Showing posts with label Virginia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Virginia. Show all posts

Sunday, September 3, 2017

Car Accident Reconnects Korean War Buddies

Car accident leads to reunion with Korean War buddy
Military Times
Adele Uphaus-Conner
The Free Lance Star
September 2, 2017

WARRENTON, Va. — If it weren’t for the car accident earlier this summer, Korean War veterans Jim Cunningham and Don McIntyre would never have found each other again.

“God was in it from the get-go,” said Cunningham, 86, a Spotsylvania County resident.
Marine Corps veterans Jim Cunningham, left, and Don McIntyre, talk on Aug. 19, 2017, in Warrenton, Va. Both served together in the Korean War and reunited for the first time in 63 years. (Adele Uphaus-Conner/The Free Lance-Star via AP)
The two met up for coffee last weekend at the Warrenton home of McIntyre’s daughter. It was the first time they’d seen each other in 63 years.

In 1953, Cunningham and McIntyre, who were 23 and 20 at the time, served together with Marine Aircraft Group 12 at airfield K-6 in Pyeongtaek, South Korea. They were in the motor transport pool — Cunningham was a dispatcher and McIntyre was a driver. Their job was to collect downed aircraft from all over the country and take the wreckage to Inchon, where it would be shipped to Japan to be rebuilt.


Virginia State Trooper Greg Finch responded to the accident. It was a hot day and he invited Cunningham to come and sit in his car while he wrote up the citation.

“We got to talking. It took him an hour and 15 minutes to write up the ticket,” Cunningham said.

During the conversation, Cunningham mentioned that he’d served in Korea.

“I told him I had a real good friend in Korea and I was still looking for him,” Cunningham said. “I told him his name was Don McIntyre. He said, ‘I know Don McIntyre!’ ”

Finch told Cunningham that his father lived one mile down the road from a Don McIntyre in Bath, N.Y.

read more here

Saturday, August 5, 2017

Manhunt for suspect extends from Colorado to Virginia

Manhunt for suspect extends from Colorado to Virginia 
NBC 9 News Colorado
KUSA
Jacob Rodriguez and Allison Sytte
August 4, 2017

Roberts is a MARSOC Marine - a highly trained branch of the Special Forces and is believed to be armed and dangerous, Dillon Police say. Roberts' family is working with authorities to try and resolve the situation.

The manhunt for a veteran suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder has extended from Colorado to Kansas and now Virginia over the past week.

William Roberts, 34, reportedly slammed into a Dillon Police car back on Tuesday after officers tried to arrest him at the Dillon Dam Brewery. A SWAT team entered the hotel room he was supposed to be staying in, but by the time they arrived, he'd already gone, police say.
Then, later that night, Roberts was pulled over for speeding in North Newton, Kansas - 557 miles from Dillon. When the officer that pulled him over learned he was wanted for hitting a police car, Roberts sped off, prompting a high-speed chase that spanned two counties. 
Even though his tires had been damaged by spike strips, he got away and is believed to have fled in a stolen truck all the way to Virginia.
Police in Botetourt County, Virginia, 1,700 miles from Dillon on the west side of the Appalachian mountains are currently conducting a manhunt for Roberts. 
read more here

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Love Story Just Beginning For Newlywed Navy SEAL After Accident

Navy SEAL embraces wife for first time since tragic accident 
FOX News 
Published July 26, 2017 

A touching video of a Navy SEAL standing and embracing his wife four months after a traumatic car accident left him with a severe brain injury has been viewed by more than 3 million people. 

Jonathan Grant, 36, was serving as a combat medic instructor at Fort Bragg at the time of the accident, according to the couple’s GoFundMe page. He suffered a diffuse axonal injury (DAI), and was in a coma for nearly two months as doctors gave him just a 10 percent chance of survival. 

His Pilates instructor wife, Laura, has stood by his side throughout his recovery, which included moving to a Richmond, Virginia, rehabilitation facility where Grant could receive intensive therapy.
read more here

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Woman, husband in fatal Norfolk shooting were both in Navy

Not sure on this one since one part has "Nelson was pronounced dead at the scene. Her husband was in critical condition..." but beginning says "husband was treated and released."
Woman, husband in fatal Norfolk shooting were both in Navy
Associated Press
July 18, 2017

NORFOLK, Va. — The U.S. Navy says a woman fatally shot by Virginia police after she shot and wounded her husband was an active duty sailor, as is her husband.
In this May 3, 2004 file photo, security personnel wait to inspect vehicles entering Norfolk Naval Station in Norfolk, Va. MORT FRYMAN/THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT (TNS)
Navy spokesman Matthew Allen said Tuesday that the husband, who was treated and released by a hospital after Monday night's shooting, is assigned to a unit on Naval Station Norfolk. Police in Virginia have not identified him.

Virginia State Police said that 25-year-old India N. Nelson had been in a domestic dispute with her husband on Monday in Norfolk. At about 7 p.m. that evening, she and her husband were driving separate cars when they crashed into each other near a gate at Norfolk Naval Station.

After Norfolk police responded and began to investigate, state police said Nelson shot her husband. Authorities said a Norfolk police officer then "engaged the woman and returned fire."
read more here

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Vietnam Veterans Deal With Memories of Those They Lost 50 Years Ago

Hard-Hit Marine Unit from Vietnam War Celebrates 50th Reunion
Military.com
by Richard Sisk
17 Jun 2017
They grappled again, mostly in silence, with the question that has no answer -- why am I here when so many aren't? Libraries can be filled with books on the subject, going back to Homer.
The 6/67 Memorial at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia commemorates The Basic School's sixth graduating class, which suffered more than 250 casualties, including 43 officers killed in Vietnam. (US Marine Corps photo)
In the fall of 1967, The Basic School in Quantico, Virginia, finished training 498 twenty-something Marine second lieutenants. By the end of the year, nearly all were in Vietnam.

Before Christmas, the first of them was killed in action: 2nd Lt. Michael Ruane, of Mike Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, on Dec. 18, 1967. The TBS class that began in June 1967 (TBS 6/67) would have a casualty rate of more than 50 percent -- the highest of any Marine officer class during the Vietnam War.

For those second lieutenants and their platoons, the pace was unrelenting. They would go past the wire -- when there was wire -- on daily patrols through terrain that ranged from paddies and dikes along the coast, through the scrub brush and elephant grass of the interior, and into the triple-canopy jungles of the high ground reaching into Laos.

The New York Times declared that "the era of big battles" had come to Vietnam in 1967. Le Duan, the real power in Hanoi, ordered North Vietnamese Army regulars into South Vietnam to support the Vietcong. The battles became bigger in 1968.
read more here

Saturday, May 20, 2017

"He's going to be free": Sea turtle named for deceased Army Ranger

"He's going to be free": Sea turtle named for deceased Army Ranger released at Virginia Beach Oceanfront
The Virginian-Pilot
By Katherine Hafner
May 19, 2017

The sea turtle was the first catch James Spray had made all day.
At the Buckroe Fishing Pier in Hampton on Monday, Spray had just about given up, when his hook snagged a juvenile Kemp’s ridley turtle – the world’s most endangered sea turtle.

In the hands of the other anglers it flopped around and struggled, but in Spray’s hands the turtle was still and calm.

It “just seemed so peaceful,” he said.

So attached did Spray become to the turtle in the days that followed, that on Friday he gathered with the Virginia Aquarium’s Stranding Response Team at the North End to release it back into the Atlantic.

For him, the turtle he dubbed Ranger Tan was more than just a peculiar catch.

Something about it connected him to his Army friend, Jason Benchimol, who died of a heroin overdose a few months ago. The name – Ranger Tan – refers to Benchimol’s status as an Army Ranger and the distinctive tan beret Rangers wear (the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center has been naming each rescued sea turtle after a Crayola crayon color). The men met in the military in 2008 and became close friends over the years.

His death “was a terrible blow,” said Spray, who added that his friend suffered from “severe” post-traumatic stress disorder after combat overseas. “He was much better than the disease.”

The two recently had undergone treatment together at the Hampton Veterans Affairs Medical Center, where Spray is living, though he owns a home in Moyock, N.C.

Inexplicably, catching Ranger Tan became a way to for him reconnect with Benchimol – there was something about the way the animal was at peace.
read more here


My two cents:

PTSD is not now, nor has it ever been, a "disease" and that is a major problem. If you think all that is "wrong" with you came from you, then where is the hope to heal? If you know the only way you ended up with PTSD is because you survived something that could have killed you, then you know, it happened to you!

Causes of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) 

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can develop after a very stressful, frightening or distressing event, or after a prolonged traumatic experience.
  • serious road accidents
  • violent personal assaults, such as sexual assault, mugging or robbery
  • prolonged sexual abuse, violence or severe neglect
  • witnessing violent deaths
  • military combat
  • being held hostage
  • terrorist attacks
  • natural disasters, such as severe floods, earthquakes or tsunamis
  • a diagnosis of a life-threatening condition
  • an unexpected severe injury or death of a close family member or friend

They forgot to add in occupations like First Responders rushing to what the rest of us run away from!

You can only heal if you fight to take back control of your life!

Friday, April 21, 2017

PTSD on Trial: Former Police Officer, Veteran Marine

Former Norfolk officer testifies he had PTSD when he shot the man who's suing him

The ex-officer being sued by the man he shot more than four years ago testified Friday that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder at the time and struggles to deal with stressful situations in which he doesn’t have control.
Robertson, a Marine who served in the Middle East, was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder for symptoms that had been happening before that day. Because of his PTSD, he struggled when he wasn’t able to move freely. 
Robertson, who worked as a Norfolk officer for six years, quit the force in December 2015. His lawyer, Alan Rashkind, said his client had to retire because of how badly he was hurt when Mitchell dragged him, which required two shoulder surgeries and fusion of two vertebrae in his neck. read more here

Friday, March 17, 2017

Navy SEAL Charged With Kidnapping and Rape of Fellow Sailor

Navy SEAL charged with kidnapping and raping fellow sailor in hotel room
The Virginian-Pilot
By Brock Vergakis
8 hrs ago
Charge sheets accuse Varanko of threatening the woman and placing her in fear that "she would be subjected to grievous bodily injury."

The aggravated assault and battery charges say Varanko placed his hands around the woman's neck, squeezed until she was unable to breathe, pushed the woman against a wall, pinned her against the floor, placed his knee against her back and put her in a submission hold.

Varanko also is accused of sexually harassing the woman in Kentucky, Indiana and Virginia between March and May 2015.
NORFOLK
A Virginia Beach-based Navy SEAL has been charged with kidnapping and raping a fellow sailor in a hotel room near Fort Knox, Ky., according to the Navy.

A general court-martial is set to begin Tuesday for Chief Petty Officer Stephen Varanko III at Naval Station Norfolk.

Varanko's court-martial comes at a time when the military finds itself in the spotlight once again for how it attempts to address and prevent sexual assaults within its ranks, following increases in such reports at the Naval and Military academies this past year. Attention also is focused on a growing scandal involving the online requesting and sharing of nude photos of female personnel among Marines and others.

Varanko's case was one of about 1,500 adult sexual assaults reported to the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in 2015, an increase of about 6 percent from the previous year, according to the agency's most recent annual report.

Varanko is assigned to Special Reconnaissance Team Two at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Virginia Beach. He is charged with four counts of rape, four counts of sexual assault and one count each of aggravated assault and battery. Varanko also is charged with making a false official statement, provoking speech and for violating a general regulation.
read more here

Monday, February 27, 2017

Sailor Shot and Killed at Oceana Naval Air Station Was Volunteer Firefighter

Navy identifies sailor shot and killed at Oceana Naval Air Station
The Virginian-Pilot
By Courtney Mabeus
17 hrs ago
Before entering the Navy, Wright, who was believed to be in his early 20s, was a volunteer firefighter with the Franktown Fire Protection District, about 35 miles southeast of Denver.
A sailor who crashed through Gate 2 of Oceana Naval Air Station late Friday made it all the way to the hangar for the squadron he worked for before he was shot and killed by a master at arms, U.S. Navy Fleet Forces Command said Sunday night.

Seaman Robert Colton Wright enlisted in the Navy in May 2016 and was assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron 81, based at Oceana, since Dec. 27, according to a Navy biography. He worked as an information systems technician for the squadron, which flies F/A-18E Super Hornets, according to the unit’s website.

Wright’s death occurred after a string of events that began with a hit-and-run about a mile from Oceana at the intersection of Dam Neck and Drakesmile roads just before 10 p.m. Friday.
read more here

Saturday, February 18, 2017

Man Charge for Stealing Prescription Pain Drugs From Veterans

Staunton Man Accused of Stealing Prescriptions from Veterans 
NBC 29 News 
Posted: Feb 17, 2017
Schuyler A. Lotts
STAUNTON, Va. (WVIR) - A 22-year-old Staunton man is facing dozens of drug charges after an investigation by federal, state, and local law enforcement. 

Schuyler A. Lotts is charged with 37 misdemeanor counts of petit larceny, 37 felony counts of possession of a schedule II narcotic and one count of possession with intent to distribute. 

Lotts is accused of stealing packages from a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs pharmacy while working at the UPS facility in Fishersville. 

Virginia State Police say he is responsible for the theft of approximately 3,500 oxycodone tablets, valued at $35,000. read more here

Sunday, January 1, 2017

Navy SEAL Died in Chesapeake Bay

US Navy: Off-duty Navy SEAL dies after kayak overturns in Chesapeake Bay
by AP
December 29th 2016

CAPE CHARLES, Va. (AP) -- The U.S. Navy says an off-duty Navy SEAL has died a day after his kayak overturned in the Chesapeake Bay. Lt. Trevor Davids said by phone Thursday that Petty Officer First Class Devon Grube died in a hospital in Virginia. Davids said the cause was likely exposure. But a full investigation as to what happened is underway.

The U.S. Coast Guard said Grube was one of two kayakers paddling in separate vessels Wednesday morning. His kayak overturned off the coast of Cape Charles about 9:20 a.m. Rescuers brought him ashore about two hours later. He was unconscious.
read more here

Saturday, November 5, 2016

Veteran of WWII and Korean War Proves PTSD is Not New

A veteran's life of triumph and tragedy
WUSE 9 News
Bruce Leshan
November 4, 2016
Next Thursday, the French Embassy will give Col. Gabriel one of its highest honors: a French knighthood, the Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.
ALEXANDRIA, VA (WUSA9) - On Veterans Day next week, Colonel Arnald Gabriel will be just where he's been for decades: conducting a symphony and remembering lost comrades.

In his 91 years, the Army and Air Force vet has seen several lifetimes worth of triumph and tragedy.

He is one of the few vets left to remember what it was like to land on the beaches of Normandy in that first wave on D-Day.

He didn’t think he would survive.

“Gosh no,” he said. “Scared to death.”

Gabriel was a 19-year-old machine gunner. He said there are no words or movie that can give any of us a sense of chaos.

“If you watch Private Ryan and multiply it by 100, maybe that will come close to what the carnage was really like,” he said.

He marched across Europe to Germany with his two buddies, Harry Ashoff and Johnny Arrowsmith. On Jan. 9, 1945, a German shell hit the trench where they were sheltering.

“Those two buddies will remain with me forever,” he said, his voice breaking.

In a book just out, The Force of Destiny, Gabriel's son describes how he returned home and buried himself in work to deal with the mental anguish now called post-traumatic stress disorder.

When the Korean War broke out, Gabriel volunteered again. This time as a conductor for the Air Force Band. And for 34 years, Gabriel was a military band director. He played with some of the biggest stars of the day.

“Shirley Temple, Edward G Robinson, Peter Graves,” Gabriel said.
read more here

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Rogue Navy Unit Tied to Texas Sheriff?

High-profile Texas sheriff tied to a rogue Navy unit facing a criminal probe
The Washington Post
By CRAIG WHITLOCK
Published: September 30, 2016
Why so many Pentagon officials and their relatives were working on the side as sheriff's deputies in Texas has not been explained in court, where much of the evidence has been sealed to protect national security. What a training base would have been used for there is just as murky.
Even among the colorful pantheon of Texas lawmen, Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West has seized his share of the limelight. In his 16-year career patrolling the West Texas outback, he has busted crooner Willie Nelson for pot, accused the Mexican army of invading U.S. territory and repeatedly ripped the federal government on television over border security.

Less well known are the country sheriff's strange connections to a rogue Navy intelligence office at the Pentagon that has been under criminal investigation for the past three years.

The former director of the intelligence unit, David W. Landersman, a civilian, is facing federal conspiracy charges for allegedly orchestrating a mysterious scheme to equip Navy commandos with hundreds of untraceable AK-47 rifle silencers.

A new wrinkle in the case, however, has recently emerged in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, where prosecutors have suggested that Navy officials from the intelligence unit also sought to funnel military equipment to rural Hudspeth County and set up a secret training base near the Mexican border.
read more here

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Virginia Iraq Veteran's New Home Comes With Many Blessings

Messages of love posted on Iraq war veteran's new smart home in Virginia
ABC7
BY RICHARD REEVE
SEPTEMBER 7TH 2016

STAFFORD, Va. (ABC7) — The laughter of children, a barking black lab, and animated snippets of conversation:

It was almost as if Marine Corps veteran Garrett Jones and his family had already moved in to their new smart home.

“It's filled with love,” says Chris Kuban, a spokesperson for the Gary Sinise Foundation. “It's filled with love from the community.”

On a sunny Wednesday morning, Jones, his wife Allison, and their three children attended a ‘wall of honor’ event at the specially-built home in Stafford.

“A lot of good has come from an unfortunate circumstance,” Jones says.

On July 23, 2007, just two weeks before he was scheduled to return home from Iraq, Jones, a Marine corporal, stepped on an IED.
read more here

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Air Force Raptor Defeated By Bees?

Swarm of 20,000 Bees Grounds U.S. Air Force’s F-22 Raptor in Virginia
BY CNN WIRE
AUGUST 12, 2016

According to Westrich, the queen likely landed on the F-22 to rest, and since honey bees do not leave the queen, they swarmed around the jet and eventually collected there.
The US Air Force’s F-22 Raptor may be the most advanced fighter jet in the world but even with $143 million-worth of stealth and supersonic capabilities, it proved to be no match for one unlikely adversary — a huge swarm of honey bees.

A huge swarm of bees grounded an F-22 Raptor in Virginia. 
(Credit: Master Sgt. Carlos Claudio/USAF)
An F-22 aircraft from the 192nd Air Wing was temporarily grounded on June 11 after crew members at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia discovered nearly 20,000 bees hanging from the jet’s exhaust nozzle following flight operations.

“I was shocked like everyone else because it looked like a cloud of thousands of bees,” said Tech. Sgt. Jeffrey Baskin, 192nd Maintenance Squadron crew chief, in an Air Force press release.
read more here

Sunday, August 7, 2016

Vietnam Veteran Still Trying To Get "Brothers" Home

Veteran anxiously awaits mission to bring soldiers' bodies home from Vietnam
The Times-Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.)
By Bill O'Boyle
Published: August 5, 2016

pepper and trimble
Pfc. Anthony John (Tony) Pepper, left, and Cpl. James Mitchell Trimble.


WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (Tribune News Service) — Ed Zimmerman’s long journey may soon be over.

Zimmerman, 67, of Bear Creek, will head to South Vietnam on Aug. 10 to assist the U.S. government’s recovery effort to search and, hopefully, recover the remains of Pfc. Anthony John (Tony) Pepper, 20, of Richmond, Virginia, and Cpl. James Mitchell Trimble, 19, of Eureka, California.

“This has been quite an undertaking for me,” Zimmerman said Thursday. “I’ve gone over it mentally so many times. But I’m very confident we will find the location and bring them back.”

Zimmerman said all the preparations for the trip have been made and he can’t wait to get to Vietnam to direct the recovery team to the exact spot where he last saw Trimble and Pepper.

“I’ve been going over things in my mind and I have clarity,” he said. “A lot of the cobwebs have gone away. I know I can find the spot where they were.”

In a Times Leader story in June, Zimmerman said he has not been able to rest, often having nightmares, since learning the bodies of two dead Marines he saw in a ravine in South Vietnam were never recovered — never returned to their families for burial.
read more here

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Hundreds Join Together for PTSD Service Dogs

Hundreds attend event to fund service dogs for veterans with PTSD
WHSV ABC 3 news
Jared Kline
July 23, 2016

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) — Hundreds came out to show their strength and endurance by tackling a multi-mile race for a good cause.

The Fine Earth Adventure Race Walk for Warriors kicked off around 8 a.m. Saturday, July 23. Teams were entered into groups, ranging from "walkers" all the way to SWAT. Participants had to overcome various obstacles, varying in difficulty.

Also in the lineup were members of WHSV, competing under the title "TV3 Weekend Warriors."

The race raised money to provide military veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with K9 companions.

read more here

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Infant Left in Car After Parents Murder-Suicide Deaths

Baby found in car after parents' murder-suicide, Virginia police say
FOX News
July 19, 2016

Virginia police said they found a baby Saturday unhurt in the backseat of a car where the infant's parents died in an apparent murder-suicide.

The Accomack County Sheriff's Office reported in a news release that deputies found 20-year-old Elizabeth Madison Ann Jensen of Sanford and 27-year-old Jonan Fabricio Gonzales-Funes of Bloxom both dead from apparent gunshot wounds inside a vehicle on Saturday morning.

Authorities said Gonzales-Funes was a correctional officer who worked for the sheriff's office since September 2015. He reportedly had served as a Marine.
read more here

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Fake Service Dogs Now Illegal In Virginia

Falsely Claiming to Have a Service Dog Is Now Illegal in Virginia
NBC News
By Mitchell McCluskey


Anyone who falsely claims their dog is a service dog now can be fined in Virginia.

Marty van Duyne's service dog, Sergeant III, dressed for a baseball game.
A law that went into effect July 1 makes it illegal to fit a dog with a harness or other signage "commonly used by a person with a disability" in order to represent the animal as a service dog.

Anyone found in violation of the law can be fined $250.

The legislation was inspired by Marty van Duyne, a Virginia woman who uses a service dog.

Van Duyne said she attended an event in 2015 at which she was asked to bring the red vest of her previous service dog, who had recently died.

At the event, someone asked if she would lend them the dog's vest. When she asked what the person's disability was, they told her that they had none.

"I was flabbergasted that someone would ask me to do that," van Duyne said. "You don't ask someone to borrow crutches to pretend to be hurt. You don't do that."
read more here

Saturday, June 18, 2016

Virginia Pilot 'Help Us Investigate the Impact of Agent Orange'

Reliving Agent Orange: What the children of Vietnam vets have to say
The Virginian-Pilot
by Terry Parris Jr. and Charles Ornstein, ProPublica, and Mike Hixenbaugh
June 17, 2016

The children of Vietnam vets describe how they believe their fathers’ exposure to Agent Orange during the war has impacted their families and their health.

For the past year, ProPublica and The Virginian-Pilot have examined how Agent Orange has impacted the health of Vietnam vets. We’ve written about Blue Water Navy veterans who are currently ineligible for benefits, as well as vets with bladder cancer and their struggle for compensation.

Help Us Investigate the Impact of Agent Orange

We’ve also asked vets and their family members to tell us how their lives have been affected by exposure to the toxic herbicide, receiving more than 5,000 responses.
ProPublica and The Virginian-Pilot are looking into the multigenerational effects of Agent Orange. Please fill out the corresponding questionnaire if you are:
A veteran
Child of a veteran
Family member of a veteran
read more here


Linked from Stars and Stripes

This is something we worry about all the time.  We keep worrying about every time he goes to the VA for tests. In 1993 my husband was entered into the registry because there was spraying when he was in Vietnam and where he was. The doctor said the words, "No adverse health effects yet." In other words, we knew there will be.

There are obvious risks to those who go into combat. Bullets and bombs are always on the minds of soldiers. What is not on their minds is that the government would risk their lives with what they do.

Agent Orange was supposed to save lives by getting rid of places for the enemy to hide.  It turned out that was what caused a lot more deaths, not just for those who survived Vietnam, but for their families as well.