By Renata Herman
Croatia
Albuquerque Academy '05
In the fall of 2008 I have had an opportunity, moreover, a huge honor to be a personal interpreter for Sgt John Blehm, a Vietnam War Veteran who came to Croatia upon the invitation of Croatian Association of War Veterans Diagnosed and Treated with PTSD, in order to speak about a huge problem of this psychosomatic disorder.
John Blehm served eight and a half years in the military, and spent 19 months in Vietnam. During that time he received 3 Purple Hearts and 2 Bronze Stars along with a lot of other decorations. Once he came back from the war, he was faced with a war after the war as he calls it, he had to fight with the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). He wrote about his experiences in Vietnam and even more about his life after that in his book „Angel of Death“.
During his stay in Croatia along with his wife Karen Sgt. Blehm spoke at the meetings organized in dozens of Croatian cities from the side of the Croatian Association of War Veterans Diagnosed and Treated with PTSD. . Every veteran who attended the meeting received Sgt Blehm’s book which were then signed after a brief discussion where John listened to their questions and answered them (as long as there were no politics involved). As much as the people were glad for having someone talking and highlighting what has long been their painful reality, Blehm was amazed with a responsive chord his book stroke. So not only did he discuss the way he managed to overcome his PTSD at the town meetings, he has also been a guest at the Croatian Radio and Television, and even went to meet with the Vice-president of the Croatian Government, Jadranka Kosor-
The veterans of the Croatian Homeland war who attended the meetings where Sgt Blehm were deeply interested in what he had to say as it all effected them directly. Their warm welcome and the family atmosphere among the veterans in Croatia astonished Sgt Blehm and he has expressed how he has always admired the way Croatian soldiers stood their ground in the Homeland war and went to defend their homes with practically only their jeans on and whatever weapons they could find. Drawing some parallels between the experiences of the US and Croatian soldiers, he came to an important point which is that war affects everyone no matter which side you are on. Some things are universal and people are after all just people, in Vietnam as well as in Croatia, in the US as well as any other part of the world.
I was personally amazed by the power of this man's will in transferring his own experiences and painful memories so as to help the others and spare them the torments he had to go through until he found himself an effective cure against this disease of the soul. His will to change and effect things around himself is a source of great motivation for me in striving even more to in the future to overcoming the barriers which appear to often in our world today.
The readiness to go to such great lengths in order to help the ones who need it is not something impossible and with his encouraging words he has shown that there is always hope, that life has so much to offer even when it seems that everything is downhill from the point onward if one will only refuse to give, if one will simply decide to “Improvise, adapt, overcome”.
