Rogers event honors veteran experience, offers resources

ROGERS -- The experiences of U.S. veterans seemed to receive little appreciation when best-selling author Karl Marlantes returned from the Vietnam War.

That's one reason he honors fellow veterans by speaking at events around the country. But something extra brings Marlantes to the 2016 Northwest Arkansas Veterans Appreciation Day event: Lonnie Young of the Northwest Arkansas Veterans Coalition was a fellow Marine in his company.

On honoring veterans

“Veterans need to be treated like individuals. The categorization of veterans is alienating. You don’t have to just say ‘Thank you for your service,’ then walk away. If you’re going to talk to a veteran, tell them you’re glad they’re home, but treat them as individuals. Don’t be afraid to ask a simple question to get conversation going. What veterans need is for people to try (to talk) and get over that fear.”

Source: Karl Marlantes, best-selling author of Matterhorn and What it is Like to Go to War

"If Lonnie called me from Timbuktu, I would come," Marlantes said. "And supporting veterans is a cause I'm behind."

The event will be from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Frisco Park Pavilion. It's free for veterans and their families and will include an information fair with more than 22 veterans resources and organizations, live music by Downtown Livewires and a charity car show with roughly 90 vehicles entered.

"This is a community based event focused on veterans to pay tribute, show respect," said Renona Crowden, former president of the Northwest Arkansas coalition. "First, we want to recognize them, then get them hooked up with benefits and connect them with resources for employment, health, housing, insurance, everything they need."

Crowden left her position earlier this month.

Representatives from U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Rogers, and Arkansas Secretary of State Mark Martin's offices, as well as the American Legion, the Marine Corps League, Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Military Order of the Purple Heart will be in attendance.

"It's a way for veterans to get help when they need it, especially when they're down and out," said Jay Adams, a veteran and volunteer for the coalition and the Marine Corps League. "If they can't get food in the house for themselves or their families, there's lots of services we can get for them."

This is the second year for the veterans' appreciation event. Last year's festivities took place with the information fair drawing 225 people to the John Q. Hammons Center. A separate picnic event drew 100 people.

Crowden expects the combination of the accessible, downtown Rogers location and having Marlantes attend will be a big draw. The coalition is expecting more than 500 people.

Marlantes will speak informally with the audience and sign his books Matterhorn and What it is Like to Go to War.

Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War is a 2009 book that made the New York Times bestseller list and Time's Best Books of the Year in 2010. It became an ALA Notable Book in 2010 and earned the William E. Colby Award, Indies Choice Book Award and the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award all in 2011.

Marlantes was just writing things he "had to get off his chest" when he first penned it in 1976.

"A friend of mine told me that ghosts haunt you unless you turn them into ancestors," he said. "He meant that if you have stuff from trauma floating around unrecognized that you don't want to deal with, they (continue to) haunt you. But if you get it out in front of you so you can look at it, it becomes a part of who you are."

The first draft of Matterhorn was sent to publishers in 1977, but it wouldn't get published for another three decades.

Publishers "didn't want to read it," Marlantes said. "Nobody cared about that" side, the veterans' experience. The Vietnam War was still too controversial, he said. In the mid-1980s, publishers told him Hollywood had covered it through films like Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now. In the 1990s, they wanted it set in Desert Storm.

Since its publication seven years ago, Marlantes has had an outpouring of response from readers, some who say they buy stacks of the book to give to friends and family so they know better what he experienced while at war.

Books and events around the veteran experience helps everyone get honest and not feel embarrassed, Marlantes said.

"You're scared to be judged by people you love because they don't understand what goes on. It helps to know you're not alone and your experience is common," he said.

NW News on 08/19/2016

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