Shaped By War Shaped By War
Veterans Day reminds us that war changes the lives of people in our community. In every generation, individuals are touched by war, but war also has a cumulative effect on who we are as a people.
Photographer Torsten Kjellstrand spent three months exploring how war changes lives. Vietnam veteran Guy Lounsbury set the tone for the project by telling him: “War experiences are like ripples on a pond. They encompass more and more people as time goes on.”
“Shaped by War” begins today and will be completed in a special section in the newspaper Sunday. A project like this cannot be comprehensive; war is as complex as the people involved in it. Instead, we want you to meet a few men and women in our community whose lives have been touched, and changed, by war.
We purposely kept brief the words describing the people and their experiences. And we invite you to hear the stories you’ll find in the newspaper today and on Sunday by visiting The Spokesman-Review’s Web site. To listen to the voices, and to see additional photographs, go to www.spokane.net/shapedbywar
“When I come back home, the Marine car was setting across the street. And my heart did a flip-flop and I thought, ‘Oh boy, it probably isn’t good news.’ Then for 10 days they would come out to the house and a telegram would follow. The first message was he had been wounded and taken to Da Nang Hospital. I said, ‘Whatever you have to do, I’m going.’ ‘Well, I don’t know about that, Mrs. Everett,’ he said. ‘But we’ll work on it.’ ‘He knew all along that there would be no way.” June Everett, lost son in Vietnam.
LOSS
June Everett (right and above), 67, member of Gold Star Mothers and mother of Stanley, her oldest child. Stan, a North Central High School graduate, enlisted in the Marines and was sent to Vietnam in 1968. He was 18 years old.
June and her husband, Jack, tried to talk him out of enlisting. “There was no stopping him.”
June 4, 1969: Stan is wounded and languishes in a Da Nang hospital. He is a member of K Company, 3rd battalion, 1st Regiment, 1st Marine Division.
June 14, 1969: Stan dies on Flag Day, the 71st Vietnam death from Spokane.
Gold Star Mothers contacts June right away. It’s a support group and volunteer organization for mothers who have lost sons and daughters in war.
“We have this common bond no one else has, this losing a son at war. Our main goal is to serve the veterans who came back.”
How war changed her life: She never saw her son grow into manhood, marry, have children. But her work with Gold Star Mothers has kept her involved and helping others.