Wes Moore: How to talk to veterans about the war

248,790 views ・ 2014-05-23

TED


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:12
I'm excited to be here to speak about vets,
0
12755
2291
00:15
because I didn't join the Army
1
15046
1606
00:16
because I wanted to go to war.
2
16652
2148
00:18
I didn't join the Army because I had a lust
3
18800
2718
00:21
or a need to go overseas and fight.
4
21518
3657
00:25
Frankly, I joined the Army because
5
25175
2340
00:27
college is really damn expensive,
6
27515
1727
00:29
and they were going to help with that,
7
29242
1709
00:30
and I joined the Army because
8
30951
2340
00:33
it was what I knew,
9
33291
2156
00:35
and it was what I knew that I thought I could do well.
10
35447
2862
00:38
I didn't come from a military family.
11
38309
2398
00:40
I'm not a military brat.
12
40707
1243
00:41
No one in my family ever had joined the military at all,
13
41950
2779
00:44
and how I first got introduced to the military
14
44729
2286
00:47
was when I was 13 years old
15
47015
2095
00:49
and I got sent away to military school,
16
49110
2679
00:51
because my mother had been threatening me
17
51789
1669
00:53
with this idea of military school ever since I was eight years old.
18
53458
3106
00:56
I had some issues when I was coming up,
19
56564
3067
00:59
and my mother would always tell me, she's like,
20
59631
2028
01:01
"You know, if you don't get this together,
21
61659
1446
01:03
I'm going to send you to military school."
22
63105
1266
01:04
And I'd look at her, and I'd say, "Mommy,
23
64371
1560
01:05
I'll work harder."
24
65931
1932
01:07
And then when I was nine years old,
25
67863
1484
01:09
she started giving me brochures to show me she wasn't playing around,
26
69347
2228
01:11
so I'd look at the brochures, and I'm like,
27
71575
1295
01:12
"Okay, Mommy, I can see you're serious, and I'll work harder."
28
72870
2327
01:15
And then when I was 10 and 11,
29
75197
2152
01:17
my behavior just kept on getting worse.
30
77349
3154
01:20
I was on academic and disciplinary probation
31
80503
2367
01:22
before I hit double digits,
32
82870
3731
01:26
and I first felt handcuffs on my wrists
33
86601
2942
01:29
when I was 11 years old.
34
89543
1948
01:31
And so when I was 13 years old,
35
91491
1616
01:33
my mother came up to me, and she was like,
36
93107
2014
01:35
"I'm not going to do this anymore.
37
95121
1736
01:36
I'm going to send you to military school."
38
96857
1546
01:38
And I looked at her, and I said, "Mommy,
39
98403
1838
01:40
I can see you're upset, and I'm going to work harder."
40
100241
3140
01:43
And she was like, "No, you're going next week."
41
103381
2095
01:45
And that was how I first got introduced
42
105476
2405
01:47
to this whole idea of the military,
43
107881
2590
01:50
because she thought this was a good idea.
44
110471
2896
01:53
I had to disagree with her wholeheartedly
45
113367
1812
01:55
when I first showed up there,
46
115179
1300
01:56
because literally in the first four days,
47
116479
1800
01:58
I had already run away five times from this school.
48
118279
2168
02:00
They had these big black gates that surrounded the school,
49
120447
1886
02:02
and every time they would turn their backs,
50
122333
2090
02:04
I would just simply run out of the black gates
51
124423
2456
02:06
and take them up on their offer that if we don't want to be there,
52
126879
1862
02:08
we can leave at any time.
53
128741
1430
02:10
So I just said, "Well, if that's the case,
54
130171
1693
02:11
then I'd like to leave." (Laughter)
55
131864
3248
02:15
And it never worked.
56
135112
2111
02:17
And I kept on getting lost.
57
137223
2174
02:19
But then eventually,
58
139397
1182
02:20
after staying there for a little while,
59
140579
2530
02:23
and after the end of that first year
60
143109
1402
02:24
at this military school,
61
144511
1848
02:26
I realized that I actually was growing up.
62
146359
4656
02:31
I realized the things that I enjoyed about this school
63
151015
3524
02:34
and the thing that I enjoyed about the structure
64
154539
2348
02:36
was something that I'd never found before:
65
156887
2747
02:39
the fact that I finally felt like I was part of something bigger,
66
159634
2869
02:42
part of a team, and it actually mattered to people
67
162503
2450
02:44
that I was there,
68
164953
1712
02:46
the fact that leadership wasn't just a punchline there,
69
166665
3190
02:49
but that it was a real, actually core part
70
169855
3276
02:53
of the entire experience.
71
173131
2149
02:55
And so when it was time for me to actually
72
175280
2124
02:57
finish up high school,
73
177404
2044
02:59
I started thinking about what I wanted to do,
74
179448
2668
03:02
and just like probably most students,
75
182116
1804
03:03
had no idea what that meant or what I wanted to do.
76
183920
3394
03:07
And I thought about the people who I
77
187314
1695
03:09
respected and admired.
78
189009
2289
03:11
I thought about a lot of the people,
79
191298
1686
03:12
in particular a lot of the men, in my life
80
192984
2819
03:15
who I looked up to.
81
195803
1929
03:17
They all happened to wear the uniform
82
197732
1875
03:19
of the United States of America,
83
199607
1939
03:21
so for me, the question and the answer
84
201546
2245
03:23
really became pretty easy.
85
203791
2067
03:25
The question of what I wanted to do
86
205858
1748
03:27
was filled in very quickly with saying,
87
207606
1638
03:29
I guess I'll be an Army officer.
88
209244
3199
03:32
So the Army then went through this process
89
212443
1824
03:34
and they trained me up,
90
214267
1201
03:35
and when I say I didn't join the Army
91
215468
1402
03:36
because I wanted to go to war,
92
216870
1630
03:38
the truth is, I joined in 1996.
93
218500
2083
03:40
There really wasn't a whole lot going on.
94
220583
2770
03:43
I didn't ever feel like I was in danger.
95
223353
2066
03:45
When I went to my mom,
96
225419
1123
03:46
I first joined the Army when I was 17 years old,
97
226542
1613
03:48
so I literally needed parental permission
98
228155
1709
03:49
to join the Army,
99
229864
1083
03:50
so I kind of gave the paperwork to my mom,
100
230947
1480
03:52
and she just assumed it was kind of like military school.
101
232427
1993
03:54
She was like, "Well, it was good for him before,
102
234420
1304
03:55
so I guess I'll just let him keep doing it,"
103
235724
2383
03:58
having no idea that the paperwork that she was signing
104
238107
2801
04:00
was actually signing her son up
105
240908
2032
04:02
to become an Army officer.
106
242940
3198
04:06
And I went through the process,
107
246138
1774
04:07
and again the whole time still just thinking,
108
247912
1794
04:09
this is great, maybe I'll serve on a weekend,
109
249706
3823
04:13
or two weeks during the year, do drill,
110
253529
5114
04:18
and then a couple years after I signed up,
111
258643
2716
04:21
a couple years after my mother signed those papers,
112
261359
2586
04:23
the whole world changed.
113
263945
3726
04:27
And after 9/11, there was an entirely new context
114
267671
3204
04:30
about the occupation that I chose.
115
270875
3990
04:34
When I first joined, I never joined to fight,
116
274865
4565
04:39
but now that I was in,
117
279430
1670
04:41
this is exactly what was now going to happen.
118
281100
3787
04:44
And I thought about so much about the soldiers
119
284887
3347
04:48
who I eventually had to end up leading.
120
288234
1857
04:50
I remember when we first, right after 9/11,
121
290091
2510
04:52
three weeks after 9/11, I was on a plane heading overseas,
122
292601
2623
04:55
but I wasn't heading overseas with the military,
123
295224
1986
04:57
I was heading overseas because I got a scholarship
124
297210
2035
04:59
to go overseas.
125
299245
1321
05:00
I received the scholarship to go overseas
126
300566
1850
05:02
and to go study and live overseas,
127
302416
2300
05:04
and I was living in England and that was interesting,
128
304716
2072
05:06
but at the same time, the same people who
129
306788
1466
05:08
I was training with,
130
308254
2744
05:10
the same soldiers that I went through all my training with,
131
310998
2413
05:13
and we prepared for war,
132
313411
2189
05:15
they were now actually heading over to it.
133
315600
3486
05:19
They were now about to find themselves
134
319086
1881
05:20
in the middle of places the fact is
135
320967
2184
05:23
the vast majority of people,
136
323151
1568
05:24
the vast majority of us as we were training,
137
324719
2266
05:26
couldn't even point out on a map.
138
326985
3939
05:30
I spent a couple years finishing graduate school,
139
330924
1766
05:32
and the whole entire time while I'm sitting there
140
332690
2260
05:34
in buildings at Oxford
141
334950
1586
05:36
that were literally built hundreds of years
142
336536
2374
05:38
before the United States was even founded,
143
338910
1848
05:40
and I'm sitting there talking to dons
144
340758
3172
05:43
about the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand,
145
343930
3964
05:47
and how that influenced the start of World War I,
146
347894
4322
05:52
where the entire time my heart and my head
147
352216
2244
05:54
were on my soldiers
148
354460
2884
05:57
who were now throwing on Kevlars
149
357344
1970
05:59
and grabbing their flak vests
150
359314
1436
06:00
and figuring out how exactly do I change around
151
360750
2548
06:03
or how exactly do I clean a machine gun
152
363298
2292
06:05
in the darkness.
153
365590
3048
06:08
That was the new reality.
154
368638
2933
06:11
By the time I finished that up and I rejoined
155
371571
2373
06:13
my military unit and we were getting ready to deploy to Afghanistan,
156
373944
2690
06:16
there were soldiers in my unit who were now
157
376634
1588
06:18
on their second and third deployments
158
378222
2098
06:20
before I even had my first.
159
380320
1420
06:21
I remember walking out with my unit for the first time,
160
381740
1988
06:23
and when you join the Army
161
383728
1364
06:25
and you go through a combat tour,
162
385092
1656
06:26
everyone looks at your shoulder,
163
386748
1334
06:28
because on your shoulder is your combat patch.
164
388082
3778
06:31
And so immediately as you meet people,
165
391860
1276
06:33
you shake their hand,
166
393136
1416
06:34
and then your eyes go to their shoulder,
167
394552
1859
06:36
because you want to see where did they serve,
168
396411
1613
06:38
or what unit did they serve with?
169
398024
1306
06:39
And I was the only person walking around
170
399330
1694
06:41
with a bare shoulder,
171
401024
2290
06:43
and it burned every time someone stared at it.
172
403314
4090
06:47
But you get a chance to talk to your soldiers,
173
407404
3008
06:50
and you ask them why did they sign up.
174
410412
3778
06:54
I signed up because college was expensive.
175
414190
4089
06:58
A lot of my soldiers signed up for completely different reasons.
176
418279
4421
07:02
They signed up because of a sense of obligation.
177
422700
1932
07:04
They signed up because they were angry
178
424632
1809
07:06
and they wanted to do something about it.
179
426441
1817
07:08
They signed up because
180
428258
1312
07:09
their family said this was important.
181
429570
1846
07:11
They signed up because they wanted some form of revenge.
182
431416
2212
07:13
They signed for a whole collection of different reasons.
183
433628
4648
07:18
And now we all found ourselves overseas
184
438276
2768
07:21
fighting in these conflicts.
185
441044
3901
07:24
And what was amazing to me was that I
186
444945
2511
07:27
very naively started hearing this statement
187
447456
4322
07:31
that I never fully understood,
188
451778
3266
07:35
because right after 9/11, you start hearing this idea
189
455044
2358
07:37
where people come up to you and they say,
190
457402
1357
07:38
"Well, thank you for your service."
191
458759
2637
07:41
And I just kind of followed in and started saying
192
461396
1963
07:43
the same things to all my soldiers.
193
463359
1635
07:44
This is even before I deployed.
194
464994
1581
07:46
But I really had no idea what that even meant.
195
466575
3495
07:50
I just said it because it sounded right.
196
470070
2004
07:52
I said it because it sounded like the right thing to say
197
472074
1776
07:53
to people who had served overseas.
198
473850
1644
07:55
"Thank you for your service."
199
475494
2430
07:57
But I had no idea what the context was
200
477924
2016
07:59
or what that even,
201
479940
2330
08:02
what it even meant to the people who heard it.
202
482270
3570
08:05
When I first came back from Afghanistan,
203
485840
4786
08:10
I thought that if you make it back from conflict,
204
490626
3474
08:14
then the dangers were all over.
205
494100
3841
08:17
I thought that if you made it back from a conflict zone
206
497941
2197
08:20
that somehow you could kind of
207
500138
2299
08:22
wipe the sweat off your brow and say,
208
502437
1234
08:23
"Whew, I'm glad I dodged that one,"
209
503671
3744
08:27
without understanding that for so many people,
210
507415
1808
08:29
as they come back home,
211
509223
2143
08:31
the war keeps going.
212
511366
2299
08:33
It keeps playing out in all of our minds.
213
513665
2254
08:35
It plays out in all of our memories.
214
515919
2638
08:38
It plays out in all of our emotions.
215
518557
4663
08:43
Please forgive us
216
523220
1337
08:44
if we don't like being in big crowds.
217
524557
5210
08:49
Please forgive us
218
529767
2263
08:52
when we spend one week in a place
219
532030
2324
08:54
that has 100 percent light discipline,
220
534354
2348
08:56
because you're not allowed to walk around with white lights,
221
536702
2228
08:58
because if anything has a white light,
222
538930
1487
09:00
it can be seen from miles away,
223
540417
1477
09:01
versus if you use little green
224
541894
1713
09:03
or little blue lights,
225
543607
1167
09:04
they cannot be seen from far away.
226
544774
1932
09:06
So please forgive us if out of nowhere,
227
546706
2133
09:08
we go from having 100 percent light discipline
228
548839
3207
09:12
to then a week later being back in the middle of Times Square,
229
552046
2553
09:14
and we have a difficult time adjusting to that.
230
554599
5131
09:19
Please forgive us
231
559730
1432
09:21
when you transition back to a family
232
561162
1839
09:23
who has completely been maneuvering without you,
233
563001
4104
09:27
and now when you come back, it's not that easy
234
567105
2027
09:29
to fall back into a sense of normality,
235
569132
3644
09:32
because the whole normal has changed.
236
572776
4482
09:37
I remember when I came back, I wanted to talk to people.
237
577258
3562
09:40
I wanted people to ask me about my experiences.
238
580820
2759
09:43
I wanted people to come up to me and tell me,
239
583579
1748
09:45
"What did you do?"
240
585327
1315
09:46
I wanted people to come up to me and tell me,
241
586642
1487
09:48
"What was it like? What was the food like?
242
588129
1618
09:49
What was the experience like? How are you doing?"
243
589747
4525
09:54
And the only questions I got from people was,
244
594272
2061
09:56
"Did you shoot anybody?"
245
596333
2731
09:59
And those were the ones who were even curious
246
599064
1826
10:00
enough to say anything.
247
600890
3658
10:04
Because sometimes there's this fear
248
604548
1670
10:06
and there's this apprehension that if I say anything,
249
606218
1565
10:07
I'm afraid I'll offend,
250
607783
1476
10:09
or I'm afraid I'll trigger something,
251
609259
1374
10:10
so the common default is just saying nothing.
252
610633
4658
10:15
The problem with that
253
615291
2599
10:17
is then it feels like your service
254
617890
1606
10:19
was not even acknowledged,
255
619496
2514
10:22
like no one even cared.
256
622010
3007
10:25
"Thank you for your service,"
257
625017
3023
10:28
and we move on.
258
628040
3093
10:31
What I wanted to better understand
259
631133
2676
10:33
was what's behind that,
260
633809
3314
10:37
and why "thank you for your service" isn't enough.
261
637123
5752
10:42
The fact is, we have literally
262
642875
3616
10:46
2.6 million men and women
263
646491
2557
10:49
who are veterans of Iraq or Afghanistan
264
649048
2924
10:51
who are all amongst us.
265
651972
2670
10:54
Sometimes we know who they are,
266
654642
1480
10:56
sometimes we don't,
267
656122
3112
10:59
but there is that feeling, the shared experience,
268
659234
2167
11:01
the shared bond
269
661401
2924
11:04
where we know that that experience
270
664325
1872
11:06
and that chapter of our life,
271
666197
2009
11:08
while it might be closed,
272
668206
2715
11:10
it's still not over.
273
670921
4046
11:14
We think about "thank you for your service,"
274
674967
1629
11:16
and people say, "So what does 'thank you for your service' mean to you?"
275
676596
2069
11:18
Well, "Thank you for your service" means to me,
276
678665
1680
11:20
it means acknowledging our stories,
277
680345
4078
11:24
asking us who we are,
278
684423
2866
11:27
understanding the strength
279
687289
2413
11:29
that so many people, so many people who we serve with, have,
280
689702
4230
11:33
and why that service means so much.
281
693932
3720
11:37
"Thank you for your service" means acknowledging the fact
282
697652
2134
11:39
that just because we've now come home
283
699786
1818
11:41
and we've taken off the uniform
284
701604
1291
11:42
does not mean our larger service to this country
285
702895
2280
11:45
is somehow over.
286
705175
2676
11:47
The fact is, there's still a tremendous amount
287
707851
2881
11:50
that can be offered and can be given.
288
710732
4190
11:54
When I look at people
289
714922
1430
11:56
like our friend Taylor Urruela,
290
716352
4658
12:01
who in Iraq loses his leg,
291
721010
1744
12:02
had two big dreams in his life.
292
722754
2658
12:05
One was to be a soldier. The other was to be a baseball player.
293
725412
3068
12:08
He loses his leg in Iraq.
294
728480
4800
12:13
He comes back
295
733280
1624
12:14
and instead of deciding that,
296
734904
1694
12:16
well, now since I've lost my leg, that second dream is over,
297
736598
2418
12:19
he decides that he still has that dream of playing baseball,
298
739016
2414
12:21
and he starts this group called VETSports,
299
741430
1972
12:23
which now works with veterans all over the country
300
743402
1911
12:25
and uses sports as a way of healing.
301
745313
5335
12:30
People like Tammy Duckworth,
302
750648
2343
12:32
who was a helicopter pilot
303
752991
1248
12:34
and with the helicopter that she was flying,
304
754239
1866
12:36
you need to use both your hands
305
756105
1539
12:37
and also your legs to steer,
306
757644
1531
12:39
and her helicopter gets hit,
307
759175
1469
12:40
and she's trying to steer the chopper,
308
760644
1262
12:41
but the chopper's not reacting
309
761906
1917
12:43
to her instructions and to her commands.
310
763823
1681
12:45
She's trying to land the chopper safely,
311
765504
2511
12:48
but the chopper doesn't land safely,
312
768015
1641
12:49
and the reason it's not landing safely
313
769656
1112
12:50
is because it's not responding to the commands that her legs are giving
314
770768
2673
12:53
because her legs were blown off.
315
773441
4848
12:58
She barely survives.
316
778289
2905
13:01
Medics come and they save her life,
317
781194
3906
13:05
but then as she's doing her recuperation back at home,
318
785100
2461
13:07
she realizes that, "My job's still not done."
319
787561
4310
13:11
And now she uses her voice
320
791871
1484
13:13
as a Congresswoman from Illinois
321
793355
2192
13:15
to fight and advocate for a collection of issues
322
795547
2958
13:18
to include veterans issues.
323
798505
3865
13:22
We signed up because
324
802370
2726
13:25
we love this country we represent.
325
805096
4470
13:29
We signed up because
326
809566
2344
13:31
we believe in the idea and we believe in the people
327
811910
2558
13:34
to our left and to our right.
328
814468
2788
13:37
And the only thing we then ask is that
329
817256
1912
13:39
"thank you for your service"
330
819168
2262
13:41
needs to be more than just a quote break,
331
821430
3124
13:44
that "thank you for your service" means
332
824554
2626
13:47
honestly digging in
333
827180
2226
13:49
to the people who have stepped up
334
829406
2950
13:52
simply because they were asked to,
335
832356
3843
13:56
and what that means for us not just now,
336
836199
2029
13:58
not just during combat operations,
337
838228
3492
14:01
but long after the last vehicle has left
338
841720
3349
14:05
and after the last shot has been taken.
339
845069
4874
14:09
These are the people who I served with,
340
849943
2830
14:12
and these are the people who I honor.
341
852773
3704
14:16
So thank you for your service.
342
856477
2171
14:18
(Applause)
343
858648
3852
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7