Additional Information
            2:00     2013

In 1919 the Virginia War History Commission sent questionnaires to state veterans of World War I (www.lva.virginia.gov/public/guides/opac/wwiqabout.htm). My grandfather dutifully typed in the information requested in the War Record section: "Inducted into service," Trained or stationed abroad," "Participated in the following engagements," "Nature of casualty," "Under medical care," "Discharged from service at," etc. But when he reached the section headed Additional Information with its questions about the effects of the war, he stopped, put the questionnaire away, and never sent it in. Why didn't he answer these questions? Was the war too close? Are they, indeed, answerable? What would his answers have told me about this man I never knew? It's a void--a negative space. The Veterans Administration declared my grandfather totally disabled in 1936. In 1939 he died of long term effects of exposure to poison gas. Composed for SEAMUS Miniatures 2013.