By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
Local roots brought Anthony Luick, president and founder of American Veterans Quest for Peace, to Thomas More Prep-Marian High School Friday – as he graduated from the school, then known as St. Joseph’s Military Academy, in 1965. During his time in Hays, Luick delivered three lectures at the school during Homecoming weekend celebrations, enlightening students of the unintended consequences of having troops fight overseas and how he helps repair emotional wounds left behind for veterans.
“I really like talking to high school and university and high school students because this information isn’t being taught anymore,” he said.
Luick is a semi-retired clinical child psychologist and continues working with students in high school to find career paths as well as working with special-education students in the Tuscon, Ariz., area. Previously, he had 38 years in private practice.
But his most prolific endeavor may be his efforts to heal veterans left with emotional scars from deployments, especially veterans of the Vietnam War who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and other invisible scars.
Luick served in the Vietnam War just after graduation St. Joseph’s.
“I think Vietnam and the effects of Vietnam on veterans and family has really been lost,” he said. “The media and the public blamed the soldiers when they came back… It was our government that sent us to war, and we were simply soldiers that carried out our duties.
“Vietnam veterans were never treated the same as we returned,” Luick said.
His work with veterans includes taking them back to the places in Vietnam, helping their memories of the place shift from the dark fog of war, to the peaceful, scenic country Vietnam has become.
During his educational efforts Friday, Luick also pushed students to understand the true effects of war.
“People do not look at the true cost of the war and the intangible traumatic effects that are occurring,” Luick said, and with veterans returning from current deployments, repairing the damage might be even more difficult than in the past.
“I could see the PTSD was worse in Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and the reason is very simple: It’s the multiple tours. There’s no time for healing,” he said. “I think we are averaging many with eight tours now.”
But even with such staggering emotional burdens placed upon soldiers, the average American is greatly detached from current military actions.
“Less than half a percent of the American public have any attachment at all to military that has served in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Syria,” he said, pulling on past experiences to work towards healing current veterans.
“The correlation is rather amazing. … The statistics of the PTSD are almost identical to Vietnam veterans,” he said. “The American public needs to become aware” of the damage soldiers sustain fighting across the globe.
“I think the every citizen needs to get involved and support veterans in whatever way they can,” Luick said, noting Abraham Lincoln first pushed the idea of government support for veterans. “We have a responsibility.”
Despite the seriousness of the message Luick delivered Friday, he was also happy to credit the school as part of the reason he made it through the war to become the healer he is today.
While at SJMS, he served as a Cadet Colonel and Battalion Commander. One year later, Luick was drafted, commissioned as Second Lieutenant and sent to Vietnam from 1968 to 1969.
Many of his classmates also served during the war, with this year marking the 50th anniversary of their graduation.
Luick estimated nearly half of the classmates served in Vietnamn and credits the training from the school for preparing those classmates to serve without a single causality.
“I think it is due to our training we received here,” he said. “I know it saved my life in Vietnam.”
For more information about Luick’s work with veterans, click here, or watch a short video about his work here.