Thank you so much for the investment of time, talent, and resources you committed to your recent book "The Box from Braunau." You so aptly and appropriately lifted the shadow from the experiences my wife's father had with your father in the 80th Division. Your research has filled a void, for which we are most grateful."

As a postscript to my last blog about Max Cleland, I want to make sure I report that he is doing very well now. Settling into his job as Secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission, his ptsd symptoms have waned significantly. He commutes between Washington and his home in Atlanta so he can check on and care for his 96-year old father.

The above photo was taken at my talk at Politics and Prose Bookstore in Washington, DC last year.

Max Cleland, Patriot

I just finished reading Heart of a Patriot: How I Found the Courage to Survive Vietnam, Walter Reed and Karl Rove, by former United States Senator and Veterans Administration head Max Cleland. In this moving and often heartbreaking book, Cleland chronicles his life's struggles after being left a triple amputee by a grenade explosion in Viet Nam. Over and over again, he picks up the pieces of his life and his psyche, and rises to "stand tall" among his fellow citizens. He gives his life to public service and becomes the first Vietnam veteran to serve in the Georgia State Senate, then serves as head of the Veterans Administration under Jimmy Carter. Eventually he fulfills his dream of becoming a U.S. Senator.

But during the campaign for his reelection, he was singled out by Republicans as being — incredibly — "unpatriotic." The shattering loss brought on his latent Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. As a result, Cleland returned to Walter Reed Army Medical Center for treatment and, as he says, "cried for two and a half years."

Last year President Obama appointed him Secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission, which manages the 24 overseas cemeteries where American soldiers are memorialized. I imagine those soldiers would be proud to know that someone with Max Cleland's courage and depth of character is in charge.

The U.S. Supreme Court, the Death Penalty, and PTSD

The U.S. Army's "suicide crisis" has brought needed attention to the issue of post-traumatic stress disorder among soldiers.

As of November 16, 140 active duty soldiers and 71 non-active duty soldiers had killed themselves. The rise in both suicides and incidences of PTSD appear to be linked.

On November 30, the Supreme Court of the United States gave hope to a Korean war veteran sentenced to death in Florida. George Porter returned from Korea a traumatized and changed man, the Court said in its opinion. He suffered from PTSD as a result of his battle experience, yet his lawyers never brought it to the attention of the jury at trial in 1988.

As a result, the court held, the representation provided Porter fell below minimum Constitutional standards. The justices seemed to say that if members of the jury had been informed of his service in combat and resultant trauma, they might have spared his life.

The Washington Post reported that the justices of the Supreme Court were "strikingly sympathetic" to Porter, who shot his former girlfriend and her new boyfriend 13 years ago.

The justices highlighted Porter's PTSD, saying, "Our nation has a long history of according leniency to veterans in recognition of their service, especially for those who fought on the front lines as Porter did. Moreover, the relevance of Porter's extensive combat experience is not only that he served honorably under extreme hardship and gruesome conditions, but also that the jury might find mitigating the intense stress and mental and emotional toll that combat took on Porter."

TheSupreme Court cast no doubt on his guilt, but sent the case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.

Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times said that "the most notable feature" of the opinion "was the sympathy that all nine justices displayed for a man who, in the fullness of his adulthood and after promising a friend that she would soon be reading about him in the newspaper, stole another friend's gun and shot two people to death in cold blood." Opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/linda-greenhouse/

The Court seemed to go out of its way to show that it takes PTSD seriously. What do you think?

(Porter v. McCollum)

New Resource for Families Dealing with War Trauma

My Story: Blogs by Four Military Teens

This is helpful information for the teenager in the family — a group we often ignore when discussing the struggles of the returning combat veteran. It's a book written by Michelle Sherman, a clinical psychologist in Oklahoma, who specializes in supporting families affected by PTSD/trauma

Dr. Sherman wrote it primarily as a source of support and education for military teens, but also as a tool to educate civilian youth about the military family experience.

This is especially important now because the military is so isolated from the rest of society. It's very different from World War II, when a teenager was almost sure to find others on the block who had a family member involved in the war effort.

Although the four young bloggers in the book are fictional, the stories are real ones taken from the lives of teens Dr. Sherman actually knows.

The four kids blog about:

• Pride in parent's military service
• Confusion, anger and sadness over deployment
• Challenge of reconnecting after homecoming
• Finding a "new normal"
• Divorce
• Teen depression
• Excitement of homecoming
• Dealing with parent's emotional and physical challenges post-deployment
• Resilience and post-traumatic growth

See the website www.SeedsofHopeBooks.com for more information.

"How do your siblings feel about your book?"

I'm often asked, "How do your siblings feel about your book?"

My older brother plays an important part in my book, just as he has in my life. He recently blogged about what it's like to be in a book (mine), and he picked up on one of the most important things I learned while writing:

Each sibling has a different childhood. We might live under the same roof with the same parents, but we arrive at different times in our parents' lives. All sorts of things change in the time between our births: the stresses vary, the income fluctuates, and the temperature of the marital relationship rises and falls.

My brother John (to whom I refer in the book as "Jay," his boyhood nickname) would have written a much different book— an angrier book— he says. We both recognize that it's my perspective, not his or anyone else's, that appears in The Box from Braunau.

However you look at it, my brother is one of the most interesting and engaging people I know. He's always digging into a mystery. John's a guest columnist on the website of America's premier cultural prankster, Joey Skaggs, where his LiteratEye column appears on Fridays. He also maintains a news blog on literary deception. If you're intrigued by literary fraud, or if you want to see what John says (scroll down to #34) about being in my book (or any book), check out his posts.

Five things I wish I'd asked my father about World War II

Five years after my father died, I finished my book about Dad's experiences during World War II. I had spent a lot of time holed up in libraries, museums, and places like the National Archives doing research about the war. He'd left a journal of his time in combat, excerpts of which are contained in the book, but I wanted to make sure I properly filled in the blanks left by the journal. I delved into the history of battles, the strategy, and dusty old records of the 80th Infantry Division.

I was able to answer many of the questions I had about his military service. And since Dad and I had a few conversations about the war in the year or so before he passed away, I was able to get more information about his personal experiences.

But in truth, writing the book after his death raised many more questions than it answered. Learning about the battle plans, the After Action Reports, and all the dates and times regarding his war made me want to know how he'd felt about it. So as Father's Day approaches, I decided to pull together five things I wished I'd asked my father about World War II, things only he could answer. Doesn't hurt to ask.

These are a few questions I might have asked him over a warm cup of coffee, sitting on the couch one morning, or over a beer down at the pub. I'm going settle in with a cup of coffee now and pretend Dad is sitting with me. I'll start with the questions in a gentle manner, since he didn't like to talk about this subject very much:

— Who was your best friend during the war?

I know that in your war journal you mention Graham quite often. He was a friend from your hometown of Frostburg, Maryland but he received a serious head wound not long after you entered battle in France, and was sent home. After that, who, if anyone, took his place? Did you have another best friend?

— Describe two incidents, one humorous and one serious, that you remember most vividly from the war.

— How did you deal with fear?

I know from your journal that you were very frightened during some of the artillery shelling and thought you were going to die more than once. Were you ever scared enough to think about running the other way? And I often wondered, what keeps soldiers from doing that?

— What was it like to come home?

And what might be more interesting, and surprising — what was it like six months later? Was it hard to adjust over the longer term?

— Lastly, I want to ask about Ebensee, the terrible concentration camp

I know now that you went to this camp and observed it only days after it was liberated by your Division. You had nightmares for years and suffered from your memories of that camp. You even said that it was far worse than anything you'd seen in combat. But did you ever talk about it before I asked you about it five years ago?

Anyone who has the chance to sit on the couch somewhere with a veteran, particularly a veteran of the Second World War, might try asking some questions. It will probably lead to an interesting conversation, and one you'll be glad you had. So grab that cup or coffee (or glass of beer), and don't forget the tape recorder.

"The Greatest Generation" is Sometimes Uncomfortable with the Title

My friend George Anderson is proud of his service in the 318th Infantry Regiment in World War II but he is not fond of the term "Greatest Generation." George says that today's generation — or any generation — would perform comparably to his in wartime, and that we should let all our veterans know that we honor them and appreciate their service.

I thought of World War II veterans like George and my father when my friend April Moore sent me a link to a wonderful article called "High-Five Nation," written by David Brooks in the New York Times.

"It made me think of your dad," she said.

After reading it, I wondered if the soft spot we have in our collective hearts for that generation might come, not just from our admiration of the sacrifices they made and the success they ultimately had, but from our appreciation for their humility. See it on Andy Schmookler's blog at www.nonesoblind.org/blog?p=4174/