“The Disabled Veteran in the Family”, written by Ernest and Harriet Mowrer is an informative essay that shows the many hardships that a returning wartime veteran and his family will often confront. The essay tells about how family and friends will want to hear all of the soldiers war stories, but he should resist from telling them because it will not help him to remember them. It gives advice for spouses to deal with the disability that will affect the whole family upon the veterans return. The divorce rate for disabled veterans will be increasingly high and it gives advice on how to avoid this. When veterans return from a war zone they are not able to enjoy the things they once had and this causes them to feel even more disabled. Not only does it discuss the married veterans but also gives advice to the unmarried and their loved ones. One of the largest factors that trouble disabled veterans and their families would have to be economic problems. The veteran will most likely have to go back to school and the result of this will be a role reversal between the spouses. The woman will have to work while the husband either stays home or goes to school. It also touches on a veteran coming home to children and how to deal with his absence and disability. Medicine and psychiatry will also play an integral part in the veteran being able to readjust to the world.

Even though this essay was written and published in 1945 it still holds true today. Especially at a time such as this when we have soldiers once again coming home from war zones disabled. It is one of the sad truths that our disabled veterans, as well as the families they return home to, must know how to deal with the hardships that they will soon face. When our soldiers return home they aren’t given very much information on how to handle their disability and there families are given even less.

Many families don’t know how to deal with a veteran when he returns home. As stated in the article, imagine if a soldier’s wife keeps an elaborately decorated Christmas tree, even though it has been months since Christmas, awaiting her husband’s return. This actually makes the readjustment for a veteran even more difficult than if she had just took it down. It is impossible for him to resurrect the past and not be disappointed by the experience. Being a veteran myself and being deployed to Iraq during Christmas, I didn’t need anything reminding me that I missed Christmas since all it would make me think about was Iraq.

When most people think about soldiers returning from war they often assume that they are married. This is a common misconception and the truth of the matter is that just as many veterans are unmarried. The essay does a wonderful job at distinguishing between the two and dedicates in entire section to the unmarried veteran. Being an unmarried veteran myself this section of the text seemed to ring true. A disabled veteran returning to his parents often finds himself in a situation that cannot be good. The parents end up treating him in exactly the same way as before he left and think that it is the same person returning. This will eventually lead to the disabled veteran rebelling against his parent in an effort to establish his individuality. In my own experience at returning home from a war zone, it will actually cause your parents to treat you even more like a child, which makes it feel like you have lost some of your individualism.

The article places a strong emphasis on economic problems by stating, “Economic adjustment is of importance not only from the standpoint of financial independence and security, but also from that of the psychological effects upon the individual of feeling that he is able to work again or retrain for a new job.” This issue is even more important today because of the economic problems our nation is facing. A soldier may find it difficult to adapt to his disability and is going to have a hard time finding work. If he is unable to find work in order to support his family it will cause an abundance of psychological problems that could eventually end in the marriage ending. The most likely result of this would be a role reversal, causing the wife to be the primary earner in the household while the veteran stays at home with the kids. If this happens it could make the soldier feel as if his masculinity is being challenged and that would only cause additional problems.

As a disabled veteran myself, many of the issues presented in this essay hit the nail right on the head. Even in the sixty years since this essay was written our returning soldiers still don’t know how to deal with these problems. It is imperative that a stronger emphasis on educating them on these issues and letting people know what type of problems he will face. President Abraham Lincoln knew this better then most when during his second inaugural address he said, “to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan.”