The Creation Of Viet Nam Vets

Sent from DAV Chapter 16 Chaplain Lyle

The Creation Of Viet Nam Vets:


When the Lord was creating Vietnam veterans, He was into His 6th day of overtime when an angel appeared.

"You're certainly doing a lot of fiddling around on this one."

And God said, "Have you seen the specs on this order? A Nam vet has to be able to run 5 miles through the bush with a full pack on, endure with barely any sleep for days, enter tunnels his higher ups wouldn't consider doing, and keep his weapons clean and operable.

He has to be able to sit in his hole all night during an attack, hold his buddies as they die, walk point in unfamiliar territory known to be VC infested, and somehow keep his senses alert for danger.

He has to be in top physical condition existing on c-rats and very little rest. And he has to have 6 pairs of hands."

The angel shook his head slowly and said, "6 pair of hands....no way."

The Lord say's "It's not the hands that are causing me problems. It's the 3 pair of eyes a Nam vet has to have."

"That's on the standard model?" asked the angel.

The Lord nodded. "One pair that sees through elephant grass, another pair here in the side of his head for his buddies, another pair here in front that can look reassuringly at his bleeding, fellow soldier and say, "You'll make it" ... when he knows he won't.

"Lord, rest, and work on this tomorrow."

"I can't," said the Lord. "I already have a model that can carry a wounded soldier 1,000 yards during a fire fight, calm the fears of the latest FNG, and feed a family of 4 on a grunt's paycheck."

The angel walked around the model and said, "Can it think?"

"You bet," said the Lord. "It can quote much of the UCMJ, recite all his general orders, and engage in a search and destroy mission in less time than it takes for his fellow Americans back home to discuss the morality of the War, and still keep his sense of humor The Lord gazed into the future and said, "He will also endure being vilified and spit on when he returns home, rejected and crucified by the very ones he fought for."

Finally, the angel slowly ran his finger across the vet's cheek, and said, "There's a leak...I told you that you were trying to put too much into this model."

"That's not a leak", said the Lord. "That's a tear."

"What's the tear for?" asked the angel.

"It's for bottled up emotions, for holding fallen soldiers as they die, for commitment to that funny piece of cloth called the American flag, for the terror of living with PTSD for decades after the war, alone with it's demons with no one to care or help."

"You're a genius," said the angel, casting a gaze at the tear.

The lord looked very somber, as if seeing down eternity's distant shores.

"I didn't put it there," he said.

A Veteran is someone who, at one point in his life wrote a blank check Made payable to "The United States of America for an amount of "up to and including my life". That is Honor, and there are way too many people in This country who no longer understand it."

We have a habit of using the word hero far too often

by
Chaplain Kathie

A young veteran returns from Iraq and wonders why no one is taking care of him. He is told he gets five years of free care from the VA, but no one is telling him how he can pay his bills when he cannot work. PTSD, TBI and other wounds have him on medications leaving him "unemployable" along with the fact he keeps having seizures. He keeps hearing how much help there is for veterans like him, but he has seen little evidence of it. But his story won't get the media attention. Tiger Woods, the golfing hero cheating on his wife, deserves more attention. After all, he's well known, wealthy and has a fairytale story.


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The young veteran, well he was sent away with cheering crowds for both deployments, held in prayer while he was gone, but came home to a young wife and young kids as a different person trapped in a wounded body. She didn't want to "put up with it" and she left him alone.

Tiger Woods worries about all the media trying to turn him into a bad guy, even though he was supposed to be a golfer and not some kind of perfect icon. The young veteran worries about the rest of his life after he risked that life for this country in Iraq and how he will survive the rest of that life.

Doesn't seem fair.

That's the problem. We have a habit of using the word hero far too often. We elevate celebrities and the rich as if they are so worthy of the admiration, while most of them have done nothing for the anyone unless they got something back. When it comes to the men and women deciding to serve in the military, all they ask is that they are supported, used only when needed and taken care of if they get hurt doing it. No one else in this country would ever take a job knowing if they were hurt on the job, they would be abandoned by all, but we expect the military jobs to end up being allowed to just be forgotten about as if no one ever included their service compensation to matter like workman's comp does.

The way we view success in this country would leave Christ Himself to be viewed as a worthless failure because He walked around homeless and depending on strangers to shelter Him and cloth Him. He was hung between two criminals with nails for all the good He did. Some of the rich believe they are entitled to all they have and everyone else deserves to have nothing but some give back thankful for what they have. Some think they deserve more and more so they fall prey to people like Bernie Madoff because he could create money out of thin air but he sucks all the money they had leaving them with nothing to show for it other than worthless paper.

A hero is someone who gives of himself/herself. They do it to help others and for no other reason. They are willing to lay down their lives for their comrades. They follow orders no matter if they agree with them or not and fight whomever they are sent to fight because it is above their "pay grade" to know it all. They trust. They trust their commanders. They trust their buddies. They trust the American people that when we say we are a grateful nation, we really mean it. Then they find out exactly how little we really do mean it when they come back and have to face the rest of their lives in an oblivious community. Doesn't seem to matter it was the same community where they shipped out from and were welcomed home to as they walk the streets trying to find help to heal.

When you Google Veteran Service Organization there are 3,700,000 and if you Google Veteran you'll find 4,440,000. There are so many groups springing up around the country now that it is astonishing how many veterans are still not getting help. We just assume that all is well with them because that is what we are told. Just as workers for the VA believe the problem is fixed and veterans are being taken care of with the hiring frenzies lately, they are not aware there are thousands of veterans waiting and suffering standing in line. If they don't see them then they just assume the problem is no where near close to catastrophic.

When mental health professionals at Give an Hour decided to step up and offer free care to veterans needing help to heal from PTSD, that should have been the loudest signal of all that too many were being dumped back into society with nothing but too few heard it. Most Americans were too busy screaming they support the troops and sticking their fingers in their ears.

Service and veterans groups decided they would do only what they wanted to do instead of what was needed to be done. The most useful service groups took on helping to pay bills as well as offering emotional support. Some thought that just putting up another memorial was all that was needed simply because that was all they were interested in. Something tangible they could look at to remind them of how much they cared as they patted themselves on the back while a homeless veteran went begging in the street in front of the monument. They could tell the homeless veteran the memorial was for him but it's doubtful he would be able to keep warm in the winter with it or dry in the rain.

Veterans reach out for help everyday. Some of the help they get is not what they need. Some of the help they get is exactly what they need but it comes too late after their families have fallen apart, their homes are gone and they have been beaten down so low they cannot find the energy to stand back up again.

So what's the answer? A total attitude change in this country. Established service groups like the VFW, American Legion and DAV are seeing their numbers shrink. They are not attracting many of the 2 million new veterans. Why is that? Because they are in a set comfort zone of just doing what they always did. Some have been opening their eyes to this fact and trying to do something about it by stepping up to provide what is needed for the newer veterans and their families. Others will end up just dying out. The other indication of how much these organizations are not doing is the number of service organizations stepping up over the last few years. If the older groups were doing what was needed, there would be no need of most of the newer groups.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America formed because no one was willing to fight for them. Some organizations were just too cozy with the Washington powerful and would not go against them even though the data was coming in with shocking figures. Suicides and attempted suicides were rising along with homelessness and incarcerations stacked on top of unemployment numbers and backlogged VA claims. These organizations were supposed to be about veterans. All veterans.

After returning from Vietnam, most of the leaders of these organizations today were greeted with being treated as if they didn't belong by older veterans. You'd think after the way they were treated they would be more than willing to do what was necessary to take care of the newer veterans, but power and connections and comfort zones were too easy to maintain by doing nothing. The problem with the IAVA is that they are only interested in the newer veterans at the same time the older veterans are finally being informed of what PTSD is and coming to the understanding what's wrong with them has a name and they do not need to suffer any more without help. The IAVA has the latest technology to use but does not have older veterans, the older organizations have older veterans but no technology, leaving the Vietnam veterans out in the cold again.

All service organizations should use what has worked for the sake of all veterans and lean on each other to find who is doing what better than they are and support it. Join forces for the sake of the veterans and stop letting ego and competition for donations get in the way of what they were formed to do in the first place.

Then maybe, just maybe, we can finally get to a point where a golfer is not regarded in higher esteem than a war veteran.

Indiana soldier is first to die of toxic exposure in Iraq

Indiana soldier is first to die of toxic exposure in Iraq


By Daniel Tencer
Monday, December 7th, 2009 -- 12:57 pm
If Lt. Col. Jim Gentry and his doctors were right about the cause of his cancer, the Indiana National Guard officer didn't die for his country -- he died for defense contractor KBR.

Gentry's death from lung cancer last week is being recorded as the US's first fatality from exposure to a cancer-causing toxin in Iraq, according to the Evansville, Indiana, Courier & Press.

In 2003, Gentry commanded a 600-strong force providing security for KBR's refittal of the Qarmat Ali water-pumping plant, which provided water needed for oil extraction. Gentry and others claim that during that time they were exposed to hexavalent chromium, a cancer-causing toxin that the Iraqis who had built the plant had used as anti-corrosive material.

In a lawsuit filed last year, Gentry and 15 other plaintiffs said KBR, at the time a subsidiary of Halliburton, was aware that soldiers and civilian contractors were being exposed to hexavalent chromium months before they told the people working at the site.

Researchers have linked hexavalent chromium to lung cancer and leukemia, as well as a variety of liver and kidney problems. It's the same compound that poisoned residents of Hinkley, California, in a case that was made famous by the movie Erin Brockovich.
read more here
http://rawstory.com/2009/12/soldier-toxic-exposure-iraq/

Bikers Ride Through Brevard County With Toys, Donations

Bikers Ride Through Brevard County With Toys, Donations
Monday, May 18, 2009 2:46:51 PM

Thousands of bikers, many of them dressed as Santa, hit the streets of Brevard County Sunday to once again show their Christmas spirit in the 26th Annual ABATE Motorcycle Toy Run.

Approximately 5,000 motorcycles started off on Merritt Island and drove through the county.

Each bike had at least one toy on their bikes, but most had more.

All of the toys went to needy kids.

People involved said in addition to helping out children, the toy run helps change perceptions about bikers.

"They love it. Everybody asks if I'm really hot in it. They want to know what I've got on underneath. It's just fun. Kids love it. People love it. It's worth the smiles," said biker Rick Skauge.

This was the event's 26th year.

Last year, about 6,000 motorcycles took part in the event, donating $4,000 and several truckloads of toys.

It's the largest ride of its kind in Florida.
Bikers Ride Through Brevard County With Toys

Shinseki Says VA's Home Loan Program a "Continued Success"

Shinseki Says VA's Home Loan Program a "Continued Success"

Veterans More Likely to Avoid Foreclosure with VA-Backed Loan



WASHINGTON (Dec. 7, 2009) - Despite problems in the nation's housing
market, mortgage loans backed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
had a lower foreclosure rate than any other type of home loan in the
industry, as of the end of the last fiscal year.



"The dedication of VA's loan professionals, the support of our partners
in the mortgage industry and most importantly, the hard work and
sacrifice of our Veterans have made this possible," said Secretary of
Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. "VA is making good on its promise to
help Veterans buy homes, and Veterans are achieving their dreams."



Currently, about 1.3 million active home loans were obtained using VA's
Home Loan Guaranty Program. The program makes home ownership more
affordable for Veterans, active-duty members, and some surviving spouses
by protecting lenders from loss if the borrower fails to repay the loan.




More than 90 percent of VA-guaranteed loans are made without a
downpayment. Despite this, VA has the lowest serious delinquency rate
in the industry, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Furthermore, VA's percentage of loans in foreclosure is the lowest of
all measured loan types-lower even than prime loans, which require high
credit scores and a 20 percent downpayment by the borrower.



Much of the program's strength stems from the efforts of VA employees
and loan servicers nationwide, whose primary mission is to help Veterans
stay in their homes, avoid foreclosure and protect their credit lines
from the consequences of a foreclosure, Shinseki said.

Depending on the situation, VA's loan specialists can intervene on a
Veteran's behalf to help pursue home-retention options such as repayment
plans, loan modifications and forbearance. Additionally, under certain
circumstances, VA can refund a loan, which involves purchasing the loan
from the mortgage company and modifying the terms so the Veteran can
afford the new mortgage payment.



Since 1944, when home-loan guarantees were offered under the original GI
Bill, through the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, VA has guaranteed
more than 18.7 million home loans worth $1.04 trillion.



To obtain more information about the VA Home Loan Guaranty Program,
Veterans can call VA at 1-877-827-3702. Information can also be
obtained at http://www.homeloans.va.gov