Old, new vets clash over IAVA chief comment

UPDATE
I was just talking to a Vietnam veteran about this and it brought up a very good point. What does "professional soldier" really mean to Rieckhoff?

Draftees vs. volunteers:

25% (648,500) of total forces in country were draftees.
(66% of U.S. armed forces members were drafted during WWII)

http://vietnamresearch.com/history/stats.html

Also from this site is this

Personnel

9,087,000 military personnel served on active duty during the Vietnam Era (5 August 1965-7 May 1975)



8,744,000 personnel were on active duty during the war (5 August 1964-28

March 1973)



3,403,100 (including 514,300 offshore) personnel served in the SE Asia

Theater (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, flight crews based in Thailand and sailors

in adjacent South China Sea waters).



2,594,000 personnel served within the borders of South Vietnam

( I January 1965 - 28 March 1973)



Another 50,000 men served in Vietnam between 1960 and 1964



Of the 2.6 million, between 1 and 1.6 million (40-60%) either fought in

combat, provided close combat support or were at least fairly regularly

exposed to enemy attack.



7,484 women served in Vietnam, of whom 6,250 or 83.5% were nurses.



Peak troop strength in Vietnam was 543,482, on 30 April 1969.

Now I suppose that Rieckhoff forgot that with 25% drafted, that would mean that 75% enlisted, much like the troops heading into Iraq and Afghanistan enlisted because of 9-11 and because their country needed them as well as the economy leading them to it. What about the nurses that served? Does he consider them "professional" or does he think they were drafted and forced to serve? See that's the problem here again. When it comes to the men and women serving this country now and the men and women we call veterans because they served then, most people do not try to separate them from each other. They have a bond and are rare to the rest of the people of this nation. If Rieckhoff needs any further explanation of the damage done by what he said he need look no further than the death of a man in his 60's. Maj. Steven Hutchison, was a Vietnam veteran and he went on to become a professor. After 9-11 he wanted to enlist again but his wife wouldn't let him. After she passed away he enlisted and just gave up his life in Iraq when a roadside bomb blew up. "Professional" well, I guess it all depends on who is doing the judging and what they want to prove. Rieckhoff managed to prove he is no veterans advocate but an advocate for his kind of veteran and not all of them! He also showed that while he may be bright, he has not been very smart or informed. This kind of work comes with a price that he was just not willing to pay. The price of learning what makes a veteran and what unites them.

Original Post

It's not just what Rieckhoff said this time that has everyone angry. It's been his attitude before this that this comment only added to the perception he doesn't have a clue about the older veterans, what they did, what they saw, what kind of people they are and what they managed to accomplish before he was even born.

This is from the Huffington Post where Rieckhoff posts often.

Paul Rieckhoff, 33, is the Executive Director and Founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). A non-partisan non-profit group with over 100,000 members around the world, IAVA was founded in 2004 and is America’s first and largest Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans organization. Rieckhoff was a First Lieutenant and infantry rifle platoon leader in the Iraq war from 2003-2004. He is now a nationally recognized authority on the war in Iraq and issues affecting troops, military families and veterans.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-rieckhoff

One year in Iraq gave this now 33 year old the impression he knows more and is better than all the other generations of veterans? The same veterans that fought for and made sure everything the newer veterans are receiving especially when it comes to PTSD being recognized? When I started to help veterans, he was in grade school! For Heaven's sake, when I grew up I was surrounded by 3 generations of veterans. My uncles were WWII veterans and my father was a Korean veteran and one of my cousins was a Vietnam veteran. It was the way Vietnam veterans were treated by the older ones when they came home that made them determined to take care of their generation plus all other generations of veterans since they all served the same nation. Why didn't he understand that?

No, it's not just this one comment but hundreds of times he's been on cable news talking about the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans as if they were the only ones that should matter even though they are responsible for everything his kind of veterans have topped off with the fact they have had to move to the back of the line to make sure his kind of veterans are taken care of. Ask a Gulf War veteran, Vietnam veteran, Korean veteran or WWII veteran how their appointments have been since they were pushed out of the way to make room for the newer veterans. If you think the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have problems, wait until you hear what's been happening to them but they don't have the spotlight so it'll be a very long wait. It's for sure Rieckhoff won't mention it.

One more thing he is clueless about is that PTSD has already been at crisis point about three years ago for the newer veterans and over 30 years ago for the older ones!

Old, new vets clash over IAVA chief comment

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday May 15, 2009 14:49:16 EDT

With five words, the executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America opened a rift among veterans groups that could derail efforts to improve mental health care and other benefits.

The dispute — with older veterans complaining that Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are getting too much attention and too much money while they wait in long lines for medical appointments — was sparked by a statement issued May 13 by Paul Rieckhoff, founder and chief of IAVA, about the fatal shooting of five service members at a counseling center in Iraq, allegedly by another U.S. service member.

Trying to put the reported case of friendly fire in perspective, Rieckhoff said: “Unlike during the Vietnam War, today’s military is an professional, all-volunteer force.”

He went on: “There have been only five cases of intentional fratricide by U.S. service members in Iraq. But these incidents, however rare, draw public attention to an important issue: the enormous stress on our armed forces. Much more must be done to address troops’ psychological injuries before they reach a crisis point.”

The phrase “Unlike during the Vietnam War” is being taken as a jab at the professionalism of Vietnam veterans. Joe Morgan, a Vietnam veteran and president of Veterans of Modern Warfare, said Rieckhoff’s statement has “stirred a fierce and justifiable outrage by all veterans, not just the Vietnam veterans he maligned.”

The head of the nation’s largest organization for combat veterans, Veterans of Foreign Wars, also criticized the statement, saying Rieckhoff “doesn’t need to be reminded that every entitlement, every service and every program Iraq and Afghanistan warriors enjoy — many of whom are VFW members — is because previous generations of, as he regrettably put it, ‘nonprofessionals’ demanded and fought to be properly recognized and respected for their service to our country,” said Glen Gardner Jr., VFW commander. “He owes a sincere apology to our brethren.”
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Old, new vets clash over IAVA chief comment