Feels like home to me

Vietnam Veterans Reunion


Last Sunday the Nam Knights along with every other motorcycle group escorted the Vietnam Memorial Traveling Wall through the streets of Melbourne FL. The annual Vietnam and All Veterans Reunion began.



It gets harder and harder for me to overcome my heartache when so many people avoid one of the most important minorities in this country. We hear about the rights of African Americans and argue about Spanish immigrants in this country legally and illegally all the time. We seem to know more about them along with the latest scandal involving politicians, another minority, just as we hear abundant news regarding the celebrity scandals and their personal lives. What some people find important stories to know about astounds me.

When I am with people with no connection to the veterans or anyone serving today, I feel like I have very little to talk to them about. My Dad and all my uncles served in WWII and Korea. My husband's Dad and three uncles served in WWII, with one of them killed in action and another being so traumatized by his ship sinking that he had what was then called "shell shock" spending the rest of his life living on a farm. My husband, a disabled Vietnam Veteran and his nephew ended up with PTSD. My husband receives help to stay stabilized but his nephew ended up committing suicide. Veterans are a huge part of my life but few seem to understand or even care.

This blog alone is a great indication of the lack of attention the general public delivers. The most read post I've done on this blog or my older ones was about a Marine tossing a puppy off a cliff. The stories of heroism were passed over. The stories about suicides were passed over. Very little is read. When my videos were on YouTube, they were watched thousands of times while other videos were watched millions of times on various topics from comedy, to music, to people behaving like idiots looking for laughs.

Some people say they can't understand because they didn't serve. I didn't serve either but because I am personally involved, I'm personally committed to them.

23rd Annual Florida Vietnam and All Veterans Reunion
April 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 , 2010 at Wickham Park Melbourne, Florida
Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall®, April 18th - 25th, 2010

AGENDA FOR SATURDAY 4/24

10:00 AM - Line up for Massing of the Colors, back of Amphitheater
11:00 AM - Opening Ceremonies/Massing of the Colors
12:00 PM - LZ Helicopter Landing
1:00 PM - Two of Diamonds
2:00 PM - Doc Holiday
2:30 PM - Sweetwater Junction Band
3:30 PM - Patience Mason, at the Wall, Recovering from War - PTSD
4:00 PM - Doc Holiday
4:30 PM - Catlin Wehrly
5:30 PM - Suncoast Vietnam Vets "The Last Patrol"
6:00 PM - John Steer
6:45 PM - Doc Holiday
7:00 PM - Michael J Martin
8:30 PM - Doc Holiday
9:00 PM - Viva Rock Band
http://floridaveteransreunion.com/

This soldier was touched by the Wall and we talked for a little while. I thanked him for serving, which to some seems like a very small thing to do but considering that it is a certainty he enlisted, it was the least I could do. Vietnam veterans came home and no one thanked them.

But just as with years before the crowds came to see old friends and to honor the friends left behind. They came together to share stories and to remember that while few others will understand and even less will appreciate what they did, there is a bond that has yet to be broken.

Being with them feels like home to me so that I am able to help other generations and I never forget that the knowledge I have, the training I've taken, was all possible because of what they did when they came home and no one cared about them. They fought to have PTSD treated and compensated for. They made all the trauma related services possible, but again, few understand this. Yet another minority taken care of because veterans cared enough to make a difference. Not just for themselves, but for all generations. Not just for people with military histories to tell, but for all civilians affected by traumatic events.

So Monday I go back to work after a few hours of posting and talk to people without the slightest clue what it is like to be with these men and women, to talk to them and go beyond showing up for parades or to honor a coffin coming home. In my deepest prayers are prayers that everyone will embrace the chance to get to know them and really understand that for all we have, we owe most of it to them. No one likes war but we forget they would rather not have to go into combat either. No one wants war but we have them to thank when they are willing to go. If the subject comes up, it will be quickly changed by someone and I'll go with the flow until I come home and catch up on the emails and reports few others will ever read.

It's not like I have any real choice in the matter. Once you know them, once you understand them, once you really pay attention to all they go through, there is no way of going back to being oblivious. They make this all feel like home to me.

Veterans reunion celebrates 23 years of helping soldiers

When you look into the eyes of Bill Vagianos you see a hero. I don't use that term lightly. He came home from Vietnam and became an advocate for all veterans as well as working to take care of Orlando's homeless. He could have served his time with the Marines in Vietnam and then did nothing more other than just take a job, but Bill ended up with a mission that still has not ended. He is still watching the backs of his brothers.

It's no secret how I feel about Vietnam veterans and Bill is one of the greatest examples of why I adore them as much as I do.

I am very glad that Norman Moody wrote this because there are so many people working very hard to help veterans and most people never hear about them.

"The premise behind it when we started was never again will another generation of veterans be treated like that," said Bill Vagianos, the immediate past-president of the Vietnam and All Veterans of Brevard. "You may object to the war and the politics, but don't blame the warrior."

Veterans reunion celebrates 23 years of helping soldiers
Event aided Cocoa man, and he's been a part of it ever since
BY R. NORMAN MOODY • FLORIDA TODAY • April 19, 2010


As point man during the Vietnam War, Ken Baker kept a watchful eye for danger at the front of foot patrols.

After he came home critically injured and spent a year in hospitals, he withdrew. He stayed away from public places. He avoided being at the front of anything.

"I was a hermit," he said. "We did a lot of things ourselves. We didn't like crowds. I didn't like the grocery store."

It took several years, but Baker came to terms with his injuries and the post-traumatic stress disorder, building relationships with fellow Vietnam veterans, which eventually led them to the formation of the Vietnam Veterans of Brevard in 1985.

Baker once again became a point man of sorts.

Over the years, he has served in every role for the 300-member organization that in 2005 became the Vietnam and All Veterans of Brevard. This week, the group hosts its 23th annual reunion at Wickham Park in Melbourne, billed as the largest veterans' gathering in the nation.

Organizers say it attracts tens of thousands of veterans, their families and other visitors.

Baker, 61, of Cocoa said the idea for a reunion grew from those early days, when members of the group went to see the 1986 movie "Platoon." The reunion marked a turning point for Baker and others suffering from the emotional effects of war.

The group is working to get judges to understand and take defendants' PTSD into consideration and helping to establish an Honor Flight chapter in Brevard County, a group that takes World War II veterans to Washington, D.C. It also runs a yearly Stand Down, a one-day event to help homeless veterans with personal needs.

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Veterans reunion celebrates 23 years of helping soldiers

Brevard County Veterans Memorial Garden gets new monument

New monument honors Vietnam vets
BY R. NORMAN MOODY • FLORIDA TODAY • May 6, 2009


Veterans installed the second in a series of monuments -- this one in honor of those who served in Vietnam -- that will be part of the Brevard Veterans Memorial Garden.

The garden, to be built in the shadow of two Vietnam-era helicopters and a tank, will have a central monument with brick walkways, benches, landscaping and memorials to those who served in the different wars.

The granite monument installed Tuesday will be repositioned once the memorial garden is built.

Skip Bateman, chairman of the Brevard Veterans Council, said they have been waiting for permitting from the county, but that work on the monuments is proceeding.

The Korean War monument was the first to be installed about a year ago.

"As long as we keep doing stuff, we know it's going to happen," Bateman said.
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http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20090506/NEWS01/905060327/1006

100,000 People expected to attend Melbourne Vietnam Veterans Reunion

Vietnam reunion. Tessa Dejong who goes to Bishop Moore High School in Orlando traces a name for a school project. They have to research a person that is on the wall.

Brevard's Vietnam vets tribute grows
Event now largest reunion in U.S.
BY R. NORMAN MOODY • FLORIDA TODAY • April 24, 2009
What started as an idea among a small group of Vietnam veterans for a reunion became what was considered a "super turnout" when about 3,000 people showed up in 1988.

As Florida's 22nd Annual Vietnam and All Veterans Reunion continues its run this week at Wickham Park, it has evolved and has grown into what is billed as the largest veterans' reunion in the nation.

"We just did it as a 'welcome home,' " said Ken Baker, who was among those who organized the first reunion in 1988. "We had no idea. We were happy with the turnout of 3,000 people."

Veterans estimate that, by the time the weeklong events surrounding the reunion and the display of the Vietnam Traveling Memorial Wall ends Sunday, it will have attracted up to 100,000 people.

Baker said a member of at-the-time newly formed Vietnam Veterans of Brevard, went to a reunion in Kokomo, Ind., which then was the largest in the nation, and came back with the idea for a reunion in Brevard County.
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Brevard's Vietnam vets tribute grows
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