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.

Veteran Marine-Ex-Police Officer Going Through Veterans Court

Former officer, ex-Marine pleads guilty to domestic violence 
by Associated Press 
June 21st 2017

XXXXXXX pleaded guilty June 12 to aggravated assault, a second-degree felony, as he was admitted into Veteran's Court in Provo.

PROVO, Utah (AP) — A former police officer and ex-Marine has pleaded guilty to domestic violence charges and was admitted to a specialty treatment program for veterans. 

Deseret News reports the prosecutor says the resolution will prevent 30-year-old former West Jordan Police officer XXXXXXXX from ever again wearing a uniform and will ensure he gets help for his post-traumatic stress disorder. read more here

Veteran Navy SEAL Arrested, Press Doesn't Wonder Why?

"Former Navy SEAL arrested for drug smuggling"

James Dennis "JD" Smith Jr. was arrested Saturday in Charlotte, North Carolina. He's charged with conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute at least 700 kilograms (over 1,540 pounds) of marijuana, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday. 

Smith, who served 16 years as a Navy SEAL, was awarded a bronze star during his tour in Iraq and a Special Operations Medic of the Year Award, according to the website of a global security and crisis management consulting firm where he was listed as a Principal Associate of Security Operations. A company official told CBS News that the firm had not heard from or employed Smith for the past five years.   read more here

So, you got the headline, now ask yourself what CBS should have asked. How does this happen to a Navy SEAL who served all those years, risked his life to save others, end up doing this? 

Air Force Al Udeid Air Base Hep and HIV Exposure?

Air Force: 135 Patients May Have Been Exposed to HIV, Hepatitis
Military.com
by Oriana Pawlyk
20 Jun 2017

The Air Force said patients with questions or concerns may reach out to their healthcare resolution specialist at the following contacts: U.S. Eastern Daylight time zone or outside the continental U.S.: (937) 656-3818; U.S. Pacific or Mountain time zone, Hawaii, or Alaska: (707) 423-3443; and Central time zone: (228) 376-5603.

FILE -- Air Force doctors perform a diagnostic procedure on a patient. (Air Force File Image)

The U.S. Air Force is notifying 135 patients who received colonoscopy or endoscopy procedures at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar that they may have been exposed to blood-borne diseases such as HIV or hepatitis.

Air Force Medical Services announced Tuesday that scopes used for the upper and lower gastrointestinal procedures over an eight-year-period from April 2008 and April 2016 at the base clinic were not properly cleaned in accordance with Food and Drug Administration guidelines, Office of the Air Force Surgeon General spokeswoman Larine Barr told Military.com on Wednesday.

As a result, patients could have been exposed to possible viral infections that include human immunodeficiency virus, known as HIV, "and two kinds of Hepatitis (B and C)," Barr said. "The risk of infection is very small, particularly in a deployed environment, but we recommend that patients receive diagnostic testing," she said in an email.
read more here

Oops! Texas Politician "Duped" or Confused?

State Rep. Matt Schaefer said his office was "grossly misled" about white nationalist rally
Tyler Morning Telegraph
Written by ROY MAYNARD
20 June 2017

State Rep. Matt Schaefer says his office was duped by a group portraying itself as a veteran’s organization, but was later found to have ties to the “alt-right” and racist views.

“No good deed goes unpunished,” said Schaefer on Tuesday. “My office was contacted by a man who wanted some logistical help in getting approval and a microphone set up on the Capitol steps for a rally. My staff did what it is there to do - help constituents. But as soon as we found out what this group is, we withdrew the request.”

State Rep. Matt Schaefer, R-Tyler, on the House floor on Jan. 11, 2017. Photo by Marjorie Kamys Cotera

“We were asked, with rather short notice, to accommodate a party to be hosted Sat June 17,” the post reads. “The group represented themselves to our staff as ‘TBT’ and that they were a ‘Veterans group.’ While we searched for information on ‘TBT Veterans’ we found nothing good or bad and confirmed the booking. There was no mention of participating in a march or their actual name. Based on today’s events we now understand they misrepresented themselves and misled our Scholz events team, management and staff. Please rest assured we would never give any group on the side of hate a platform for any reason.”

Jim Brennan with the Texas Coalition of Veterans Organizations said this is a distressingly common problem.

“We represent about 600,000 Texas veterans,” Brennan said. “The challenge, over the years, has been people claiming their group is representing veterans. Now they may have individual members who had served in the military, but that doesn’t mean the group is legit, or that it’s doing anything at all on behalf of veterans.”

He said his own organization serves as a clearinghouse for information on legitimate veterans groups.

“If you have a question about a group, come to us,” he said. “We make an effort to check out every organization, to make sure they’re helping veterans.”
read more here