I want to leave the world a better place, but I’m not a writer. I can’t help a person feel good through a poem or a book. I do carve opal gemstones, though. If I am able to present an elegant art piece, the work might inspire others to feel good on the inside—and maybe…
My name is George Doornbos. I’m 87 years old, and I live with my wife, Janye, in a Breton Woods Retirement Community. I served in the Army from 1953 to 1955, in Nuremberg. As a radio operator, I learned Morse Code. But I also learned to obey orders. With all the intense physical training, I…
After graduating from high school, I bounced from construction to painting to roofing jobs. But in 1988, I enlisted in the Army. After completing Boot Camp, I joined the 25th Infantry in Hawaii, as an M60 assistant gunner. I soon married and planned to use my G.I. Bill to study art. But one Memorial Day,…
After sixteen years of military service, veteran and artist Ron Kelsey discovered that combat doesn’t end on the battlefield. His art piece, War and Peace, depicts his personal journey towards recovery, as he continues to fight war’s scars through PTSD and other disabilities. Over ten years ago, Kelsey founded Reflections of Generosity (RoG), a traveling…
I feel honored to have served 15 years, 1 month, and 18 days in the United States military as an airborne Ranger, part of the Special Forces. While fighting in Iraq, and other undisclosed places, I received three purple hearts. But each time, I got patched up and returned to fight the next battle. In…
For seventeen years, I have done my best to explain the world to my son, and my son to the world. For the longest time, I would simply shout, “Welcome to Autismland!” as a shorthand to explain his startling behaviors in public. Then, as he got bigger, it just became easier not to go out…
I enlisted in the Army in 2003. In 2004, I left for a 12+ month deployment to Iraq. Typically, we worked seven days a week in a country, where the painted landscape displayed various shades of brown. Triple-digit temperatures made daily life hard. With ordnance exploding all around us, the biggest take away was all…