This fall I slowed down, stopped and lingered in a space I usually power walk through at Denver International Airport.
The walls just over the sky bridge and down the escalator to Concourse A featured about a dozen portraits by award-winning photographer Jason Myers of combat veterans waiting to sing to passersby what they struggle to say.
To listen, I scanned the QR code printed beside each portrait along with complete lyrics under titles, such as “The Man I Left Behind,” and “If I Never Walked Through Hell,” and “Don’t Give Up On Me.”
The “From War to Words” exhibit at DIA is a visual voices portrait series to raise awareness around the healing power of music and the visual arts — the mission of Nashville-based nonprofit CreatiVets.
The first portrait in the corridor features U.S. Marine and Army Staff Sgt. Jerry Majetich in full color with the lyrics to his song, “Another Day,” written in collaboration with country music duo, Love and Theft.
This vet suffered burns that destroyed his nose, ears, and right hand. Ultimately, burns covered 37% of his body in 2005 after his vehicle crossed an improvised explosive device in Al Dora, Iraq.
The blast disintegrated the vehicle’s rear half. Its impact also broke Majetich’s breast bone, which perforated his stomach and small intestines. Then, as he escaped the flames he got shot in his right shoulder and three times in his upper right leg in a firefight.
But his song addresses the invisible wounds combat vets battle — post traumatic stress and/or traumatic brain injury:
“…The scars here on the outside are easiest to see
But the ones here on the inside are worse for me…”
In 2012, the U.S. Department of Defence released statistics that revealed that one in five Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans — 300,000 vets by the end of that year — had been diagnosed with PTS. These veterans account for about 20% of suicides in the U.S.
The information activated Marine Corps veteran and Purple Heart recipient Richard Casper to co-found CreatiVets in 2013.
As an artist and entrepreneur in civilian life with a successful career composing music for TV and film, he hopes to give vets another opportunity to heal and invites them to apply at creativets.org to participate in one of the organization’s two all expenses paid core programs.
CreatiVets offers a three-week visual arts program that pairs vets either with The School of the Art Institute of Chicago or the University of Southern California’s art program in Los Angeles.
The music program that inspired the visual voices portrait series at DIA introduces vets to Nashville songwriters backstage at the Grand Ole Opry. Such song collaborations provide therapeutic expressions of the haunting horror, helplessness, and fear that can degrade quality of life for vets while honoring the fallen and the wounded.
One such CreatiVets collaborative song — “They Call Me Doc” — is a tribute to all “docs” (medics) written by veteran U.S. Navy corpsman Shaun Bott and others. Bott supported U.S. Marine convoy operations as a medic during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
The recording features Aaron Lewis with country music superstar Vince Gill and Dan Tyminski on vocals:
“They call me Doc
But I ain’t got no degree
When the s— hits the fan
They’re calling for me
From bluegrass Kentucky
With red blood on my hands
Nobody calls me hero
Except for my friends
Yeah, I’ve woke up from dreams to find out that they were real
I can tell you how it went, but I can’t tell you how it feels.
…Yeah, when they’re broke and bruised
I know just what I do
My job always starts when their job is through…”
CreatiVets songwriters and singers collaborated on this song to acknowledge the powerful negative feelings around such intense service and to offer a healthy way to release the troubling thoughts, insomnia, and isolation that can lead some vets into drug and alcohol abuse, strained marriages, dysfunctional parenting, job instability, violence and sometimes suicide.
All CreatiVets programming aims to dampen PTS symptoms, including depression and anxiety, and heighten quality of life for veterans and their families.
Many vets who participate in the artistic process around pain go on to learn how to play guitar and write songs to continue healing at home, according to the CreatiVets website.
For Majetich, writing “Another Day” through the CreatiVets music program ultimately put him on stage before a 60,000-person crowd at Nashville’s Nissan Stadium.
He and his wife appeared as honored guests during the Titans/Saints halftime show with Love and Theft as part of the salute to service there on Nov. 17, 2021.
Majetich has undergone 82 surgeries, including total nose reconstruction and skin grafts, for bullet and burn-related wounds at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
He sustained these injuries while on assignment as an Army staff sergeant in psychological operations to win hearts and minds in Iraq.
These days, he is on a similar mission in civilian life to reach others with a life affirming message of hope and thanksgiving through his song’s chorus:
“It’s the love of a beautiful woman
It’s the sun risin’ every mornin’
Every day, knowin’ I ain’t gonna
Waste a minute
It’s my faith that keeps me goin’
… Some days are better than others
But every day is a good day.”
Veteran’s Day is Nov. 11. To review CreatiVets’ featured music videos, please visit creativets.org/videos/.
Pam Mellskog can be reached at [email protected] or 303-746-0942. For more stories and photos, please visit timescall.com/tag/mommy-musings/.