Helping veterans find hope behind the wood and strings of an acoustic guitar.
Most of us have a minor life story about our early exposure to music. I can remember summer Saturday nights at a friend’s house, where his dad and three or four of his friends would sit in the garage with guitars and banjos, making music. I don’t suppose I was much interested in what they were playing, but it was around that time that FM radio and popular music were beginning to beckon my attention.
A few years later in Marine Corps Boot Camp, our platoon was well into the second of the three “phases” of training and were still struggling to drill properly. Marching together as one, in cadence is a music all its own. After many hours “on the grinder”, we finally struck our boot heels to make one sound. With each step afterward, we dialed that in, sounding like the single, thunderous footstep of one Marine. It became the rhythm that saw us through to graduation and the welcome daily music, which soothed the rigors of our training.
Musically gifted persons are rare, but being gifted isn’t required to play music. It’s a process of learning. A kind of language, to which you can add the voicing of something inside of you as an individual, which you can’t express in words. Someone who understood that, decided that veterans with PTSD could use it as therapy and an organization called Guitars for Veterans was born.
Veterans shouldn’t have to face the challenges of PTSD in silence or alone. Through the teamwork and camaraderie of Guitars for Vets, they can join a community where they learn to play the guitar and find solace in the songs they love as well as the songs they have yet to write.
Warriors Once Again became aware of the local chapter of Guitars for Veterans and reached out to their director, after each one of our current resident veterans enthusiastically requested that we have that opportunity here at our residence. Now, every Wednesday evening, under the guidance of our patient instructor, we fill this house with music. Most days in between, I hear the twang of practice too, as our vets have taken the opportunity seriously.
We’re still a little discombobulated and still a little inexperienced in the scales and chord transitions on our fretboards, but like my platoon in boot camp, we are working to achieve something together. Regardless of the difficulties we face and spend ourselves on between Wednesdays, once the notes reverberate out from our guitars each week, the atmosphere changes and joy begins to energize our fingertips. We then get happy, playing the blues.
Please consider making a Donation to support our veterans’ needs.