Vietnam Veterans Need to Feel Their Power or Be Forgotten Again

I'm going to keep this really simple for a change since it has all been covered before. After the "Vietnam Veterans Day" speeches and Welcome Homes are done, what happens when you go back home? Still feel along? Feel as if no one really cares? Gee, you may even feel as if you got forgotten all over again. Well buddy, time to think again!

In the 60's, you faced the draft and protestors. You faced many deciding to do whatever possible, use whatever connections they had to avoid joining you.

In the 70's Forgotten Warrior Project was how researchers began to understand what combat was doing to those we sent to fight our battles. This is when the term was changed to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

At least among researchers while it took the VA and Congress a little longer to address it. None of it would have happened if Vietnam veterans didn't fight for the research, treatment and compensation.

In 1982, the Vietnam Memorial Wall was going up, along with the wall within your own head.

The fact is, while you are forgotten, you need to notice one very important fact in all of this.

You are the majority of veterans in this country so if you come up on a charity only interested in OEF and OIF veterans, a politician only interested in what they need, remember that very powerful fact.
Gary Sinise: Why The Vietnam War Still Matters

While no wound, no outcome is different than any other war, it seems that this country has yet again forgotten about the majority of the veterans, which is the group you belong to.


Vietnam War

Casualty Category	Number of Records
ACCIDENT	9,107
DECLARED DEAD	1,201
DIED OF WOUNDS	5,299
HOMICIDE	236
ILLNESS	938
KILLED IN ACTION	40,934
PRESUMED DEAD (BODY REMAINS RECOVERED)	32
PRESUMED DEAD (BODY REMAINS NOT RECOVERED)	91
SELF-INFLICTED	382
Total Records	58,220

Amputations happened before OEF and OIF

Almost 21,000 major amputations were documented in the Union Army during the Civil War. Over 4,000 amputations were performed on U.S. service personnel during World War I and almost 15,000 service members had major amputations during World War II. During the Korean War, over 1,000 Army personnel suffered traumatic amputations, while others lost body parts due to frostbite and other cold injuries. An estimated 6,000 amputations occurred during the Vietnam War and 15 were documented during the Gulf War. Even during peacetime, an estimated 20 members of the Army per year experience traumatic amputations. Clearly the VA has a special obligation to ensure that individuals with service-related traumatic amputations receive high-quality care at our facilities. 

It is in large font because I went to the eye doctor the other day and I need stronger glasses. I know what it like to read tiny print AND THEN WONDER WHAT YOU MISSED! Hope you got that message loud and clear. 

You acted and kept them from taking away your unemployable comp and now you have to act again so that your families actually discover that they do matter too. Contact Congress about expanding the Caregivers coverage. We waited longer doing all the same things the other families are doing only we did it a lot longer.