From Sarah Jamaica
"Art is the lesser sister to medicine. It aims to heal."
Andrew Lam, Son of a S. Vietnam General
"Art can help us see past boundaries and differences, approach difficult issues and look for solutions in unconventional ways. Art can help us ask difficult questions of ourselves collectively and individually."
Chris Wubbena, Son of a Vietnam Veteran
DOVV Mission Statement, Values, and About the Organization
MISSION
DOVV is an international organization of children of Vietnam Veterans. In highlighting our common background, we create a community in which we share our experiences, understand our histories, honor our families, and speak out to the broader community about war’s emotional and behavioral tolls on families. DOVV, which represents both daughters and sons of Vietnam Veterans, has three overarching goals:
STRATEGIES
To accomplish our mission, we employ three primary strategies:
Art became a primary focus of DOVV after we began expanding our membership base, when we discovered how many of our members were talented artists who filtered their "Vietnam experience" through literature, painting, film, and music. We see art as essential expression, and as a crucial method of communication and understanding. Accordingly, we encourage all of our members in these pursuits, and we seek to help them find opportunities to share their creations with the wider public. In helping our brothers and sisters achieve success, we help the broader community to understand that children of veterans struggle with a unique history.
Awareness of PSTD and transgenerational PTSD are cornerstones of the DOVV's mission. PTSD was first classified in the third edition of the Diagnostic Service Manual (DSM III) in 1980. Before then, doctors had trouble explaining the emotional and psychological difficulties experienced by combat veterans. Although formal recognition of this condition led to enormous improvements in the aid and assistance offered to veterans, the effects of combat-related PTSD on veterans’ children has received little to no recognition.
A wealth of psychological literature now seeks to explain how combat-related PTSD affects children. This is, however, only the beginning. New studies suggest that PTSD may be intergenerational. PTSD can cause alterations in a person’s emotional well-being, personality, and even genetic makeup that can be passed on to his or her children. As a result, children who have never directly experienced the trauma of war may nonetheless feel its effects. DOVV seeks to remain up-to-date with new discoveries, and act as a resource for all children of veterans who are trying to understand themselves.
As the daughters (and sons) of Vietnam Veterans, we are the first generation of children to grow up with veteran fathers officially diagnosed with PTSD. We experienced, first hand, the manifestations of this condition. We believe that exploring and evaluating our experience is critical to developing a full understanding about the wide ranging effects of combat-related PTSD on the family. We are the first generation of children to have the benefit of understanding that this condition has played a role in our lives. Our observations and experiences are critical to advancing understanding about this condition --- not just for ourselves, but for future generations of children of veterans as well.
We believe our efforts are necessary for the growth, maturity and sustainability of the 21st Century Warrior Family, who will benefit from the knowledge and reflection of a generation of “children” experiencing this “new disorder.” Our goal is to educate the children of veterans and their families about the transmission and inheritability of PTSD from veterans to their children. We seek to expose, educate, and assist all children of veterans in receiving the clinical and community attention that they require and deserve.
Since 2006, "Daughters (and Sons) of Vietnam Veterans," has grown into a worldwide network of children of veterans that have found support, comfort and friendship in a community whose members share a common piece of history. Through art, film, literature, dialogue, and education, DOVV hopes to reach out to the children of veterans of Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and future international conflicts.
We are writing this mission statement on the anniversary of September 11, 2001. Since that day, tens of thousands of men and women have served overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq, and a new warrior class of citizens and their children are facing the war's personal aftermath. The Daughters and Sons of Vietnam Veterans were the first generation to experience and try to understand what it meant to grow up with a father suffering from combat PTSD. We hope that this new generation of children of veterans will not be forced to experience the isolation, confusion, and anxiety that we came to know so well.
Andrew Lam, Son of a S. Vietnam General
"Art can help us see past boundaries and differences, approach difficult issues and look for solutions in unconventional ways. Art can help us ask difficult questions of ourselves collectively and individually."
Chris Wubbena, Son of a Vietnam Veteran
DOVV Mission Statement, Values, and About the Organization
MISSION
DOVV is an international organization of children of Vietnam Veterans. In highlighting our common background, we create a community in which we share our experiences, understand our histories, honor our families, and speak out to the broader community about war’s emotional and behavioral tolls on families. DOVV, which represents both daughters and sons of Vietnam Veterans, has three overarching goals:
- Connect: Through its extensive online network, DOVV has brought together, both virtually and physically, hundreds of daughters and sons of Vietnam Veterans from around the world. In coming together, we find innumerable commonalities. Our fathers’ trauma often led to painful and confusing family dynamics, giving birth to a next generation of suffering. Together, we better understand our own histories, heal from the wounds of transgenerational post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and find new meaning to our shared experiences through communication and creative expression.
- Advocate: Our common experiences of being raised by Vietnam Veterans have given us a unique perspective on the effects of war, from physical and mental health, to family dynamics, to international policy. We endeavor to raise public understanding of transgenerational PTSD - its effects, new research, and the importance of proactive intervention with newly returning veterans. We advocate for appropriate health & mental health care for veterans, as well as for their families.
- Honor the Legacy: We carry a deep understanding of the toll that war takes on its soldiers and survivors. We have watched our veteran fathers (and mothers) relive nightmarish experiences, struggling to fit back in to their communities after returning home. Too often, those struggles are not successful. Many returning Vietnam Veterans were met with indifference or even hostility. As sons and daughters, we feel their trauma. For too long, their struggles have been invisible, their voices silent. Our fathers fought a war whose controversy divided the public, a war that occurred amidst unprecedented social upheaval. These factors colored their experiences in the jungles of Viet Nam, their return home, and their lives ever since. We are dedicated to telling their stories. In doing so, we aim to shed light on the aftermath of the Viet Nam war and the lessons of one of the most tumultuous periods in history.
STRATEGIES
To accomplish our mission, we employ three primary strategies:
- Provide online and in-person opportunities for daughters and sons of Viet Nam veterans to come together, share their stories, and learn from one another’s experiences
- Raise awareness about the effects PTSD on children of veterans through public outreach, dialogue, and providing a hub for related research and information
- Encourage and facilitate the creation and dissemination of art inspired by our experience as children of veterans
Art became a primary focus of DOVV after we began expanding our membership base, when we discovered how many of our members were talented artists who filtered their "Vietnam experience" through literature, painting, film, and music. We see art as essential expression, and as a crucial method of communication and understanding. Accordingly, we encourage all of our members in these pursuits, and we seek to help them find opportunities to share their creations with the wider public. In helping our brothers and sisters achieve success, we help the broader community to understand that children of veterans struggle with a unique history.
Awareness of PSTD and transgenerational PTSD are cornerstones of the DOVV's mission. PTSD was first classified in the third edition of the Diagnostic Service Manual (DSM III) in 1980. Before then, doctors had trouble explaining the emotional and psychological difficulties experienced by combat veterans. Although formal recognition of this condition led to enormous improvements in the aid and assistance offered to veterans, the effects of combat-related PTSD on veterans’ children has received little to no recognition.
A wealth of psychological literature now seeks to explain how combat-related PTSD affects children. This is, however, only the beginning. New studies suggest that PTSD may be intergenerational. PTSD can cause alterations in a person’s emotional well-being, personality, and even genetic makeup that can be passed on to his or her children. As a result, children who have never directly experienced the trauma of war may nonetheless feel its effects. DOVV seeks to remain up-to-date with new discoveries, and act as a resource for all children of veterans who are trying to understand themselves.
As the daughters (and sons) of Vietnam Veterans, we are the first generation of children to grow up with veteran fathers officially diagnosed with PTSD. We experienced, first hand, the manifestations of this condition. We believe that exploring and evaluating our experience is critical to developing a full understanding about the wide ranging effects of combat-related PTSD on the family. We are the first generation of children to have the benefit of understanding that this condition has played a role in our lives. Our observations and experiences are critical to advancing understanding about this condition --- not just for ourselves, but for future generations of children of veterans as well.
We believe our efforts are necessary for the growth, maturity and sustainability of the 21st Century Warrior Family, who will benefit from the knowledge and reflection of a generation of “children” experiencing this “new disorder.” Our goal is to educate the children of veterans and their families about the transmission and inheritability of PTSD from veterans to their children. We seek to expose, educate, and assist all children of veterans in receiving the clinical and community attention that they require and deserve.
Since 2006, "Daughters (and Sons) of Vietnam Veterans," has grown into a worldwide network of children of veterans that have found support, comfort and friendship in a community whose members share a common piece of history. Through art, film, literature, dialogue, and education, DOVV hopes to reach out to the children of veterans of Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and future international conflicts.
We are writing this mission statement on the anniversary of September 11, 2001. Since that day, tens of thousands of men and women have served overseas in Afghanistan and Iraq, and a new warrior class of citizens and their children are facing the war's personal aftermath. The Daughters and Sons of Vietnam Veterans were the first generation to experience and try to understand what it meant to grow up with a father suffering from combat PTSD. We hope that this new generation of children of veterans will not be forced to experience the isolation, confusion, and anxiety that we came to know so well.
