Note: This is the third in a three-week series of columns based on World War II veterans who wrote books about their experiences.

* Nov. 1: Bedford resident and Johnstown native Eugene Cowles’ letters home inspired “The War Years of a Teen-ager.”

* Nov. 8: Johnstown woman helped guide Ligonier native Roland Glenn’s World War II book, “The Hawk and the Dove.”

* Today: Author Glenn’s lifetime of dealing with combat memories sparks urge to reach post-traumatic stress disorder sufferers.



A letter written June 22, 1945, by Roland Glenn from the battlefields of Okinawa, Japan, illustrates the emotional struggles many soldiers experience during combat – and after.

Glenn wrote to his father: “I am feeling such a conflict about all of this killing. But we need to win this war.”

That letter and many others are included in Glenn’s 2009 book, “The Hawk and the Dove.”

The Ligonier native said he has been treated by six therapists since the end of World War II, and still occasionally has bad dreams.

And he is sympathetic to the cause of current soldiers returning from similar experiences in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq.

“There’s nothing in your military training that can equip you for the taking of another human life,” Glenn said from his Maine home.

The intense, up-close fighting Glenn experienced in Japan’s Okinawa region was in stark contrast to life growing up in rural Westmoreland County and visiting with friends and relatives in the Johnstown area.

His childhood and teenage years were like those of many western Pennsylvanians of his era – family and faith were central, and recreation meant fishing or hunting with a favorite uncle.

“I went off to war from a safe upbringing,” Glenn said.

Glenn was drafted in early 1945. On Okinawa, he led an infantry platoon during fierce combat in a battle that claimed more than 12,000 American lives.

After the war, he studied anthropology at Columbia University. He and his wife were living in New York, and Glenn began to realize that he had not left the battles behind at Okinawa.

He was suffering from what now would be called post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I started waking up at night screaming, and covered with sweat,” he said. “I was having nightmares about the killing I was involved with on Okinawa.”

Glenn had started his career as a teacher, and he said it was at an education conference that he met psychologist Bill Marvin. The two became friends and Marvin frequently asked Glenn about his war experiences. That, Glenn said, was the beginning of his journey into therapy.

“It soon became obvious that I had much more to talk about with him than education,” Glenn said. “He was very interested in my stories of combat. My family didn’t want to hear any of that stuff.

“All of my combat experiences left a deep emotional scar on me,” he said.

Even now, half a century and six therapists later, Glenn said he can’t read books about war and can’t watch movies that depict combat.

He said he once attempted to watch the film “Saving Private Ryan” but couldn’t get through it.

“I have pretty much mastered my personal history,” he said. “But every now and then I have a recurrence of the nightmares.”

And now, his focus is turning to younger veterans who may be wrestling with the same demons.

“I’m very concerned about the thousands of soldiers coming home from the Middle East wars with similar histories,” Glenn said.

“We’re still sending our troops off to kill other human beings. I am now, to a certain extent, an anti-war activist. But I am conscious that if I were president of the United States and there were evil people who wanted to do us harm, I would need to do something about it.”

Glenn said writing the essays that eventually became the central content of “The Hawk and the Dove” was a form of therapy. Pulling together the manuscript that became his book was also part of his facing the horrors of his past.

“I didn’t realize at first that we were undertaking a story about recovery from the psychological impact of war,” Glenn said. “But I began to see and read about the thousands of people coming back from battles in the Middle Eastern wars. I began to realize that we had something more than an autobiography of a country boy from Ligonier.

“I didn’t realize until about a year and a half ago that there was a theme for me of recovery from my battle scars and getting back into civilian life.”

Glenn hopes to share his story of recovery with younger veterans. He said he is contacting groups and offering to speak with individuals who have had common experiences and who now face similar struggles.

“I’m here to help in any way,” he said. “The book is now out there. I hope it will help reach these people.”

Glenn’s message to those returning from Afghanistan and Iraq: Don’t be afraid to seek help.

“It’s important that these young soldiers are talking about the fact that if you can get an early diagnosis and can get treatment,” he said, “there can be a way of working with it.

“I can’t imagine what President Obama must be going through as he looks at what is going on in Afghanistan and must decide whether to send 20,000 more troops there.

“That really is a weighty responsibility. I’m not smart enough to figure that all out.

“But I am smart enough to try to put my experiences in combat to some use.”



Chip Minemyer is the editor of The Tribune-Democrat. He can be reached at 532-5091.