Lightning flashed, thunder crashed, and rain drummed on the roof of Margy’s Hut in August 2016 as Aspen Institute senior moderator Pete Thigpen led a dozen US men and women combat veterans through a discussion of “The Melian Dialogue,” by Thucydides.
Thigpen, a Marine Corps veteran from the 1960s, opened with a tutorial on how to lead a seminar. The seminar approach is used by Huts For Vets to introduce veterans to philosophical discussions conducted amid towering mountain peaks and plunging timbered valleys in the Hunter-Frying Pan Wilderness.
In summer 2016, during its fourth year, HFV for the first time invited alumni veterans to a training program preparatory to their guiding fellow veterans into the wilds and into the world of ideas. HFV plans to expand its programs to other huts and other locations, under the leadership of veterans.
In our discussions, the moral and ethical challenges of military service are appreciated by post-9/11 veterans who directly paid the price of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam and elsewhere. More than one veteran at the seminar table has described how those wars have colored their lives, often years after their homecomings.
Watch the Discussion Here
Moderator Training – The “Melian Dialogue” from Huts For Vets on Vimeo.
As Huts For Vets ramps up for five men’s and women’s programs in summer 2017, we celebrate having taken over 130 veterans into the Colorado wilderness to walk serene nature trails and plumb the philosophical depths many veterans have already pondered by facing the big questions: life, death, and the meaning of existence.
Primed by a syllabus of preassigned readings, veterans in HFV programs come to appreciate the merits of intellectual rigors as a complement to the physical rigors of hiking to Mt. Yeckel at 11,700 feet. Together, these physical and intellectual challenges provide a perspective shift that many veterans identify as the most positive, holistic healing experience they have ever undertaken.
Huts For Vets owes its existence to the 10th Mountain Hut System of Aspen and to the many funders and supporters who allow us to pay all costs for the veterans we serve.