A question for veterans

Louisville KY

Description

Looking for some feedback on a video project I had in mind. The preface: Although never having personally served, I’ve always found a very deep interest in listening to stories from those who have served in our military. I find it all super fascinating – from the good to the not. There is a part of me that enjoys it for the storytelling and hearing of your experiences, but there’s another part that hits me on a different level – the human part. The military isn’t just “the military” – it's husbands, wives, sons, daughters, moms, dads, aunts, uncles, etc. It's astounding to me the things a person can endure physically, mentally, and emotionally while in the military...and those things happen everyday to the people we care for. I think it’s easy for those who don’t have those experiences to sum up in their head what they think those in the military do and can easily spout out a generic “war is bad,” but they just don’t fully understand the gravity of it, the grit, the duty, the asks, the effects, the sacrifices, and etc…all the while taking everything around them for granted, not realizing how good we actually have it here. Maybe that’s harsh, but those are my honest thoughts. The real question: I’d like to create a YouTube channel dedicated veteran storytelling. The idea being, a veteran comes to my video studio, has a seat in front of a camera, and just tells a story. It could be a good one, it could be a story of your hardest day serving, what your experience was overall (expectation vs reality) – really open to whatever it is you’d want to share to anyone listening. You can leave whenever you want, if you book and decide it’s not for you the day of, no problem. Would this be okay/appropriate? My concern: My concern is this…I haven’t served. I do have veterans in my extended family and know other military families. What they did while in the military is only ever discussed at a high level, only in rare occasions is something really discussed in detail (even then, it's not really that detailed). Once I shut off the camera I go home and go about my day, but for the one telling their story…we just opened a book of memories that may be hard to discuss and may affect you for the rest of the day, week, or longer. And not just you, it may affect your family, as well. The last thing I want to do is negatively impact the person who was kind enough to sit down and tell me about their experiences. Thanks for sticking around this long. I have a habit of writing novels. Any and all feedback is welcomed. I just want to be sure I wouldn’t be harming anyone else for my curiosity and art. Shoot me an email with your thoughts if you have the time. Thanks so much for all you do and have done.