This weekend, the first veterans town hall to be held in Alaska is happening in Palmer.
The event is part of a growing national movement to better integrate the lives and experiences of veterans with the civilian world.
Veterans town halls are non-partisan opportunities for former service members to speak to an audience for ten minutes apiece about “what it felt like to go to war.”
Non-veterans are invited to listen.
The forums started last year in Massachusetts from an idea by former conflict journalist Sebastian Junger.
This year they’re happening in eight states.
Team Red, White and Blue, a veterans support community in Alaska, helped organize the town hall.
“I hear a lot, ‘I wish I knew how to support our veterans,’ and I think that we often try to fill that gap by doing something like giving people a 10 percent discount or saying ‘thank you for your service,’” organizer Amy Buschatz said. “Those are great things, but if you knew somebody’s story and knew where they were coming from you might be better equipped to reach into their lives and do something that’s actually going to impact them.”
Buschatz also is a reporter and editor with the news site military.com, and her husband served in the Army.
The Team Red, White, and Blue’s overall aim is connecting vets with nearby members of their community, usually through activities, public service or exercise, she said. The town halls fit the same mold.
“We believe that people do better in community. That we want to have community and that we need community to really thrive,” Buschatz said. “And our veteran are coming from a place where they are used to that community and then thrown into the civilian world where they don’t necessarily have that.”
The Veterans Town Hall will be from 2-4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, at the Palmer Depot.
You can find more information about Anchorage’s chapter of Team Red, White, and Blue by searching for them on Facebook.
