As a newspaper reporter fresh out of a college, I did the young journalism grad’s standard tour-of-duty: the local paper.

New York City media’s nobility aren’t impressed much by toiling with local newsprint. But the reality is that it’s not only the best training ground for a young reporter.I pitched and wrote stories on all sorts of topics that interested me. But I also handled the bread-and-butter of local newspaper fare: profiles of the locals.

To my surprise, more than a few Iraq or Afghani veterans than you would expect came out of my suburban town in Connecticut. They were kids my own age who’d gone to high school alongside me.

My uncle is a Vietnam vet (spit on by protestors upon returning home), but we never discussed his service much as a family. The first time I really talked to any veterans in depth was as a reporter. I sat in coffee shops with these young men and listened to them telling me about the heat in the Iraqi deserts, the way they felt opening care packages from home, and what it’s like to save someone’s life and earn a badge of valor.

I never supported either of these wars, but speaking with these several young soldiers over the
course of a year made an impression on me. It occurred to me then — and still bothers me now — that these were the first conversations I’d ever had with someone who’d gone to war, ostensibly, in my name. My tax dollars sent these young men over there. They represented me, and our country, much the way I represented them and our country when I studied abroad in Europe. If I hadn’t been a reporter, my life would have been so far removed from these young veterans that we never would have met.

I’m bothered that it was not until the second decade of my life to talk to veterans. I know some parts of America are filled with more servicemen and servicewomen — just 70 miles away from my hometown in Connecticut, for instance, is the Coast Guard base in New London.

But I don’t think a country with such a bloated military budget should have citizens so removed from its veterans. If I had wanted to find them, I would have had to have gone and looked for them. And I can tell you right now, I wouldn’t have.

Even if we don’t agree with why they’re over there, we need to hear their stories.