Steven Cousens (April 10, 1948–February 18, 1997)

By Fahad Mirza

Early Life

Steven Edward Cousens was born in Manhattan, New York, on April 10, 1948.¹ He enlisted in the US Navy in 1966 at the age of seventeen.² After the Vietnam War, he lived in Long Beach, California. It was there that he died on February 18, 1997, at the age of forty-eight.³ His father, Robert Douglas Cousens, died earlier in the same month on February 2, 1997, at the age of seventy-six, and was buried at Florida National Cemetery.⁴ A memorial marker in Florida National Cemetery also honors Steven Cousens’s legacy.⁵ Cousens’s mother, Theresa, died over a decade later on July 27, 2009 and was buried at Florida National Cemetery.⁶

Steven Cousens’s parents, Robert Douglass Cousens and Theresa A. Cousens (née Winkes) were married on April 18, 1945, in New York City.⁷ Steven Cousens was born three years later in New York City on April 10, 1948.⁸ It appears that Cousens had three siblings, but their names are unknown.⁹ Little is known about Cousens’s life because census data and other records have not yet been made public for veterans of his generation. However, it is known that Cousens’s father, Robert Douglass Cousens, fought as a Sergeant in the US Army Air Corps during World War II.¹⁰ Steven Cousens’s parents were married near the end of the war and may have benefited from the GI Bill, which provided support to veterans during unemployment and helped veterans attain higher education and own a “home, farm, or business.”¹¹ During the postwar years, there was a surge in the number of children born, and Cousens was born as part of this baby boomer generation.¹² It seems that Cousens moved to Florida and was living there, possibly in Sunrise, Florida, by at least 1965.¹³ From 1955 to 1980, migration from New York to Florida increased, making this interstate migration pattern one of the most common within the US.¹⁴ Cousens’s family most likely took part in this new migration pattern.

Military Service

Cousens enlisted in the US Navy on January 13, 1966, at the age of seventeen, probably in Florida.¹⁵ It is possible that his father’s service history played a part in his decision to enlist. In the Navy, Cousens held the rank of CYN3, meaning that he served as a Communications Yeoman.¹⁶ The details of his service remain private as the US government has yet to release all records from the Vietnam War. Cousens lived and died in Long Beach, California, following his time in the Navy.¹⁷ Therefore, it is likely that he worked at the Long Beach Naval Station on Terminal Island.¹⁸ As a Communications Yeoman he worked in an administrative capacity for the communications department on his ship.¹⁹ Cousens most likely never saw combat, but his work may have helped deliver important information and intelligence to keep his fellow servicemen alive. A photograph, seen here, shows Steven Cousens in what appears to be his Navy uniform.²⁰

Steven Cousens, Photo Courtesy of Natasha Cousens

Post-Military Life

Cousens was discharged from military service on March 19, 1969.²¹ He eventually settled in Long Beach, California.²² It is likely that Cousens’s reception home after the war was vastly different than that of his father’s. George C. Herring explains this difference between reception of World War II and Vietnam Veterans in America’s Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975, “Younger on the average by seven years than their World War II counterparts, having endured a war far more complex and confusing, Vietnam veterans by the miracles of the jet age were whisked home virtually overnight to a nation hostile to the war and indifferent to their plight. Some were made to feel guilt for the nation’s moral transgressions; others, responsibility for its failure. Most simply met silence.”²³ One Vietnam Veteran in California recalls having to be “escorted by police officers who kept the anti-war protesters away from the soldiers” as he returned home.²⁴

Some Vietnam Veterans had trouble adjusting to civilian life after their return and used drugs and alcohol to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder and other challenges resulting from their wartime experiences.²⁵ Indeed, Herring writes that, “The popular stereotype of the Vietnam veteran in the immediate postwar years was that of a drug-crazed, gun-toting, and violence-prone individual unable to adjust to civilized society.” ²⁶ Suicide and other mental health issues remain an issue for Vietnam Veterans today, and in 2012 Vietnam Veterans had one of the highest suicide rates of any group.²⁷ Despite these challenges, many Vietnam Veterans successfully readjusted to civilian life.²⁸

Research suggests that Cousens never married or had any children. His father, who was living in Deerfield Beach, Florida, died on February 2, 1997 and was put to rest in Florida National Cemetery.²⁹ Steven Cousens died sixteen days after his father on February 18, 1997 in Long Beach, California. A memorial marker in Florida National Cemetery pays tribute to his life and service.³⁰ His mother lived for over a decade more before she too passed away on on July 27, 2009 and was buried at Florida National Cemetery, where three of the Cousens family members will be remembered. The Cousens family, like many others families, shared their service and now are memorialized together in the America’s national cemeteries.³¹

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