FREE: National Arts Workshop for Veterans, July 5-7

The Military Experience and the Arts Symposium will be held July 5-7, 2012, on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, Kent. At the event, more than 100 veterans from across the country will share ideas, experiences, and new ways to tell old stories.

Participants in the free event will receive three days of lodging, meals, textbooks, and workshop instruction. Participants need only pay for transportation to and from the symposium.

Eastern Kentucky University is home to The Journal of Military Experience, a literary and scholarly publication, as well as the Veterans Studies Program—a first-of-its-kind multi-disciplinary program dedicated to educating non-veterans about veterans issues. The university's "Operation Veterans Success" soldier-to-student program was recognized by the Student Veterans of America as the 2011 Program of the Year.

The second issue of The Journal of Military Experience will be released during the symposium.

Through workshops, lectures, and demonstrations, practitioners and artists will help veterans to communicate experience through writing, drawing, painting, acting, dancing, and other creative acts.

Charlie Sherpa, the writer of the Red Bull Rising blog, will facilitate one of the workshops, focusing on how veterans can document and share experiences through online tools such as blogs and social media. Here's the workshop description:

Military-themed blogs, also known as “mil-blogs,” are unmediated presentations of experiences and opinions. Often, they are first-person narratives of military service-members, veterans, or family members. A mil-blog can be way to explore emotions and memories, document personal history, and/or establish connections with others who share similar interests. 

A mil-blog can additionally serve as a platform through which to collect, collate, and even market one’s fiction, poetry, photography, and other artistic efforts. After learning mil-blogging terms, tools, and tactics—including how to optimize output by publishing across social media channels—participants will brainstorm how to generate a blog based on their respective backgrounds and interests.

For more information on the symposium, click here.



To register for the free event, click here.

Remember the Names; Tell Their Stories

This new Red Bull Rising post originally appeared as a guest opinion in the Iowa City (Iowa) Press-Citizen May 28, 2012:

I joined the Iowa Army National Guard because I wanted to serve God, country and community. What I didn’t realize was that, in addition to paying for my education and giving me a part-time (and sometimes full-time) job, I’d receive a lifetime of “war stories” in return.

In 1993, I slung sandbags in Cedar Rapids. My wedding in 1997 was nearly postponed by a deployment to Bosnia. [The wedding happened, the deployment did not.] In 2000, I monitored levees on the Mississippi River, protecting some of my old high school haunts. In 2003, I ran a movie theater, and radio and TV stations on a beach in Egypt. During the blizzards of 2007, I worked the night shift in the state operations center. In 2009, I helped prepare 1,000 troops for a short-notice mission to support a U.S. presidential inauguration.

When I first raised my right hand to enlist, I couldn’t have predicted any of that. Lots of stories.

In 2010, I prepared to deploy with 3,000 Iowans of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry “Red Bull” Division (2-34th BCT). It was the largest deployment of Iowa National Guard troops since World War II. Paperwork got in the way of my deployment, but I went later as a civilian reporter. That, too, makes for a good story: "Middle-aged Midwestern Boy meets Afghan deployment, boy loses deployment, boy goes to Afghanistan anyway."

Some war stories I tell to entertain others. Some of them I don’t. Sometimes, I change the names, especially on the goofy ones. Sometimes, however, the names are the essential part of the story: 

• Sgt. Brent M. Maher, 31, of Honey Creek. Killed April 11, 2011, in Paktia Province, when an Improvised Explosive Device detonated under the armored vehicle in which he was positioned as gunner. 

• Spc. Donald L. Nichols, 21, of Shell Rock. Killed April 13, 2011, in Laghman Province, when an IED detonated under the vehicle in which he was traveling.

• Staff Sgt. James A. Justice, 32, of Grimes. Killed April 23, 2011, by small-arms fire in Kapisa Province, during an helicopter-borne mission to secure the position of a downed U.S. attack helicopter. 

• Sgt. First Class Terryl L. Pasker, 39, of Cedar Rapids. Killed by small-arms fire July 10, 2011, when a rogue Afghan security officer attacked at a makeshift traffic stop in Panjshir Province. 

Maher was a husband, a father of three and worked an Omaha auto dealership.

Nichols was engaged to be married; his brother, a U.S. Army Reserve soldier then also deployed to Afghanistan, escorted the body home.

Justice—his nickname was “Juice”—was a hardworking NCO who fought to go on the deployment even after the Red Bull had left Iowa in August 2010. He arrived in country in February 2011. He had a wife Amanda, and a daughter named Caydence.

Pasker? After a year in the “safest province in Afghanistan”—U.S. soldiers in Panjshir didn’t drive armored military trucks, out of respect to their local hosts — he was planning to retire, go back to building homes, and start a family with his wife, Erica. His unit was just days away from returning to Iowa when he was killed.

People don’t have to visit a cemetery to celebrate the lives and sacrifices of our citizen-soldiers, nor should they forget the friends and families who bear scars and burdens long after the trumpets play. They do, however, have to remember. And people can’t remember if we don’t talk about the fallen. We have to say the names. We have to tell their stories.

The 2012 feature film “Memorial Day”—available on DVD and Blu-ray May 29—tells the story of a Minnesota boy who confronts his grandfather with a dusty World War II footlocker, filled with souvenirs. Actor James Cromwell’s character tells 13-year-old Kyle: “I didn’t loot. And I didn’t steal. I collected things that would help me remember.”

Me? I collect stories.

Kyle grows up to wear the same 34th Division “Red Bull” patch currently worn by many Minnesota and Iowa National Guard soldiers. Like thousands of other Midwestern veterans and citizen-soldiers, I proudly wore that patch on my shoulder. So did Maher, Nichols, Justice and Pasker.

After I retired, I packed my own footlocker, after my wife asked me to rid the house of my surplus Army baggage. Into a single government-issue box, I put 20 years of uniforms and boots, along with patches, pins, and other paraphernalia.

One day, I’ll tell my kids about what’s inside. I will tell them about the Red Bull. I will tell them about giving back, and putting your life on hold to serve country and community. I’ll tell them about making each day count, and never taking anything for granted.

Especially coming home.

'What is Memorial Day Even For?'

Scene: Waiting for take-out pizza on a hot Sunday afternoon. The Sherpa kids are in the back seat.

Lena, age 7: "What is Memorial Day even for?"

Me: "It's for remembering anyone who has died who has also served our country in uniform—all the soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen."

Lena: "Like Nathan's dad?"

Me (surprised): "Yes ... Like Nathan's dad."