The enduring solitude of combat vets


Retired Army Special Forces Sgt. Maj. Alan Farrell

Retired Army Special Forces Sgt. Maj. Alan Farrell is one of the more interesting people in this country nowadays, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War who teaches French at VMI, reviews films and writes poetry. Just your typical sergeant major/brigadier general with a Ph.D. in French and a fistful of other degrees.


This is a speech that he gave to vets at the Harvard Business School last Veterans’ Day. I know it is long but a lot of you can’t go outside anyway because of the hurricane: