European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 17, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 18 scene stars and stripes june 2007 but not Happy author explodes myth that Wii vets returned to peaceful lives j it c 0 d g q a i a u on the window ill next to his desk in College Tom a history professor at the University of displays photographs of the important people in his next to pictures of his wife and three children Are portraits of two men in both fought in world War both Are captured in their prime cinematically Winso Mely the Cream of american Man Childers knows these men one is his Uncle the his they Are his the inspiration Behina his recent including the Book he is writing the Best years of their lives coming Home from world War ii and the title is taken from the 1946 Oscar winning film the Best years of our Given the books thesis for Many world War ii and its aftermath were anything but the Best its a title steeped in the Brokaw greatest generation rom anticipation of the men and women who fought in the so called Good War leaves the impression that every body came Back Happy and Childers that didst Accord with my experience at Childers was born in one year after the he grew up in a House full of War stories and aftershocks in his own family and the lives of others in his Hometown near his mothers Howard Good was a dashing basketball player who won a scholarship to Western Kentucky he was a radio operator aboard the last bomber shot Down Over the Telegram informing the family that he was miss ing in action arrived on be his death tormented the family for Childers Childers also named did return from the after serving two years on a ground Crew with the eighth air Force in in Childers his Homecoming was not before snipping Tom had been mar ried Only a when he came he and his had to get to know each other they did Childers with great the difficulty was compounded when Mildred discovered a letter revealing Tom had dallied with an engl Shwom he insisted it was a she was convinced it was she never trusted him Tom was never the same after the Childers Mother often voicing the assertion so often that it Tom a history professor at the University of has written a new de mythologies the coming Home aspects of the world War when she and her Hus band would she would finish him off with a verbal Shotgun blast Why did you come Back and Howard didst outside his Tom saw other the father of his Best Friend lost both legs when an artillery Shell burst before the Willis Allen was a gregarious Man who loved to he was a Basket unlike world War ii ended in but there was also tragedy and my family didst feel like we won the second world Tom history professor and author what he discovered contradicted the saturday evening Post images of Welcome Home parades and sail ors being kissed on in 1 1 vets a month were admitted to a hospitals with psycho neurotic now known As Post traumatic stress disorder Childers in 1 men suffering from the disorder occupied half of Allva Hospital Many men self medicated with which hastened the demise of shaky marriage in 1 the divorce rate hit what was then an Al time High per thou Sand Popula up from in it Rose again in As time Magazine callously referred to 1 947 a third of vets reported returning at night his buried being worse off than they were before the War a fifth said they were completely alienated from civilian anger would explode in awful unlike world War ii ended in Childers but there was also tragedy and and the duration of their Strug my family didst feel like we won Gles More than what the the Price these men paid was far the second world Public record would have us curious about whether this was True Childers for other spurred by when Childers began his All the Wii commemorations in the he discovered virtually nothing about become the theme of the family Narra began researching the wars the wars toll among books published Philadelphia the third in a that immediately Only women with their focus on relation addressed the mental the ladies Home journal published a Story with the ironic title peace its a the country was ready to move but Many veterans  and Childers the trauma they experienced was difficult to let alone talk even he the people who Are talking about it Are their wives and and their Many of whom Are in their 50s and Childers aim is not to debunk the heroism of the greatest generation but to deepen appreciation for the Magni tude of their they Defeated nazi Germany and Imperial Childers it was a phenomenal historical accomplishment and they deserve All the but they and their families paid a High in not a i realize there Are times when wars have to be but War is a and those who beat the drum for War need to realize that the damage Doest Stop when the War the consequences Are not just but and the toll can stretch across i never knew my but Here i am still thinking about him and writing about