Father-son war trauma

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Iraq war veteran Michael Burke and his father, Vietnam veteran George Burke, in their home in Clinton. Both have struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder. (Bill Greene/ Globe Staff)

Father-son war trauma
By Charles M. Sennott, Globe Staff | June 18, 2007


CLINTON -- George Burke lifts the picture frame off the fireplace mantel and shakes his head.

Everyone tells him that the two Marines in the facing photographs -- George in 1967 heading off for Vietnam, and his only son, Michael, in 2002 before deploying to Iraq-- look remarkably alike in their dress blues, and they do.

"But I just don't see it," George says, sinking back into his recliner in the living room of his home in this old mill town 45 miles west of Boston.

Truth is, there has been a lot that George has been slow to recognize in his son and himself -- much more than the thick eyebrows, strong jaw, military bearing, and sad eyes they so obviously share. For years after returning from Vietnam, he kept his distance and held his silence, a remote and angry presence for his family and, especially, his boy.

But suddenly, now, survival depends on confronting what they share.

Father and son have both been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and both are struggling down the road to healing the mental wounds of war.

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