YOUNGSTERS ON THE BYWAYS

Thank you for the photo on the front cover of the May/June issue. It takes me back to our days on the road with the youngsters who got most of our candy ration and to whom we also gave medical care at the schools and orphanages along the highways and byways of II Corps.

George Edward Brown
By Email

BE IN PEACE

I want to thank TP Hubert for remembering Craig R. McLaren, proud Sky Soldier. As former Chair of the VietNow Veterans Incarcerated Committee, I got to know Craig like the brother I never had. As with Terry, he would send me copies of The Eagle and holiday cards with signatures of fellow veterans incarcerated. He also crafted a beautiful leather wallet with my service insignia.

But more than that, Craig truly cared about his fellow vets. He had their backs. I regret that, working with Craig and his sister, I was unable to provide him with parole. I will never forget my bro or all the other forgotten veterans incarcerated. Be in peace, my brother.

Matt Davison
By Email

FLYING BIKINI

I got to Vietnam in April of 1967. I was in Pleiku for two tours. I was with the 102nd Engineers. We were not allowed to shoot back no matter what. So in October 1968

I transferred to Camp Holloway to 1st Aviation. They placed me in the 170th Assault Helicopter Company. I flew with Mr. Foresyth most of the time and Captain Crunch. I also flew in Huey 823. If I’m not mistaken, Mr. Mowry was the pilot.

I still have my flying bikini patch (see March/April issue). I’ve saved it in plastic all these years. I would love to ride in her again and to see it when it’s finished. But there is no way that I can get to Pennsylvania. Agent Orange has taken its toll on me. God bless all Vietnam veterans.

Micheal L. Holland
By Email

FOOTNOTE TO CAPTIONS

Thank you for running my note in the May/June Letters section. Your comments about the quality of military captions in the photo files at the National Archives facility in College Park, Md., reminded me of the lengths we went to back then to identify our photo content. In the Department of the Army Special Photographic Office we had a very strict format for identifying operations, names, and subject matter in every assignment we photographed—both still and motion picture. There was even a sound recording info card.

Our captions contained a cover page for the master caption, followed by a summary, and then shot-by-shot info captions for each frame. We could only forego getting names, ranks, units, hometowns, etc., when engaged in actual combat. Because we shot 12- and later 24-frame medium-format film, we didn’t shoot as much on a roll as a cameraman using 35mm format.

After we finished an assignment we returned to our villa outside Tan Son Nhut, typed captions from our notes recorded in the file, and packaged our film for mailing back to Washington, D.C., where it was processed and edited. Weeks later we received an in-house critique of the quality of our efforts.

A great deal of effort was spent on improving our technique. That was true both for new guys like us and the seasoned NCOs who often shot alongside us. Content was always important, along with technical considerations.

I remember our First Sergeant once telling a group of us in the Ft. Shafter, Hawaii, office that someday our pictures would be in history books. At the time it seemed farfetched. Now? Ken Bridgham was a very smart man. Time and history are catching up with us.

Bryan Grigsby
By Email

FASHION STATEMENT

I am extremely disappointed that you would feature on the cover of our magazine a veteran’s shirt which VVA has been unable to make available through the VVA store or anywhere else.

Memorial Day is very important to VVA members. That shirt is ideal for Memorial Day.  

Featuring an unavoidable shirt on the front cover of the July/August 2016 VVA magazine was a gross editorial failure and disgrace!
Enough said.

Mel Majesty
By Email

CONCERN FOR INCARCERATED

I really enjoyed the most recent issue with the Veterans Incarcerated Committee Report about the prison near Cleveland that has a veterans unit. Missouri Department of Corrections is looking into that, and the staff here at Moberly Correctional Center is using the article. Thank you.

Missouri Department of Corrections is finally looking into the needs of incarcerated veterans with PTSD/TBI. A pilot program, called the Veterans PTSD Group, was created at MCC. It is funded by Corizon, a health provider, and the books were supplied by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Eight veterans participate in the program. The facilitator is the Director of Mental Health at MCC, Patricia Cahill.

On May 18 we had a graduation ceremony for the PTSD program. It included many directors from the different agencies. VVA Chapter 70 supplied the donuts, coffee, and the Color Guard for the event. We are waiting to see what the next step is with a statewide PTSD program for incarcerated veterans.

The second part of the ceremony honored the twenty-three Vietnam-era veterans at MCC with a certificate from President Obama for the 50th Commemoration of the Vietnam War. Some of the veterans were emotional as they were finally recognized for their service.

I want to thank VVA for keeping incarcerated veterans in the spotlight and addressing our issues.

Shon Pernice
Moberly, Missouri

A FUTURE DRAFT

Like many of my brothers, I joined the Army as a result of a personal letter from the President of the United States that began: “Greetings.”

If we are to learn from the past, we must ensure that any future draft is unquestionably fair. No more gerrymandered districts pairing posh suburbs with inner city ghettos, such as Shaker Heights, Ohio, and Cleveland’s East Side. No more allowing slumlords to falsely claim that their silver-spooned children live in the tenements that they own.

There are countless negative stories regarding the Vietnam-era draft—a future draft will be deemed fair if there are no such stories.
God bless the United States of America.

Carl Singer
By Email

HANG TOGETHER

I have read about Vietnam veterans who were rejected by their local veterans organizations when they returned to the world. Although I did experience such disrespect in graduate school while earning my Ph.D. at New York University from 1967-70 under an NDEA Fellowship, I did not experience such disrespect at all when I moved to a small town (Athol) in western Massachusetts in 1980. I joined my local American Legion Post and was ultimately elected the first Vietnam War veteran Commander and was honored by a life membership. I am also a charter member, founder, and life member of VVA Chapter 340 and served as Chaplain and life member of a VFW post.

In my small town, we were all brothers and sisters.

I retired as Director of Veterans Services for North Central Massachusetts and as a professor of constitutional law, and I served as a VVA Service Officer. I was proud to have fought for veterans of all wars for more than twenty years.

All of us veterans need to hang together, or they will hang us all separately.

Harvey Goldstein
Punta Gorda, Florida

ALWAYS LEARNING

I am a charter member of VVA Chapter 83. Since 1984 we have taken our presentation of the study of the Vietnam War to local high schools and colleges. We were even invited to spend a week at West Point to show our program, Vietnam Veterans’ Experience and Today’s Society, to the cadets. Our program was so well received by the directors of the U.S. Military Academy that they invited local high schools to experience our presentation. We still take our VVETS program to groups that want to know the history of the war and its veterans.

The memories of the war are seared in the memories of all those who lived through those times. I read your magazine from front to back. I take what I learn from your magazine (I am always learning) and use that knowledge to help teach our youth about the war, what was happening at home, and how that affected the war.

I am glad that through your magazine I know some of the things Americans are doing to help the Vietnamese people. We pass this knowledge along in our VVETS presentation. Since 1984 Chapter 83 members have made more than 4,000 presentations to more than 35,000 high school and college and students. We will be part of Wilmington University’s salute to Vietnam Veterans on November 14.

I am glad to have The VVA Veteran as a source of information about the Vietnam War. Thank you for your commitment to the veterans of the Vietnam War.

Rick Lovekin
By Email

OPEN-ARMS WELCOME

In the last couple of issues of The Veteran, I have read about those who have felt abandoned by VVA. I cannot speak to their experiences. All I know is this: When I came home from Vietnam in 1971 some friends and I joined the American Legion. Although we were allowed to join, it was immediately apparent that there were those who did not want us there.

We were repeatedly exposed to snide remarks about not having been in a real war and that the Legion was for real soldiers and veterans. I was elected adjutant of that post, and still I was constantly put upon by the World War II guys. One of them had lost a son in Vietnam, and still they treated us disrespectfully. I finally had enough and just quit. I never returned, and I do not feel like I missed much.

Yet I know other veterans who joined the Legion and were accepted with open arms and treated quite well. One is a former member of my squad in Nam. Also, when several of us tried to join the local VFW, we were told to get out and that they didn’t want any of us “crazy bastards” around.

This is a very sad commentary on how veterans treat each other. With regard to feeling abandoned by VVA because of not being a Vietnam veteran, what do you expect? The very name of our organization says it is for Vietnam veterans, and Congress said we are limited to members who actually served during the Vietnam War.

I respect your service to this country. Instead of feeling all put upon, why don’t veterans from the other conflicts get together and do what VVA did? Start your own organization. Quite frankly, I’ve been in groups and workshops with Iraq and Afghanistan War vets, and they don’t seem to want to mix in. Although we have combat in common, it’s as if it stops there.

“Abandoned” is when people from your own small hometown spit on you and call you a baby killer. My wife of forty-four years and I were on our first date that night, and that is what she got to experience. It would have been nice for some of the folks who sent us over there to say “Welcome home” when we got back. Instead, they ignored us.

So, although it is unfortunate that there are those who feel abandoned by VVA, for me it is the only organization that truly welcomed me with open arms. They are my brothers and sisters.

Mike Reasoner
By Email

VIEWING THE VIETNAM WAR

A select group of three hundred—including members of Providence, Rhode Island, Chapter 273—attended the screening of highlights from the upcoming PBS documentary, The Vietnam War at the Harvard Art Museum on April 13. Ken Burns’ latest epic will debut September 17 and will be presented in ten parts over eighteen hours. The audience viewed vignettes from five episodes, which included interviews with VVA life member Wayne Smith, who founded Chapter 273.

Burns addresses the complicated history of a complicated war from the perspective of American soldiers, politicians, and advisors, as well as that of their Vietnamese counterparts. In fact, the series will be shown in Vietnam. The street scenes of fighting in Hue are especially riveting. In the end, the Imperial City was described as “ruins divided by a river.” Burns also depicts the violence and chaos at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

In his remarks afterward, Burns said that even with his background of many distinguished documentaries, this one transformed him the most. Team members shared a process of discovery in their efforts to look at all aspects of the Vietnam War. Burns emphasized that you have to know your own biases so as not to slant the project or “disenthrall others.”

A North Vietnamese veteran once told him, Burns said, that he remembered peering at some American GIs through reeds as they grieved over a fallen comrade. He realized then that Americans were human, too.

Brian Carn
By Email

LEGACY SUGGESTION

Should VVA someday close, I recommend using any remaining assets to set up a VVA scholarship fund for the children of veterans of future service to the country. I am sure there will be veterans at that time who would appreciate our help, and this would perpetuate the life and legacy of our organization.

Reginald Brockwell
Georgetown, Texas

TIME FOR A CHANGE

The only thing that likes change is a wet baby. Change is difficult for us when we are no longer wet babies. Vietnam Veterans of America is in need of a change at the top of the organization.

At the Democratic National Convention an observation was made that seems emblematic of VVA. “At some point, we all need to do a gut check and say, ‘Have I been doing this long enough? Is it time for me to turn this position, the reins, over to somebody else with fresh and new ideas, a new energy, a new generation?’ ” said former New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Kathy Sullivan.

James Maddox
San Gabriel Valley, California