Our country was born of enduring principles and wrestled into existence through war. There is something flawed in the human condition that creates crucibles for oppression by ruthless people that generates the need for war. A seemingly endless cycle. The Bible says a time will come when the lion and the lamb will lie down together. We all hope for that. In the meantime, there will be wars and rumors of wars until the end of time, also says the Bible.

Children’s stories of the founding of our country make war seem romantic, like Washington crossing the Delaware. And many of the movies today portray war like it is a sporting event at which we can all cheer for the home team as Rambo takes out the base camp of evil terrorists.

The reality is quite a different story. The troops George Washington led had very difficult times under harsh conditions, with split public opinion on the wisdom of becoming independent versus the perceived comfort of being part of the British Empire. Reading first-hand accounts of the conditions soldiers lived with during the Civil War brings sober and somber perspectives to the most challenging era of American History, where principles about equality of race and tensions between federal control and states’ rights were enacted on many bloody battlefields.

Every person who fought had a story – many now untold – from our Revolutionary War to present day conflicts around the world. And let us not forget that stories of war are not intellectual exercises in political strategy. They are, at the core, stories of real people whose individual lives were sacrificed, scarred and changed because of political conclusions that war was necessary. We all know stories of friends and relatives whose lives were forever affected by the sacrifice of battle, allowing the rest of us to have more and better opportunities.

Many of our members are telling the stories of residents and clients who are veterans World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan. These stories are hard to tell, yet essential to our collective appreciation for the fact that what we enjoy does not come cheap and should not be trivialized.

In an introduction to a collection of stories compiled by Bobbie West entitled Vicars Remembers, which tells the tales of veterans living at Vicar’s Landing retirement community, Stephen Ambrose reflects: “There is scarcely any way for a veteran to convey…what he experienced while he was away. The rules and the values he had been raised with bear no resemblance to the great killing machine called war…Telling their stories is always difficult and rarely brings them any social satisfaction. Yet, there is always cathartic value in recovering these dormant memories.”

Another book, by John C. Scharfen of Falcons’ Landing, is entitled On Falcons’ Wings. Like the Vicars book, Colonel Scharfen collected great stories among the residents of one of our many military members. Stories like an officer who landed a damaged plane backwards or a resident like Bill Oller, who had to create an integrated system of petroleum supply for our armed services. Imagine the experience he could share with some of us as we seek to organize our work.

Rear Admiral Kathy Martin, CEO of Vinson Hall, another of our military members, was responsible for organizing America’s response to the tsunami in Asia. Kathy is now part of AAHSA’s Leadership Circle. She has much to teach us about organization through her experience.

Robert Waite Arnold is a resident of Culpepper Gardens, a HUD financed member. A Vietnam War veteran, Bob has been a construction engineer, a combat artist and a diplomat. He threatened to call the President of the United States about the behavior of a general, successfully argued for strong relations with Taiwan when political dynamics were swinging in another direction, and captured the photographic image of a mother duck with ducklings crossing a road in a combat fire fight in Vietnam. Bob’s art is now widely displayed.

And our colleagues at Westminster Canterbury have just published War Stories – Residents’ Military History. It offers a half-page profile of each of their veterans and tells in-depth stories of people like Edward Reeves Adams, who evaluated and tested torpedoes, and Navy Commander Carmelia Carswell Serota, who was a legal officer on the West Coast during World War II and assigned the duty of controlling liquor supply.

Christian Living Campuses in Denver has provided training classes to American soldiers about the values of loyalty, courage and commitment under fire to soldiers on their way to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lutheran Homes of Michigan raised money and chartered planes and buses to bring their World War II vets to Washington, D.C., so they could see the World War II memorial. Most were nursing home residents, so there was great risk involved with no incident. At a reception, a retired Army nurse came up to me and said her job was caring for the wounded and dying in the wake of the Battle of the Bulge. As she began to tell me about herself, she teared up, stopped herself and said, “Like the others, we still can’t talk about it.”

The story of Lutheran Homes’ trip inspired other AAHSA members to give their veterans the same opportunity. Pines Village Retirement Community in Valparaiso, Ind., raised more than $155,000 to sponsor its “Tour of Duty” trip to Washington, D.C., for nearly 40 veterans. A local newspaper reporter and photographer traveled with the group to document their journey of remembrance (watch the video).

Like these members, we must create cultures and programs to collect these stories. War stories. There would be no backyard barbecues in this land of opportunity called America without war stories. These are stories about real people who sacrificed immeasurably for the benefit of all of us in present and future generations. This is the great American story. It is what Independence Day is all about. Let us never forget the people that made it possible.