Veterans share stories of service at Town Hall in Milford with Auchincloss
There's a story of humility that Congressman Jake Auchincloss carries with him like tactical backup from his service in the U.S. Marine Corps back in 2011.
At that time, he was 23 years old and an infantry officer in Afghanistan.
“Boy, I was confident,” he said. “I knew the tactics, I thought I had it figured out.”
Before one mission, his battalion commander made the decision to switch out their light-armored vehicles for mine resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles, which are designed to resist improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
That resistance to IEDs came at a cost though, he said. They were less mobile and had less firepower than the light-armored vehicles they were driving, he said, and Auchincloss thought it would hinder their offensive capabilities.
They could be making a big mistake, he said.
At one point, there was a gun fight at the Helmand River, Afghanistan's longest, so Auchincloss directed the platoon toward a village through a narrow dirt road.
He remembered thinking, “This does not feel right. This is exactly what they want us to do,” he said.
At that moment, an IED struck their lead vehicle.
There was 45 seconds of radio silence before his platoon sergeant, who was in the lead vehicle, reported, “No casualties.”
Second to the birth of his two children, Auchincloss said the feeling he experienced at that moment was one of the best in his life. He still thinks about it often.
“I try to embed that humility into how I approach questions big and small, because you don’t have it all figured out,” he said. “Sometimes, the worst-case scenario can be avoided by those wiser than you.”
On Saturday, Auchincloss told this story to dozens of veterans — including some that are also public officials — at a special Veterans Day Town Hall event held at the Italian American World War Veterans of the U.S. Post 40.
Local veterans, from those who are retired 30 years ago to those who finished up less than 30 months ago, also share stories of their service,
Auchincloss, who flew in to Milford that morning from Washington, D.C., told the Daily News that state Rep. Brian Murray, D-Milford, reached out to him about holding the Town Hall.
“We had been thinking the same thing,” he said of his team bringing local veterans together with those in public positions to talk about issues affecting them.
Auchincloss said one important bill being looked at in Congress is one assuring veterans who have been exposed to carcinogens or other toxins in service are covered by the Veterans Health Administration when they return, he said.
That bipartisan bill — called the Presumptive Benefits for War Fighters Exposed to Burn Pits and Other Toxins Act — would provide presumptive benefits to about 3.5 million veterans who have been exposed to burn pits.
In August, the VA announced it would start processing disability claims for asthma, rhinitis and sinusitis due to exposure from burn pits on a presumptive basis.
Besides Auchincloss and Murray, other public officials who attended Saturday's Town Hall included state Rep. Jeffrey Roy, D-Franklin, and veterans Mike Borg, North Attleboro’s town manager; and Seth Bai, director of Veterans Services in Newton.
The fastest growing population of veterans right now are women, said Bai, who served in the Marine Corps for 10 years. For the next decade, the number of female veterans is expected to grow at an average rate of about 18,000 women per year, he said.
There are more than 300,000 veterans living in Massachusetts, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Since 2009, the state has presented the Medal of Liberty to hundreds of families of fallen service members. In Milford, more than 60 of those medals have been given out to families of former Milford residents who died, according to Jo-Ann DeMaria Morgan of the Milford Medal of Liberty Committee.
The committee has located at least one family member of every fallen soldier from Milford so far, she said.
For veterans who need help, they should seek it, said Shane Mark, director of Streets and Sidewalks in Newton. As a veteran, it was the push from another veteran that he finally sought that help himself.
Mark was in the Army Reserves for 20 years after joining in 1991 when he was a college freshman. He wanted to join the military, but wanted to get his degree first, he said. His grandfather served in the Korean War, but Mark never got to know him because he killed himself when Mark was just 8 years old.
After 9/11, Mark was deployed oversees as a 29-year-old. He was a squad leader for a transportation unit where they hauled fuel from all points of Iraq.
In the time they were there, his unit was attacked more than three dozen times, he said.
It wasn't until he was playing football with fellow soldiers that he injured himself, he said, breaking his ankle.
His unit was there for six months after he left to treat his injury, he said. The guilt he felt while attending the demobilization ceremony in Fort Knox, Kentucky, with his platoon after it returned was overwhelming.
“The amount of guilt that I had still remains to this day, because I missed six months of the action that every one of those soldiers went through,” he said. “Quite frankly, I felt like I was ostracized from the unit, and that’s something I’ve dealt with for over 18 years.”
Returning to “normal” life after combat was difficult in itself, he said, and he struggled with alcoholism because of it.
"I knew I had PTSD, but my pride stood in the way to go get help,” he said. “(I thought) I don’t have to get help. I’m OK, I can deal with it. Suck it up and drive on, solider.”
But after getting help and being diagnosed with PTSD, Mark called several fellow soldiers and told them of the guilt he had been carrying.
None of them said they had resented him, and said Mark served just as they did.
"It was amazing to hear those words because all that guilt just went away," he said. "That's the one thing about being a veteran that makes it all the worth while for me... no matter where you go in this world, when you meet a fellow veteran, you have an automatic connection that you'll never have with someone who hasn't served."
Source:
Lauren Young