 The guns are quiet now, the papers of peace have been signed, and the oceans of the earth are filled with ships coming home. In faraway places men dreamed of this moment, but for some men the moment is very different from the dream. Here is human salvage, the final result of all that metal and fire can do to violate mortal flesh. Some wear the badges of their pain, the crutches, the bandages, the sprints. Others show no outward signs, yet they too are wounded. This hospital is one of the many for the care and treatment of the psychoneurotic soldier. These are the casualties of the spirit that troubled in mind men who are damaged emotionally. Born and bred in peace, educated to hate war, they were overnight plunged into sudden and terrible situations. Every man has his breaking point, and these in the fulfillment of their duties as soldiers were forced beyond the limit of human endurance. Officer and his staff, the Mason General Hospital, I want to extend a hearty welcome to all of you when you return to the United States. There is no need to be alarmed at the presence of these cameras as they are making a photographic record of your progress at this hospital from the date of admission to the date of discharge. Here are men who tremble, men who cannot sleep, men with pains that are nonetheless real because they are of mental origin, men who cannot remember, paralyzed men whose paralysis is dictated by the mind. However different the symptoms, these things they have in common, unceasing fear and apprehension, a sense of impending disaster, a feeling of hopelessness and utter isolation. The psychiatrists listen to the stories of the men who tell them as best they can. The names and places are different, the circumstances are different, but through all the stories runs one thread, death and the fear of death. And then after you got wounded what happened? Things only worse? No man, I can never keep getting worse though. Do they get worse? The other thing is they bugged. I got killed nearly every morning. You nearly got killed. Where were you at the time? St. Lawrence, I believe, somewhere. What were you doing when the planes came over? I was in a hole. I think I'm in the state now. They told me I was coming back. But they told me I was going to die. On the hospital I wouldn't eat hardly. Five, six. I wouldn't eat hardly. They told me I was going to die, but they didn't help me. They told me they didn't care what I'd die. They will see if you don't die. You won't die. The last buddy up there, little Norman, he was second scouting. I was first scouting. They would all mix up up there. They were shelling us. What did that make you nervous? I was first scouting. I was first scouting. I should have been out in front. He went out and I started to grout after him. He got shot. He just said, oh, that's how I'm hitting it for all of my feet. I started calling for the medic. I went back to see if we could get the medic. I wasn't any and I started to grout after him again. They wouldn't let me go. He was the last one of the original boys. He and I were the last two left out of the original. And when you were shelled, how did you feel? I don't know. After Norman got hurt, did it kill him? I was all right when we were moving up and attacked and everything like that. When we get pinned down, I start thinking about him laying back there. What happened to you when you'd think about him? How would you feel? I just didn't care what happened to me. You mean you didn't want to go back into combat again? Yes, I wanted to go back. I wanted to stay there. I wanted to keep on for him and all the other guys. John and the striker, the techs, the poppin. And how do you feel right now? I feel all right. How do you think you're going to go home? Well, fairly well, sir. You overseas? Yes, sir. Where? We were in France and then we went to Germany. Where? France to Germany. And what outfit were you in? I was with headquarters attachment, 50th quarter master battalion mobile. And see your PFC at present, sir? You went and had to go to the hospital. Sir? You had to go to the hospital? Twice, sir. It says here on your record from overseas that you had headaches and that you had chronic spells. Yes, sir. I believe that your profession is called nostalgia. In other words, music, sir? Yes, sir. It was induced when shortly before the war. I received a picture of my sweetheart. Yeah. I'm sorry, I can't continue. That's all right. Come on, sit down a minute. Now, a display of emotion is all right. I'm not doing this deliberately, sir. Please believe me. I do believe you. A display of emotion is sometimes very helpful. Yeah, I hope so, sir. Sure, it gets it off the chest. You wouldn't be here. You wouldn't have been returned. There was a patient. There wasn't something upsetting you. Yes, sir. You say you had received a letter from your... Not a letter, sir. A photograph. A photograph, yes. Well, what about that now? Well, sir, to be perfectly honest with you, I'm very much in love with my sweetheart. She has been the one person that gave me a sense of importance through that, through her cooperation with me. We were able to surmount so many obstacles. When I was in combat... Can you speak louder? Yes, I'm hearing you. During the time I got worried that my brother... He was killed. Oh, the Marine. I noticed in this history here that you saw a vision of your brother. What... Tell me something about that. What happened? I... I guess it was a dream. Well, describe the dream. What did you see in the dream? I... I don't know. I was home. My brother was home. And we know the brother was home. We all were home. All of you were home? Sitting around at the table. Everybody was happy. We would laugh and, you know, admire each other. And then it ended there. You can see these images clearly. Yeah, it was like in that dream, see? Yeah. What about this Mendenau thing? You're telling me about... Well, I... In Mendenau, after I got that move, I... I was... I admit I was scared. You were scared? I... I don't know. I... Sometimes I hope something... What happened then again? I say, well... Something did happen. How do you mean by something happened? You mean you were hoping that you'd be wounded and sent back as ever? No. What do you mean by that? I meant that I... I hoped that just... I've been always so disgusted and tired of everything. I just... Didn't feel like living. And then I changed my mind and I think about my folks and it'd be a double blow if something happened to me. I'd be standing God sitting on a machine by me and just watching. You know, I'd hear a little noise and I'd let go shooting. It wasn't nothing, probably. It was an animal or something. Any noise made you excited? You'd just shoot? At that time, yes. Are you worried about anything now? I don't know. Are you mixed up? What's that pin on your shirt? Well, why do you cover those up? Aren't you proud of them? Got a purple heart? And campaign ribbons? Yes. Well, why do you cover them up? And you know, there must be some reason for you doing that. You got in the scrape and I was in the house there and just got off the guard building. It was Friday the 13th. I was sweating out all day. Patrol came up in terms of patrolling me. They shot a pan of fuss through a wall. I was laying on a couch and right before it happened, I fell a little jerry stuck. Layed down on the floor. So, when I got up, I got in the couch was all torn. You know what you were almost killed? Was that it? Uh, no. It must have gone right over my head. Do you feel conscious? Are you aware of the fact that you're not the same boy that you were when you went over? Do you feel changed? Chumpy. How about with people? Always. I've had fun. I used to always be gone places. I don't like to come back no more. How long were you overseas? How much? Were you in any combat at all? Just a six months. I tried every way to keep my mind up before really going to the gymnasium, getting going out with the fellas and trying to become a nation, trying to get out of myself. But it saved me. I got worse and worse. After a while I developed a fear of sorrow. Well, fear is a different sense. Did you ever have similar pains before you got married? Never in my life. Have you ever been nervous before in your life? No, sir. Never. I was a solid man. There's some noises about here particularly. I could just shake a little bit. Well, I guess I just got tired of living. I had trouble sleeping here. I had a dreaming of combat, you know? I just took off because I I've seen too much of my buddies gone and I figured the next one was for me, a man can just stand so much at the nursing. Admission note. Transfer diagnosis. Anxiety, reaction. Severe. Active symptoms. In remission. On this their first night back in the States, each man who was able may make a long distance call without cost. After months and years of silence, familiar voices are heard once again. Then each man makes for himself a small home which will be his for the eight or ten weeks to come. Now in the darkness of the ward, emerge the shapes born of darkness, the terror of things half remembered, dreams of battle, the torment of uncertainty and fear and loneliness. The medical officer in charge checks the condition of every man. Psychiatry makes no sharp division between the mind and the body. Physical ills often have psychic causes. Just as emotional ills may have a physical basis. Possibilities of organic disturbance in the brain are investigated by means of the electroencephalocrat, the Rorschach test. The things that the patient's imagination sees in these cards give significant clues to his personality makeup. This looks sort of like a drawing of two women standing on a rock and waving their hands. This man suffering from a conversion hysteria requires immediate treatment. Organically sound, his paralysis is as real as if it were caused by spinal lesion, but it is purely psychological. Well, just sit him up. Suddenly or gradually? Suddenly, sir. I start in the afternoon with crying spells and it's all something funny in my shoulders here. Backbite me. Just got out of crying. I was controlling my legs and my arms. Was there any reason for crying spells? I don't know, sir. Anything happen at home to bother you? Well, my mother's been ill. She has been ill? Is that where you are? Quite a bit. Well, now, has this got anything to do with your mother's illness? Any reason why you should have that kind of reaction? No, sir. Not that I know of. Unless my mother's illness might have brought this on. I try to hold him about her hurts. You've just been holding these things in. That's right, sir. No way you can control this at all? No, sir. Well, now, we're going to have to help you do that, of course. Let's take off this jacket here. Shoes on so you can walk in them. I think we're going to get you walking. Let's come over here. That's the boy. I said it. That's the boy. This is all going to go away as I give you this. Madison, you don't bother at all. The method employed here is effective in certain types of acute cases. An intravenous injection of sodium amatol induces a state similar to hypnosis. Feel the letters. You're going to find them this way. You look that way. There's nothing for you to watch here, but you're going to talk to me as we go along. Yes, sir. That's all. Now, you're not going to feel much of anything else. You're going to feel a little bit losing. The use of this drug serves a two-fold purpose. Like hypnosis, it is a shortcut to the unconscious mind. As a surgeon probes for a bullet, the psychiatrist explores the submerged regions of the mind, attempting to locate and bring to the surface the emotional conflict which is the cause of the patient's distress. The second purpose of this drug is to remove through suggestion those symptoms which impede the patient's recovery. Now, tell me a little bit about what you're thinking of. Their thoughts are coming to your mind now. That's going to take you away. Let's go back. Let's go back to Friday. Yeah, I'll think about that. Look, that argues with me. Your mother argues with you? Yeah. What does she argue about? Well, every little thing. If you sit down in her own chair or something like that. It doesn't like the stuff you get in the store. Uh-huh. But she comes down. You want to see her? Have you always tried to please her? Yes. Always tried to please her. She used to clean her house when I was a small... Well, then why do you think she argues like that? She must be sick. Well, she doesn't try to control her temper. I see. How about your father? He's a swell guy. He's a swell fellow. He gets kind of hot tempered. Since my mother's been sick, it's been a lot of money. Uh-huh. And he's lost a lot of weight, a lot of worry. I see. My mother argues with her and she wants to know where the money is. But I don't care about that. I don't want anything tarnished out of her. Well, now, this jumping, what does that make you think of? Think about it, man. Well, I can't help it. It just jumps. Uh-huh. How about these legs? Do you know anybody who had any trouble with their legs like that? No, sir. What does it make you think of? Come on. Except several, several years ago... Uh-huh. There was one fellow. He had something wrong with his right leg. Uh-huh. Water underneath, but he's walking today. That hasn't bothered me at all. Was that anything like your leg? I don't know. He couldn't walk at all. You couldn't walk at all? No. What do you think of when you can't walk like that? I wish I could walk. Uh-huh. What do you think of? What comes to your mind when you find that you can't walk? It's maybe I think I'm one of the fathers. You'd be okay sometimes. I wonder. Hope the war ends soon. Things like that. I see. Nothing in particular? Uh-huh. Now the shakes are going, now, haven't they? Yeah. How about your legs? They're good and strong. I feel all right. Move them. Let's raise them. Oh, I don't see them raising before, but I can't walk. How about them now? They feel all right. They feel good now as if you can walk here, don't they? Toes feel numb. Toes feel numb, but that's going away, isn't it? Yeah. See? Raising them fine, isn't it? Yeah. Now you're going to be able to walk, aren't you? I don't know. Well, you're going to, aren't you? Yes, sir. All right. I don't walk. I don't walk. You don't walk. I didn't. You've always been very fine at walking. Yes. Now you've found yourself unable to walk. Now you're going to get right up and walk. Right now. All right. Now let's sit up. There you are. That's fine. All right. Now stand up and look at that. That's all for yourself. That's the boy. Walk over to the nurse. You're just a little woozy. That's the medicine. Now come back to me. Come back to me. Open your eyes. That's the boy. Is that fine? Is that wonderful? Sure. All right. Now again, what's more? Oh, it's going to stay that way. It's going to stay because that's the kind of care you worry now. All right. Now come on back to me and I'm going to let you go to sleep. When you wake up, you'll keep on walking perfectly well. How about it? Thanks, sir. Righto. All right. Now let's get up in here and go to sleep. Now I'm going to have you go right to sleep. When you wake up, you'll be all right. All right. Sleep. The fact that he can walk now does not mean that his neurosis has been cured. That will require time. But the way has been opened for the therapy to follow. Now a new way of living begins, very different from the old one whose purpose was killing and trying not to be killed. Now in an environment of peace and safety, all the violence behind them, they are building rather than destroying. Men have their choice of occupational therapy. Some find relaxation in mechanical jobs. Certain types of cases obtain relief and precision work, which answers their inner need for order and certainty. For sons and daughters and nieces and nephews and neighbor's kids, hobby horses are turned out by the car load. Physical reconditioning is not the only purpose in sports, which also serves to bring men out of their emotional isolation and back into group activity. One of the most important procedures is group psychotherapy. Here under the psychiatrist's guidance, the patient learns to understand something of the basic causes of his distress. As one of a group, he also learns to understand that his inner conflicts are, with variations, common to all men. And I think of it a little bit like this. We want to get you out of your own feeling of isolation, to get you to feel that you are like other people. In order to get to that, we have to use knowledge as one thing and something else which has to be added. That is an experience of safety. You could say it is almost the core of all our treatment methods. Development of knowledge of oneself with the accompanying safety that brings. I'd like to see if we can get some illustrations of how one's personal safety would stem from childhood safety. And how the childhood safety self would stem from the parent's safety. In my illustration as a child, whenever I underwent any experiences that were frightening to me, I never told my parents I kept it to myself. While I was alone at night in my room, I called on Guy. But if I had done anything wrong, I was ashamed of it. I was ashamed to go to my parents and tell them what I had done. So I kept it to myself. And I know I used to be in constant fear that my parents would find out my feelings. Well, I wonder if there's any of your mother's troubles that you would know about. No one, my mother never gave any of the children any part of her troubles. That would be the same thing that happened to you. She didn't tell her troubles and you didn't tell yours. You took your troubles to God and she probably did the same thing. Probably didn't even confide in your father. In other words, the kind of method that you used to get relief from anxiety was really, we'd have to assume, learned and felt right in your home the same kind of thing. I think it was all caused by economic conditions in the world. I mean, people trying to compete with one another, trying to get a better job, trying to keep up with uprising and things like that, of course. The arguments in the home, mother and father arguing about the price of the food and that has been fleshed out of children, things like that. So I think that was one of the causes of the worst. Not having enough food to eat for the arguments between the both. I mean, there was... Which was the worst though? Well, I can't use... Sure, they crossed the argument. I can't know about the food. There you are. You can't even remember about the food or the lack of food. I have in mind my own childhood. We're coming from a moderate family. Moderate in the sense that the family had some sense of security. What happened there was, we were told that we... I mean, myself, my brothers and sisters, we couldn't just play with any of the kids we wanted to play with, unless their parents in turn had the equivalent of what our parents had. And as a result, we were kept in a narrow circle. Very, very narrow. However, I found that there has been a strong yearning on my part to break out of this environment, to be able to play with taunt it and have it. I say the net results like this, your mother did not feel really so superior. She felt inferior when she tried to make or take the attitude you were better than the other children, so that now, in certain experiences in the Army, have brought that out more clearly because you've been thrown in with Tom and Dick and Harry, and need to get along with them. It's not necessary to be in the Army. It's not necessary to be in the war. These kind of troubles have always gone on in all time, through all the centuries. You were going to say that? I never spoke until I was seven. Is that right? I studied very bad at 14 and 15. I couldn't recite in school. They didn't even have to talk. Can you explain how you got started to talk? How you began to get over that? Doing the war, the first word I ever spoke. Sonic Laws had brought me a war gun. My brother broke it. This is the first war war, yes? Sonic Laws was the gun and your brother broke it. When I got my gun, I just said, war, Dick, somebody broke my gun. That was the first thing I said. You were angry because someone broke your gun? I would say all those symptoms, like being unable to speak, stuttering, so on, they have an underlying anger and resentment in the deeper parts of the personality. You could almost say it like this, but underneath, I can't. You usually find, I won't. What was studying, too, about three weeks? As soon as I came here a month ago, I started studying. You stopped studying completely since you came here? Yes. That's good. I don't know whether that's a tribute to the doctors or a tribute to your fundamental health. It's a little like what I'm about to solve. No tribute to the doctors at all. Very good. Patients require special therapy. Hypnosis is often effective in certain types of battle neuroses, such as amnesia. This man does not even remember his own name. A shell burst in Okinawa wiped out his memory. The experience was unendurable to his conscious mind, which rejected it, and along with it, his entire past. Through hypnotic suggestion, the psychiatrist will attempt to revoke them. Relax completely and put your mind on going to sleep. All right now, keep your eyes on mine. Keep your eyes on mine and keep them fixed on mine. Keep your mind entirely on falling asleep. You're going to go into a deep sleep as we go in. You're going to go into a deep sleep as we go in. Now, clasp your hands in front of you. Clasp them tight, tight, tight, tight. They're getting tighter and tighter and tighter, and as they get tighter, you're falling asleep. As they get tighter, you're falling asleep. Your eyes are getting heavy, heavy. hand's a lot tight, you're a lot tight. You can't let go. A lot tight you can't let go. When I snap my fingers you'll be able to let go. When I snap my finger you'll be able let go and then you'll get sleep here and your eyes are getting heavier. Now your eyes are getting heavier heavier heavier you're going into a deep deep sleep. Going to a deep deep sleep. Deeper sleep, far asleep eyes now close tight close tight going to a deep deep sleep deeply relaxed far asleep you're far asleep far asleep now you're in a deep sleep you have no fear no anxiety no fear no anxiety now you're in a deep deep sleep now just sit down in the chair behind you sit down in the chair behind you lean back head now falls forward into a deep deep sleep head now it's falling forward we're going further and further and further asleep I stroke your left arm to come rigid like a bar of steel and you go further asleep and further asleep falling further and further and further asleep rigid cannot be bent or relaxed and I touch the top of your head I touch the top of your head that all relaxed and the other will become rigid you'll go further asleep you'll be in a very deep sleep and your sleep is deeper and deeper now when I touch this hand my finger will be hot I touch this hand my finger will be hot you'll not be able to bear it your arm is rigid and now as I touch your hand you will no longer feel any pain there will be normal now the arms relaxed and you're further and further and further asleep now you're deep asleep we're going back we're going back now going back to Okinawa going back to Okinawa you can talk you can talk you can remember everything you can remember everything you're back on Okinawa tell me what you see tell me speak you're in the battery area come on tell me what's going on you're getting fired missions go on you see everything now clearly you're getting shells thrown out of you where Jack Jacks go on yes keep on remember it all now everything of it's coming back Jeff's getting there is the other position Jeff's getting there to get your position go on get who told you to get cover BC BC go on this fire when the boys got hurt one of the boys got hurt take him away yes go on you remember it now tell me it's all right now but you can tell me you can tell me yes you remember the explosion now all right go on they're carrying you who's carrying you where are they taking you cross the field go on yes yes go on yes can you hear them you see them all right where are they taking now why are you fearful now you don't want anymore you want to forget it but you're going to remember it because it's gone now it's gone you're back here now you're away from Okinawa you've forgotten it but you remember who you are now who are you that's right full name now know your mother's name that's right father so that's fine you know who they are now all right now you're coming back with us this is going to stay with you you're going to remember it all we're going to remember about Okinawa you're going to remember about the shelves and the bombs but they're gone at ease and relaxed no fear no anxiety when I wake you up you'll be comfortable relaxed no pains and no aches but you'll remember all that I told you all that you remember you can wait now under the guidance of the psychiatrist he is able to regard his experience in its true perspective as a thing of the past which no longer threatens his safety now he can remember what's your trouble how long you had that trouble if you help you talk a bit better you can tell me more about it then right let's lie down and see if we can't help you on that this man is not a chronic stutterer he suffers from a battle tension which the drug will attempt to diminish like the man who could not walk and the man who could not remember his illness has an emotional basis comfortable now and relaxed we're just going to give you some medicine here and it's going to help remember up that tone of yours and this is going to make you feel a bit groggy we know how do you feel now make any difference in your feeling how it's like seven heaven what is it tell me about it boy I can talk that's fine I can talk I can talk that's good boy listen I can talk that's the way you always do that's make it easy now just talk to you just a little lightly now tell me you got any idea why you couldn't talk before what's coming to your mind now tell me what's coming to your mind now what is it in your mind when you couldn't talk what is it that stopped it something came through there and stopped it what is it now think quickly think deeply let's go back when was it you lost your speech had your trouble talking go back quickly seems that I first noticed it on a boat on a phone over it first started with an S and a fellow's left at me I don't know why they left so I started well let's talk with that s let's go back to that s now what were you thinking that what was in your mind that right now no then I'm a boat yes with that s when you couldn't say that s right yes yes what side what side what side what side of the ship what side that would be the left side left side that's right yeah remember of course we were up there that afternoon and we saw the fishes and had some flying fishes I came down he said I was telling the fellow underneath me about the ports that I had seen some flying fishes on the port side he tried telling me about the flying fishes and he stumbled over the s sound and the fellows left of him think hard s what does s remind him of s he remembers it is the sound he fears the sound of death and combat the sound of a German 88 high explosive shell coming in now it is possible to proceed to the basic method of psychiatric treatment discussion and understanding of the underlying causes of his symptom pass the therapy begins to show its effect the shock and stress of war are starting to wear off for these men are blessed with the natural regenerative powers of youth now they are living less in the past and more in the present sometimes they think of the future the war years must be put aside and the responsibilities of peace must be considered a man might open a filling station or a hardware store or it can buy a few acres of land and raise some chickens you might even go back to school visitors day now the men resume their contact of the world outside these are the people they are coming back to whose lives are bound up with theirs without their understanding all that has been accomplished in the last few weeks can be torn down with it their return to life can be doubly swift and sure classes in groups like our therapy continue the men are thinking of themselves in relation to society how will they fit into the post war pattern how will the world receive them you fellas have had a an opportunity to be home with your family since you've returned from overseas have you noticed any change in the various members of your family toward you and the reactions toward you but I found out that four years of absence it only took me the second day it would be really relaxed and I was right chummy again with my dad talked about the old neighborhood and new changes I don't know it's a prize you feel that your family has to be taught how to treat you when you come back no absolutely not how do you want to be treated by family the same I was treated before I went to the service no difference you don't want to be treated any differently no I thought in the one man and what do you think of us fellas they come back with second anxiety state and as you can see there were not a crazy bad means well my before I come out here to see my first impression was like in Bellevue he said fellas from the last war they're completely maniac that was my first impression I'm wondering if I mean the great percentage of the people are going to be like them when we get out that is a common concern among the servicemen who have developed nervous conditions during their stay in the army as to what the public is going to think about them undoubtedly there will be people on the outside who won't have any understanding the condition who may think of it as being a rather shameful condition that's why we're having an educational program trying to educate the public into understanding unfortunately most of you fellas have gone through some very severe stresses in the army stresses that civilians are very subjected to in civilian life you can avoid serious stresses if a civilian the average civilian were subjected to similar stresses he undoubtedly would have developed the same type of nervous condition that most of you fellas developed all of us have our so-called breaking point in a survey outside showed that civilians on the whole were more nervous than soldiers on park avenue for instance where some of your richest people live most most of the patients are people who suffer from nervous disorders and if the doctor won't give them a pill why they'll go out and say well he's not a good doctor so therefore they're given pills and they take them at home they take these pills at home because the hospitals are too full if the hospitals were empty they'd be in the sanitarium and so forth haven't uh since we know of these discussions like the other men have i know that we have learned uh the basis of how we've gotten nervous some of us through combat and some of us by not being in combat and i think and i'm sure that we have a better understanding of our conditions and i'm pretty grateful of being here mason general hospital like a lot of fellas are i just so happens i couldn't walk and they made me walk i couldn't walk now right and i was here 24 hours and then you walk i feel pretty great for getting my limbs back but that's not driving that it's that uh i know that uh when i got here and the other fellas do too we're gonna try our best to make ourselves uh as best we can and uh we feel more confident than the the grasp is nervous since you're waiting to come about us and we want to show people how we can do things on our own on the outside where we've been in the possible for nervous or mental or whatever we've been where we've lost normal way that we can be just as good as anybody else all i wanted that they give us a chance to prove our equality like they said they were i hope they keep their promise that's all right would you make it a point to tell your employer that you were a psycho neurotic well if he's an intelligent man which most well-known employers are that own large concerns why he's going to react the same as any other normal human being would he's going to say it's absolutely possible and the man right now looks all right i'll try him out but uh you may run into employers who are not that broad minded or intelligent yes sir and i'll sell myself to them how about you do you have any plans about jobs do you have any fears about getting a job or what's going on got my job waiting you have your job waiting for you i think it comes down to this doesn't it that uh most of you fellows feel that you ought to be honest with your employer that you have nothing to hide nothing to be ashamed of isn't that the general attitude yes sir that's what we all know your time in the service was not entirely wasted you have learned a great deal in the service for instance the great many jobs and tasks that you've learned to do in the service that you have had absolutely no contact with in the past you've also learned to work in groups uh something that every soldier learns to do very early in his military career this definitely will be of much value to you in your future civilian employment since slip by fast the first strenuous of hospital life has become routine sometimes a man learns something new the ranger always did want to play a guitar and now the days begin to seem long there's the old healthy sound of belly aching in the air spinach spinach again and how about a good movie for a change now about putting some ice cream in the ice cream soda no longer is a man shut up within the lonely recesses of himself he is breaking out of his prison into life the life that lies ahead offering infinite possibilities for happiness and sorrow how does a man find happiness is there a secret to discover what is the mysterious ingredient that gives joy and meaning to living you know in the bible where it says man does not live by bread alone children don't grow up well without safety and confidence if that wasn't in one's childhood in growing up you could say now there's something missing during all that time and the next question is how to supply it and it does need to be supplied not all of the learning and all of the books is half as valuable in getting over nervousness as to find someone that you esteem that you can learn to feel safe with where you can get a feeling of being accepted of cherished where you get a feeling that you are worthwhile and that you are important to do something you could say the feeding that you didn't get that's something more than bread when you were living you still need to get it you still need to be fed acceptance and to find the safety in other words knowledge alone is not enough except past what about these men are they ready for discharge how compete is their recovery how about the boy in right field i just didn't care what happened to me about the kid at bed covered by dirt for 29 hours after which came upon me how about this kid it's for the doctors to decide at tomorrow's boarding the answer is yes military formation today you're returning to your homes your families and friends many of you have been looking forward eagerly to this day remember when you re-enter civilian life on your shoulders falls much of the responsibility for the post-war world may your lives as civilians be as worthy as your records as soldiers good health good fortune and godspeed