Letters

CREDIT-WORTHY COVER

Thanks to The VVA Veteran for giving Bob Lafoon a photo credit for both the cover photo and the inside use of the same photo with Marc Leepson’s “No Compromise, No Hesitation.” We both served in the  Department of the Army Special Photographic office (DASPO). Our work is featured in a video about our unit titled “The Vietnam War as Filmed by the Unseen Warriors,” which was advertised on page 42.

Bob was and is a terrific photographer. A portfolio of his work from the war is well worth publishing in a future volume of your magazine.

Bryan Grigsby
Retired Photo Editor
The Philadelphia Inquirer

PULLING HEART STRINGS

Thank you for your great magazine. Anne Watts and I were in Kontum in 1969-70. She was a nurse at an orphanage, and I was a Mess Sgt. on a small signal compound. I happened to be in the post office one morning where I met an American nurse. She said she was Sister Mary Margaret Moore, a nurse at Dr. Pat Smith’s orphans’ hospital. We had a very nice and brief conversation. She detected an accent, and I told her I had emigrated from Ireland in ’65, got drafted in ’67, and here I am in Kontum.

She invited me to come to the orphanage, which is where I met Anne. I was so moved and saddened by the little kids. It was hard to see the brutal conditions they suffered. We had excess food, including milk, fruit, and canned goods. By pulling a few strings with my commander I was able to donate quite a lot to the kids and the hospital. To be able to give a cup of milk or an apple or orange to those little kids made me cry as I looked at their innocent faces and smiles. It felt good that such a small gesture had so great an effect.

About ten years ago I read an article about Kontum that mentioned Anne Watts. I wrote to her, and we have remained in contact. I have read both of her books.

I live in Missouri, far from the west coast of Ireland. We have a lot of Vietnam veterans. I am a member of Branson Chapter 913. I am very happy you shared Anne’s story. She is a true hero who has repeatedly placed herself in harm’s way to take care of the victims of war.

John Whelan
By Email

SECOND TO NONE

The last issue of The Veteran touched my heart dearly. As an operating room and emergency nurse in Nam in ’68-’69, I can relate to many of the articles. I have a caption correction for “Lessons Not Lost.” The September 1969 photograph of Capt. Bernice Scott was taken at the 2^nd Surgical Hospital when it was in Lai Khe—not Long Binh. I know because I was her tent mate when she was assigned there in late spring of ’69.

There were eight women nurses stationed there and we shared two tents. Her husband, Mark, was an officer with Big Red One and visited when his unit came in from the field. The 2^nd Surg arrived in-country in ’66 in An Khe/Qui Nhon to support the 1^st Cav. It moved to Chu Lai in ’67 and grew to more than three hundred beds. This hospital was then taken over by the 312^th Evacuation Hospital reserve unit from Winston-Salem, N.C. 

The 2^nd Surg moved December 1968 to Lai Khe and was converted to a MUST unit (Medical Unit Self-Contained Transport). It was one of four used during the Vietnam War as a new model for a MASH-type unit. These were expandable, mobile shelters with inflatable ward sections. Expandable sections were also provided for the radiology, laboratory, pharmacy, and kitchen areas. The three operating rooms were each similar to half of a semitrailer truck with all parts fixed in place for secure transport and quick set up.

Time was critical for care of the wounded. So we were placed closer to the fighting for quick trauma care and transport to evacuation hospitals. Our motto was “Second To None.” It was an honor to serve with this great hospital unit. Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8L3-MTpKNc for a video on the set up for a MUST unit.

Kate O’Hare-Palmer
Santa Rosa, California

In many hours at the National Archives in College Park, Md., I’ve often been awed by the diligent note-taking of combat photographers in the Vietnam War. It’s a testament to their professionalism and their commitment to preserve an accurate historical record.  —Michael Keating, Editor

MORE INFO

Anyone wishing to read more about Maj. Charles Kelly would do well to pick of a copy of Dead Men Flying, written by Patrick Henry Brady, in which Kelly’s actions, leadership, and legacy are discussed at length. Brady, who was quoted in the article, learned his trade directly from Maj. Kelly.

Harold Mauck
By Email

A MORE PERFECT SELECTION

I disagree with many points of the article “Selective Service” by Loana Hoylman.

The thesis of Hoylman’s article was that of racial inequity among males during a military draft. She based her opinion on chosen period statistics. Overall, there were 13.5 percent draft-age black males in America and 12.5 percent died in Vietnam.

First, military services are not educational institutions. They only do training. Inductees must be trainable on induction regardless of their future potential. During war, not having basic education and skills on induction often means combat assignments under direct supervision. Combat translates into wounds or death.

To even imply that minorities are targeted by this system (which she does) is giving a false impression of the actual statistics and events; yet she does not even mention the greatest disparity of all and that’s females who are completely exempt from selective service. Why? Is this coterie genetically or racially inferior to males? During World War II the average Japanese soldier was 5’4” tall at 120 pounds. The Japanese, North Koreans, and Vietnamese were not formidable enemies?

As written, the selective service law has always preyed on the poor and under-educated. When only a few serve, they are usually the poor and under-educated. This is a given, no epiphany here. In the American Civil War draft riots killed a thousand in New York alone. From World War I to the Vietnam War educational and physical deferments favored the wealthy who often hid “with honor” in the Reserves and National Guard.

Hoylman is correct in that regard; however, she also failed to mention, instead of drafting the wealthy, we are now “back dooring” the draft by sending ill-equipped and untrained National Guard troops into combat (aka, the poor). It’s legalized segregation and murder. Would you like serving in combat with your neighbors?

When the draft is used without deferments, especially females, society will be equal and honor those who have served be-

cause all will be eligible. To not even mention these salient areas detracts from the validity of her theory and intent. 

Ron Parsons
By Email

RACE AND RANCOR

The article “Selective Service, Funneling the Poor and Working Class into Combat” appeared to have been written not as a factual, unbiased commentary but rather as an exposé on the evils of America. The author seems to have an agenda consistent with Christian Appy, who is cited as an authority on the Selective Service. This is the Professor Appy who teaches the subject “Imperial America” at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (need I say more?), who refers to the Vietnam War as a “failed and brutal war of American aggression.”

Now for some specifics on this article’s selective use of statistics and inferences to further its agenda of depicting our government as evil:

The author cites a University of Notre Dame study which states: “Men from disadvantaged backgrounds were about twice as likely as their better-off peers to serve in the military, to go to Vietnam, and to see combat.” I refer our readers to a study published in 1996 by the University of North Carolina Press titled “Who Fought in Vietnam,” which concludes “there was no significant relationship between race and getting sent to Vietnam or an assignment to combat arms.”

Whenever authors use the word “privileged” referring to the white race, you can be sure that they are proselytizing one of the political left’s twisted social theorems. I refer you to black scholars Shelby Steele, Walter Williams, and Thomas Sowell for their comments on “white privilege.”

Let’s look at some other data concerning Vietnam War draftees. In reference to the author’s statement that “Not everyone was a draftee, of course. Many volunteered,” the reader should know that 75 percent of total forces in country were volunteers. Of the total draftees during the period 1965-73, only 38 percent served in Vietnam.

An excellent reference to draftee statistics is B.G. Burkett’s well-researched and footnoted book Stolen Valor, specifically the chapter, “The Minority Myth, Blacks In Vietnam.”

By my personal experience as a combat infantry soldier with the 199^th LIB in 1969 and referring to the yearbook of the 3/7 Bn. for that period, the percent of minorities was 12-15 percent.

 Kerry O’Hara
By Email

The history of the Selective Service System is unwieldy, and many books have and will be written about it. A comprehensive review is not possible in a magazine article. I assigned the article after hearing for many years conflicting stories about whether blacks and the poor served in unusually high numbers.

The author concluded, after reviewing the government statistics, that, not surprisingly, the poor carried more than their share. Blacks, the numbers showed, were overrepresented at the beginning of the war. But perhaps the article’s most salient observation is that the local draft boards were amazingly autonomous.

The charge of a leftist plot to defame America is unfounded. The poor have always carried more than their share in every war that every nation ever fought. —Michael Keating, Editor

SHOULDER TO SHOULDER

J.E. Vesely in the March/April “Letters” says he feels abandoned by VVA. I question either his motive for such a statement or his lack of knowledge of the history of Vietnam veterans, i.e., our treatment upon returning from the war. We were shunned by the very public that supported our going over there to stop the spread of communism. Unlike Vesely, who returned to flag-waving parades and throngs of supportive Americans, we returned to being called baby killers and rapists, spit upon, and having feces and other rotten objects thrown at us. It got so bad we had to change into civvies before boarding our Freedom Bird to go back to The World.

The next slap in the face came from veterans service organizations that rejected our membership applications because we only served “in an advisory capacity.” My recollection is that only the American Legion accepted our membership applications back then. This is what Marsha Four spoke of.

Did we abandon you? No. If you look at the archives of our activism on the behalf of all veterans—Vietnam, Panama, Grenada, Desert Storm/Shield, Bosnia Peace Keeping, Iraqi Freedom, and Afghanistan—we have been there mentoring and supporting these veterans in fighting for the benefits they’d earned by their service.

We’ve done this over the years because we didn’t want to see you suffer at the hands of the VA and Congress like we did. Agent Orange is the toughest fight we took on from the beginning, and we’re still fighting. We’re shoulder to shoulder with you fighting for help with Gulf War Syndrome.

Please, Mr. Vesely, before you criticize your brothers- and sisters-in-arms, please get the facts.

Terry D. Monté
Daytona Beach, Florida

DEMOCRACY AT WORK

I am a Vietnam veteran in San Quentin prison who began writing essays last year about how badly the VA treats incarcerated veterans. I sent my essays to places I hoped would help. The VVA Veteran published several of them in the Letters section, which taught me two things: The Veteran does try to help and my writing needs a lot of editing.

Getting published gave me motivation to keep on trying. As a result, something happened that I would have never expected. I got a letter from Sen. Johnny Isakson, chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. He thanked me for my input and promised to keep my concerns in mind.

I got an adrenalin rush that had me bouncing off the walls for a week, then my sanity returned. I’m awed that a vet in prison can communicate with one of our nation’s leaders and be treated with courtesy and consideration. It proves that democracy works—if we participate. And it makes Sen. Isakson one of my heroes.

James B. Dunbar
San Quentin, California

CLOSING THE DOOR

If the delegates at Convention voted twice to keep the organization for Vietnam veterans and let it die with the last man, why spend two hundred thousand dollars to research an alternate plan? Spend the money on a plan for closing the door when we are all done.

Steve Klosz
By Email

OVER AND OUT

Please save your money and do not mail me this magazine any more. I do not enjoy it and I do not agree with its views. 

Jeff Spenzer
By Email 

RENEWAL

Project RENEW (January/February) was a refreshing story about helping the people of Vietnam. I went back in 1999, and I can attest to the misery we inflicted on their population with unexploded bombs and the effects of Agent Orange. Keep up the good work of saving lives.

Also, on the issue of allowing veterans to be in VVA and furthering our legacy: I remember how rejected I was and how alone I felt when I came home. There must be a way to reach out to our younger brothers and sisters to include them.

Richard J. Dix
Toston, Montana

As an addendum to Claudia Gary’s article in the January/February issue, “Liver Flukes,” more than just Vietnam in-country vets are at risk. Those who served in Thailand were exposed to the same species of liver fluke. Those along Korea’s DMZ were exposed to a different species of liver fluke, but were also at risk of bile duct cancer from drinking questionable water or eating locally prepared foods. Studies have shown that

Korean War vets had a lot of liver problems of the same nature some of us are now experiencing. They just didn’t piece it all together in time.

Brian Carn
Providence, Rhode Island

EXPECTING TOO MUCH

I enjoyed reading “Writing to Heal” (January/February). I contacted Ron Capps as soon as I finished reading it. My son died in January, and I had decided to write his life story in the hope it might help others. The article led me to believe the program was mainly designed to help veterans diagnosed with PTSD.

Ron gave me an email address so I could contact the workshop in my area. I did, and found out that “Writing To Heal” doesn’t focus on therapeutic value. Rather, it focuses on improving one’s writing skills.

I told Ron Capps I was disappointed to hear the program didn’t really focus on PTSD recovery. I re-read it to make sure I read it right the first time. I guess I expected too much.

Jared Kelley
By Email

WRITING FOR VETERANS

Your January/February cover and article on writing for veterans and therapy was not only spot on, excellent, and compassionate, but showed ways of keeping vets alive. I have been advocating for this a very long time. My VVA chapter, 351 in Appleton, Wisconsin, is incorporating writing into our education program.

A nonprofit called Veterans Voices Writing Project in Kansas City produces an excellent magazine called Veterans Voices. Every article and poem—and the art work—is done by a vet.

Rich Angard
By Email

A JOYFUL NOISE

I was part of a MACV advisory team in Quang Tin Province (I Corps) in 1969.

We numbered too few to warrant a team chaplain, so on Sundays (considering conditions) we would walk the short distance to the Protestant church, led by Rev. Cang N. Dang.

The church had a piano, which was played by Cang’s oldest boy. It also had a few dozen hymnals, printed in Vietnamese. Our Western music uses a seven-note octave, whereas Vietnamese music needs only five notes per octave. That may explain why their music sounds strange to us and vice versa.

Rev. Cang would ask the assemblage of barefoot rice farmers and their families to turn to a given page. Most could not read—in any language. Some would turn the books upside-down, others to the wrong page, or not even bother with a book. They had memorized the songs.

Vietnamese is a highly inflected language. That is, if you inflect a given word up, level, deep, or undulating, when it should be pronounced down, you have uttered the wrong word. So, I wondered what was going to happen when the music required a rise in tone, but the text demanded a drop.

Sure enough, when they began to sing, it was the most ghastly assault on my ears I had ever heard. About the time I was steeling myself to the noise, the Holy Spirit “nudged” me and said, “Look at their faces!” I turned to see those little brothers and sisters with their faces and hands raised and singing their hearts out in praise of God.

That lesson has been a part of my life ever since. From that moment, I knew what it is to “make a joyful noise” to the Lord. A combat zone need not be a completely negative experience. Sure, we took enemy fire and returned it. But know this: God doesn’t love the North Vietnamese any less than He does you or me. To this day, I pray that those who survived enjoy their grandchildren and great-grandchildren as much as I do mine.

Ken Derringer
Hyattville, Wyoming

Caught My Eye I received the March/April issue of The VVA Veteran and sat down to read it after having supper. Your article, “The Most Beautiful Sound I Ever Heard” was great reading. The photo of the front of the copter caught my eye, and something looked really real to me. I pulled out some photos I had taken fifty years ago, and there were the same two figures painted on the front of the Huey in your article. The picture was taken at the Cam Ly airstrip, Dalat area of II Corps. I traveled down to the Lancaster Airport, located the hanger where the restoration is taking place, and met some of the men and women working on the project. They were amazed when I showed them my photo. It was like a reunion, talking about the where, when, and why of all we had experienced. I was a Sergeant in the USAF, stationed at OL-25 (Operating Location-25), call sign TeePee, in the Dalat area. OL-25 was a radar site that directed air strikes. I am a life member of Chapter 542 in Harrisburg, Pa. Your publication is the best. Greg Gaffney Harrisburg, Pennsylvania