To honor veterans, readers share their war stories

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• LETTER: Supports benefits for Merchant Marines

  LETTER: Supports benefits for Merchant Marines

  Must second the letter written about the Nov. 11 article about the lack of compensation yet to be receive for the Merchant Marines who so deserve it.

  So many lost their lives and became prisoners of that war, (World War II,) and whom without the war could not have been won.

  It is unfair that our government has not offered compensation to the very few left alive. It took years for them to be recognized as veterans as it is, when they also placed their lives on the line for the war materiel and everything else needed for the war effort to reach the many allies and military waiting for it.

• PTSD can trouble veterans decades after their military service

  PTSD can trouble veterans decades after their military service

  Older veterans can be caught off guard when the emotional impact of their war service resurfaces decades after they left the military.

  "Some of our veterans are finding that the stress of life is intensifying with age, as they begin to look back on their wartime experiences," says Bridget Cantrell, a Bellingham mental health counselor who specializes in treating veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. "The older veterans are at a point in their lives where they still don't understand why they get so anxious and feel as if they are unraveling, as if it were just yesterday in a war zone."

  The National Center for PTSD, part of the federal Department of Veterans Affairs, calls it "late-onset stress symptomatology." In other words, veterans who late in life try to make sense of their wartime service might experience symptoms similar to PTSD.

• Bellingham veteran still seeking compensation for Merchant Marines

  Bellingham veteran still seeking compensation for Merchant Marines

  I joined the U.S. Maritime Service in 1945 and I was trained at Catalina Island, Calif. Upon completion of training, I passed the Coast Guard test and was issued "fireman water tender oiler" and was assigned a Z number. It would still be valid today, except steam power is extinct.

  I was assigned to a hospital ship and made fresh water on the USS Charles Stafford, an old steamer operated by the Army Transportation Corps.

  While in Manila waiting for the hospital to ready a load of wounded veterans to return home, I made a trip to Corregidor and toured the island. I walked in General Wainwright's tunnel. There were many mementos there, but the most important thing I remember was the Japanese prisoners. I think they were all Japanese officers.

• Bellingham memorial included in book about Korean War veterans

  Bellingham memorial included in book about Korean War veterans

  A copy of "Lest We Forget," a recent publication of the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs of Korea, arrived last week. The book tells the stories of Korean War veterans from many countries who served in that conflict 60 years ago. I was honored and humbled to have the story of my Korean War Children's Memorial projects here in Bellingham and in Korea included in that volume.

  The Korean War Children's Memorial in Bellingham consists of a Korean-style pavilion located in Big Rock Garden Park. The Korean War Children's Memorial in Korea is an 18-foot-tall sculpture by the Mexican sculptor Sebastian CQ called "Las Palomas." The Korean sculpture is located at the entrance to the Peace Park in Imjingak, Gyeonggi Province, where it is visible from North Korea.

  The article in the book tells the story of how I did the research to document that we who served in the armed forces in Korea saved the lives of over 10,000 children, helped sustain over 54,000 orphans in more than 400 orphanages, most of which

• WHATCOM VIEW: Veterans For Peace see costs of war continuing

  WHATCOM VIEW: Veterans For Peace see costs of war continuing

  One decade ago, as the United States was ramping up the rhetoric against Saddam Hussein and his mythic weapons of mass destruction, nobody could have imagined our present situation.

  Not only did we find no weapons of mass destruction, but the "quick and decisive" action that Bush administration officials promised turned out to be much bloodier, longer and darker: a military action on a scale that can only be compared to the U.S. occupation of Vietnam half a century ago.

  Now that we are being told that the conflict is over (for the second unforgettable time) we might take a page from that older war that defined an entire generation. The words of singer Steve Goodman can be equally applied to either Iraq or Vietnam: "Now they say the war is over, but I think it's just begun."

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