Each year, when I taught at MVRHS, Tom Bennett would bring a group of Vietnam veterans he was counseling into our U.S. history classrooms. We wanted our students as well as us teachers, to see and hear up close and personal the impacts of war on those who serve. We heard directly from Island veterans about their experiences that were as real as if they happened yesterday.

As a teacher, I would listen to their stories again and again through a full day of classes. By the end of the day, I was overwhelmed with emotion for these men, who had served in Vietnam and were around the same age as the students sitting in front of them. They were and are truly patriots, and I was humbled by how they allowed us to hear their stories.

After completing their service, soldiers have to live with what they saw, what they did and what they feel right down to their bones. Many seek help to do this, and especially need the guiding hand of counselors such as Tom Bennett who listen and hear them and redirect them again and again just to survive and face another day. We civilians have no idea of what these kids went through, and the least we can do is to offer them professional counseling as given through the readjustment counseling program that has done us that for over 40 years.

A virtual program or counseling by general department staff can’t even begin to serve this population. Why should those who served us, not be served by us, no matter the cost?

I apologize to our Island veterans for our government ending such an important program. I appreciate each one of you veterans who bravely told your story to the students. Thank you for your service, and perhaps if enough of us say no to the ending of this program, it will be reinstated fully. But first we have to speak out loudly to serve you as you have served us.

Marge Harris

Oak Bluffs