Grandfathered: Where War Lingers is a play written by eight veterans and produced by me, a daughter of a career Naval officer. It is the story of four generations living under one roof and how war affects them even after war has ended. The grandfather and patriarch of the family is a veteran of the Korean War; his son is a conscientious objector from the Vietnam War era; his grandson is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom; and his granddaughter’s father is currently serving in the Army, and when the play begins, is about to be deployed to Syria.

But the play is more than just following the daily lives of these characters. As one of the veteran playwrights said: “We are demystifying PTSD.” He was a seventeen-year-old combat medic during the Vietnam War. He understands what it means to go to war. He understands what it means to live with the effects of war fifty years later.

Currently there is a lot of conversation about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Sometimes it seems as if we will never come to a consensus about what it means, or how to cure it, or if there is a cure. Personally I believe the affect of war on a person who has been in war is not a disorder but a wound of the soul. I admit it is hard to gauge a wound in the soul, and that is one reason why this play is important.

Grandfathered: Where War Lingers pulls back the curtain and encourages us to look at the realities of how war affects those who go to war, and those who live with those who go to war.