How to use this Page

By Michael D. Matthews

My daily walk to work takes me through West Point’s cemetery. Founded in 1817, the cemetery includes the graves of soldiers who fought in the American Revolution, and in all of the wars our country has fought since. I often stop and reflect on the lives of these men and women who are interred here. Many headstones are of West Point graduates who were killed in World War II, including several on D-Day. Others fell in the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World War I, and Korea and Vietnam. One section holds special significance for me, since it contains the graves of former cadets and colleagues I have known in the past 14 years who died in Iraq or Afghanistan. No matter how preoccupied I may be with the vagaries of day to day life, a sense of peace and calm envelopes me as I stroll among the headstones. I feel I am among friends and comrades and there is a sense of connectedness with the past.

One of the soldiers interred at West Point is Lieutenant Christopher Kurkowsi. Chris graduated from West Point in 1986 with a degree in Engineering Psychology. He became an artillery officer and was killed on 26 February 1988 when the helicopter he was in crashed while on a routine training mission. At the time of the accident, Chris’s academic mentor at West Point, Lieutenant Colonel Timothy O’Neil, had initiated paperwork to send Chris to graduate school in psychology with a follow-on assignment to his old department at West Point. According to Lieutenant Colonel O’Neil, Chris would have made a tremendous psychologist and professor. Chris’s death exemplifies the loss of talent and potential of all of the soldiers buried at West Point.

Earlier this month, West Point held its annual “Inspiration to Serve” cemetery tour. All members of the West Point Class of 2016, who are finishing their second of four years of academic study and military training at West Point, participated. On this day, classmates, family, or friends of the fallen stand by a gravesite, and tell the story of the deceased to the cadet attendees. Of special interest this year, MaryEllen Picciuto, one of Chris Kurkowski’s classmates, told his story of service and sacrifice. The cadets stood respectfully and listened intently, as Ms. Picciuto brought Chris back to life through her remembrances. As she did this, other cadets stood by other graves, hearing the life story of other West Point graduates who gave their lives in the service of our country.

As a Nation, our move to an all volunteer force has distanced most Americans from direct experience and knowledge of the military and the men and women who serve. Cognitive psychologists make a distinction between semantic and episodic memory. The former is memory of generalized facts that are not part of our own personal experience. The latter, in contrast, are of events personally experienced. Think about your own memories. Those that are episodic are likely more vivid and tangible, and perhaps have more meaning in your own life story. You “know” from semantic memories, but you can “feel” in episodic memories.

Perhaps this Memorial Day, in between picnics and family activities, you can visit a veterans cemetery. Walk among the headstones, read the inscriptions, and reflect on what these men and women sacrificed for our Nation. Like Lieutenant Kurkowski, they had dreams, ambitions, life goals, and family and friends who loved them. Through such a visit, perhaps you can form an episodic memory by honoring the fallen for their service, and in doing so forge a more personal connection with these American heroes.

Note: The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not reflect the position of the United States Military Academy, the Department of the Army, or the Department of Defense.

Michael D. Matthews is Professor of Engineering Psychology at the United States Military Academy. Collectively, his research interests center on soldier performance in combat and other dangerous contexts. He has authored over 200 scientific papers and is the co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Military Psychology (Oxford University Press, 2012). Dr. Matthews’ most recent book is Head Strong: How Psychology is Revolutionizing War (Oxford University Press, 2014).

Subscribe to the OUPblog via email or RSS.
Subscribe to only brain sciences articles on the OUPblog via email or RSS.

Photos courtesy of Michael D. Matthews. Used with permission.

The post Psychology, veterans, war, and remembrance appeared first on OUPblog.

        

Related Stories

• What role does symmetry play in the perception of 3D objects?
• Helping yourself to emotional health
• Some highlights of the BPS conference 2014 Birmingham

 

Now Playing -  Metropolitan Glide by Tom WaitsLife -  For the last week and a half, we've had a virtual parade of visitors here. First, our friend Jen for a few days, visiting us on a side trip while she was in Cape Cod with her aunt. Before we'd even put the cushions back on the couch, Lindsay's parents arrived from Idaho for a week, and halfway through that, her sister Marissa joined us. I

Saturday. A bit warmer, though not much and we spent the day tooling around in our rental, getting lost again, checking out the city. Portland boasts a good sized area out by the airport dominated by the Maine Mall, a mall that is actually alive and thriving, shockingly. Most of the malls we've visited in the West are half empty edifices, filled with faked in walls and empty promises about

I got thinking about it and realized that I didn't really have any photos from this day anyway, which is kind of odd.. ( I did shamelessly steal a few from someone else, and will post them where appropriate.) I am writing this on a small amount of sleep obtained 21 hours ago though, so bear with me.Saturday started innocently enough, a nice, lazy morning, waking up in what looked like a public

Alfred Brophy is the author of Reparations Pro and Con, which talks about visits to slave cemeteries as one type of reparation for slavery. He is also a contributor to Oxford’s African American National Biography and author of Reconstructing the Dreamland: The Tulsa Riot of 1921.  In the article below he looks at the controversy over the right to visit Thomas Jefferson’s grave.

The latest controversy over Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings–the enslaved woman whom Jefferson owned and with whom he, presumably, had several children–erupted last summer when Jefferson descendants had a reunion. While the Hemings descendants came to the reunion, they were not permitted to visit Jefferson’s grave, near Jefferson’s home of Monticello. The cemetery is on land owned by some of Jefferson’s lineal descendants and managed by the Monticello Association. (more…)

Share This

When I was in high school my father had the unpleasant task of waking me in the morning. He would cajole me out of bed with promises of a freshly cooked breakfast, orange juice and the New York Times. Most days these bribes were successful because as hard as I tried to stay in bed, he was persistent. Below is some advice excerpted from Getting Your Child to Say “Yes” To School: A Guide For Parents of Youth with School Refusal Behavior by Christopher A. Kearney.

Some teenagers miss school because they have great trouble getting out of bed in the morning. If your client has this problem, then be sure she is getting plenty of sleep. The following will help: (more…)

Share This