Mission Accomplishment: Exploring Veterans’ Challenges and Achievements

Overview | What veterans return home from war, what challenges and opportunities await them? How are some veterans finding meaning in their post-service lives? In this lesson, students examine some of the struggles that veterans face when they return home and then create displays that honor veterans and details the ways that veterans are making a difference in their communities.

Materials | Computers with Internet access, projector

Warm-Up | Play for the class one or two of the following multimedia features, each of which covers the struggles veterans face when they come home from war: “Returning Home From War,” “Solidiers in Crisis” or “Wife, Mother, and Now, Caregiver.”

As students watch, they should jot down two lists: struggles that veterans face returning home, and write thoughts, feelings and questions that arise for them as they hear the veterans’ stories.

Afterward, hold a discussion guided by the following questions: What struggles did these veterans face? What struck you most as you watched these veterans’ stories? What seemed hardest for them about returning home? What support did these veterans have? What support did they need? What, if anything, surprised you as you listened to these stories? What did these stories make you think about? How did they make you feel? What questions arose for you as you watched and listened?

Related | The article “For Injured Veterans, Healing in Service to Others,” examines how veterans are using community service as way to use the skills and training that they gained in the military to heal their wounds from war while giving to others:

While working with refugees and landmine survivors in Rwanda, Bosnia and Cambodia in the 1990s, a Rhodes scholar named Eric Greitens had an epiphany about teenagers in traumatic circumstances: the ones who fared best were the ones who helped others.

Later, after he had served in the Navy Seals in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr. Greitens had conversations with wounded troops, and a similar refrain emerged. If they could not return to active duty, they wanted to find a way to serve their communities.

“They didn’t use the word ‘serve,’ ” he said. “They talked about becoming teachers, police officers, coaches. But serving is what they meant.”

Read the entire article with your class, using the questions below.

Questions | For discussion and reading comprehension:

1. Do you think there is a natural progression from the military to community service? If so, why? If not, why not?
2. Do you think that serving others can help someone to heal their own wounds? If so, why?
3. One veteran profiled in the article serves her community by telling her story of living with PTSD and a drug and alcohol addiction. Do you think that story-telling can be community service? How? Has anyone ever helped you by telling you their story?
4. The article quotes psychologists as saying that community service is good for your mental health? Does this surprise you? Why or why not?
5. Can you think of examples from your own life when, by helping others, you feel that you also helped yourself?

Activity | Inform students that they will work in small groups to design a display profiling veterans and the activities that they have undertaken since returning home from war. They might display their work in the school or locally, perhaps at a public library, V.F.W. or veterans’ hospital.

Depending on your curriculum and course goals, you may wish to give a particular angle to the project. For example, you might have different groups find out how veterans have engaged in society after various historical wars, or compare and contrast one war era, like World War II or Vietnam, with today. Or they might find out more about local initiatives that involve veterans.

Contemporary activities to cover in the displays might include community service, nature preservation and organic farming as well as various athletic events, like extreme sports, marathons and competitive events.

Make each group responsible for a segment of the display, each of which should include an approach to healing after returning home from war, including a description of the activity, a discussion of why veterans find it helpful, a photograph of veterans engaging in the activity and contact information for sponsoring organizations. If possible, they should also include a profile of a veteran who has taken this approach to healing after war, including how he or she got involved in the activity, how it has helped him or her heal and gain a sense of accomplishment.

When the displays are complete, have each group share what they created. Then discuss: Is there anything that these veterans’ inspirational activities have in common? If so, what is it? Why might veterans be particularly well suited to the activities you profiled? How can society do a better job of helping veterans transition from being mission driven in the context of war to being mission driven in a new context? How might the world be different if every veteran were able to find a way to capitalize on the skills and training they gained in the military? Why is it sometimes hard to make that transition?

If they used a historical focus, ask: How are the struggles faced by today’s veterans similar to the struggles faced by veterans in the past? How are they different? How have veterans’ roles in society changed over time? What evidence is there of that change? Our lesson “Words of War: Comparing Veterans’ Experiences With War Poetry” can help guide this historical analysis.

Going Further | Students interview veterans in their community about what it was like to come home from war and what plans they have for the future. You might want to contact someone at your local Veterans’ Affairs facility to find interview subjects. Prior to conducting these interviews, students should write an interview protocol and practice interviewing skills and etiquette. Include photographs of the interviewed local veterans as well as the transcripts of their interviews on the display that you created. If you have the technology, they might create an audio slide show of they interviews.

Standards | This lesson is correlated to McREL’s national standards (it can also be aligned to the new Common Core State Standards):

Language Arts

1. Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process
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5. Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process.

7. Uses the general skills and strategies to understand a variety of informational texts
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8. Uses listening and speaking strategies for different purposes.

Life Skills: Working With Others

1. Contributes to the overall effort of a group
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4. Displays effective interpersonal communication skills.

Historical Understanding
2. Understands the historical perspective.

World History
44. Understands the search for community, stability, and peace in an interdependent world.