Summary: Words After War is not your typical book club. It was co-founded by a military veteran who wanted to help his fellow veterans cope after combat.
As we do our best to thank all of the veterans past and present for their service to this great country, we cannot forget those veterans who are still serving their country.
In today’s post we are going to focus on a young veteran who is helping his fellow veterans when they return home from combat.
Brandon Willitts enlisted when he was just 18. Willitts worked as an intelligence analyst for the Navy.
Upon returning home, Willitts helped create Words After War, a non-profit book club in Brooklyn that allows veterans and civilians the chance to discuss military conflict through literature.
When he returned from serving in Qatar, Afghanistan and Bahrain, Willitts enrolled in college in Vermont. He said the following about being a veteran on a college campus:
“I think it’s like being a unicorn, what I imagine it would be like a unicorn be is that they’re like, “Oh, it’s so interesting, but yeah, we should probably keep our distance because it’s so foreign to us and so alien to us.” That’s what it was like being a veteran on a small liberal arts campus in New England. It was that I think people didn’t know what to make of me.”
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Image credit: narrative.ly