For Many Touched by Conflict, a Harsh Homecoming

[ad_1] For schoolchildren, Homer's Odyssey is a vivid story of storms, shipwrecks and sea monsters, however for individuals who have truly seen conflict it stays the traditional story of a homecoming gone fallacious. For 10 lengthy years Odysseus and his crew struggled to get again to the Greek island of Ithaca. It was the "longed for day of return" that saved them rowing within the face of Sirens and Cyclopes. But Odysseus's homecoming is not any joyful occasion. On the island the place he had as soon as been king, nobody acknowledges him. Folks and locations have modified. Family and friends have drifted away.

Homer's hero just isn't alone in his expertise.

Whether or not they have served within the army, intelligence group or diplomatic service, a lot of our personal veterans of overseas wars have confronted comparable disappointment.

Eric Teo Lopez, 16, of the Fitchburg ROTC program works to interchange broken flags as he stands in a discipline of some 37,000 of them as a part of a Memorial Day Flag Backyard by the... Eric Teo Lopez, 16, of the Fitchburg ROTC program works to interchange broken flags as he stands in a discipline of some 37,000 of them as a part of a Memorial Day Flag Backyard by the Troopers and Sailors Monument in Boston Frequent on Could 25, 2024. Extra JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP through Getty Photographs In a reunion fraught with stress and doubt, even his personal spouse fails to acknowledge the wily Odysseus. Penelope addresses him as "stranger" and asks, "Who're your mother and father?" Solely when he describes how he had constructed their marriage mattress does she understand that her husband has returned. This strained strategy of rebuilding belief and intimacy with one's partner after years of separation is usually as painstaking for immediately's veterans because it was 3,000 years in the past.

Odysseus's son Telemachus has grown up and not using a father. In search of to flee the ache of his father's absence in addition to his mom's nervousness over her husband's unsure destiny, the younger man turns to medication at Helen's fingers. What number of of our fashionable veterans or their youngsters have carried out the identical? Whereas Telemachus didn't develop into addicted, many looking for solace from the ache and anger of separation haven't been so lucky.

Above all, Odysseus caries the burden of reminiscence. He remembers all too effectively the blood and chaos of conflict, the deaths of each comrades and enemies. Watching the boys who trusted him to steer them residence devoured by monsters or crushed by clashing rocks was not a fairytale, however a nightmare. When a court docket poet recounts the glories of battle, the outdated warrior breaks down in tears of remembrance. In Odysseus we see a mirrored image of each veteran who returns residence with post-traumatic stress dysfunction.

Returning to civilian life is inevitably tough after years of fixed worry, sanctioned violence, and anger on the callousness of destiny. Some by no means regulate. As Odysseus tells Penelope, for some conflict turns into residence. His personal effort to expunge years of pent-up rage leads to the bloodbath of the suitors who've been pursuing his spouse. Trendy veterans haven't any such outlet and are left solely with their doubts, anger, and stressed nights.

Homer's Odyssey portrays the human value of conflict. It reminds us of our obligation to look after and honor those that positioned their lives in hurt's means on our behalf. Every veteran is our personal Odysseus. On this Memorial Day, it's becoming to recollect those that didn't return however save a thought for individuals who survived and but by no means discovered the longed-for homecoming.

David H. Rundell is a former chief of mission on the American Embassy in Saudi Arabia and the writer of Imaginative and prescient or Mirage, Saudi Arabia on the Crossroads. Ambassador Michael Gfoeller is a former political advisor to the U.S. Central Command and a member of the Council on Overseas Relations.