A Vet's Story -- Part II
We weep at Agent Orange, laugh at reporter
By Randy Hollifield
As told to daughter Landdis
Published: January 17, 2010
Editor's note: This is the second of a three-part, first-person story about Randy Hollifield's experiences in the Vietnam War and at a recent reunion. Randy told the story to his daughter, Landdis, who wrote this account. Randy hopes to bring the Traveling Vietnam War Memorial to McDowell County. In part one of this story, which appeared Friday, Randy told of arriving in Vietnam on his first wedding anniversary and also his first day at the reunion decades later.
The next day's events started out the same way. Breakfast was served and then we all gathered back together to share more stories. Eventually those stories led to us talking about something we had all seemed to avoid up to this point -- what Agent Orange had done to so many Vietnam veterans. Agent Orange was a chemical that was used in Vietnam to kill plants and foliage so that the enemy could be more clearly detected. It was commonly applied to large areas of land via tanker plane, and Camp Carroll received some of the heaviest concentrations of the chemical during the Vietnam War.
It was about a reporter who had arrived at the Gio Linh Firebase during late March 1967. He had arrived by Huey chopper and seemed very out of place among us soldiers. He was lanky, soft spoken and redheaded. He was a war correspondent on his first assignment, and he wanted to see what was happening firsthand. As usual, at dark our camp began to get fired on by incoming artillery and mortar rounds. The attack that night was especially heavy with more than 750 rounds coming in intermittently all night. Needless to say this young reporter was ready to get the heck out of Dodge by daybreak.
He had seen all he needed to see and was ready to head any place south. It was obvious the young reporter had alternative reasons for leaving other than to file his story. We told him just to stay a while and see what was really going on. We helped him send his story through a secure communication system, giving him no excuse to leave so fast. Little did we know that the redheaded reporter who had filed his first story from a Fire Direction Control Bunker would go on to be ABC anchorman Ted Koppel. The story had lightened the mood and ended the evening on a happy note. We had all laughed remembering back to that day when the reporter had arrived. No one would have realized that this scared young man would one day be an anchor on a major network.
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We weep at Agent Orange, laugh at reporter
Monday, January 18, 2010
Vietnam Vets Honored With 'Order Of Silver Rose'
Vietnam Vets Honored With 'Order Of Silver Rose'
To Those Affected By 'Agent Orange'
BY BILL JONES
STAFF WRITER
Two Vietnam War veterans were honored at the St. James Community Center on Friday night with the Order of the Silver Rose, a medal that recognizes veterans who have developed medical problems as the result of exposure to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam.
Friday night's recipients were retired U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Dale Neas, of Old Newport Road, Greeneville, and the late U.S. Army and Tennessee Army national Guard Sgt. 1st Class Ledmond "Huck" Huckleby of Silvan Circle, Greeneville.
In making the medal presentations, Bill Thomason, a retired U.S. Army master sergeant who lives in Parrottsville and coordinates the Order of the Silver Rose program for Northeast Tennessee, noted that Vietnam veterans are dying at a rate of about 290 each day, many from the effects of exposure to Agency Orange, a herbicide that was sprayed from the air onto jungle vegetation to deprive the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese of cover.
read more here
http://www.greenevillesun.com/story/307649
To Those Affected By 'Agent Orange'
BY BILL JONES
STAFF WRITER
Two Vietnam War veterans were honored at the St. James Community Center on Friday night with the Order of the Silver Rose, a medal that recognizes veterans who have developed medical problems as the result of exposure to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam.
Friday night's recipients were retired U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Dale Neas, of Old Newport Road, Greeneville, and the late U.S. Army and Tennessee Army national Guard Sgt. 1st Class Ledmond "Huck" Huckleby of Silvan Circle, Greeneville.
In making the medal presentations, Bill Thomason, a retired U.S. Army master sergeant who lives in Parrottsville and coordinates the Order of the Silver Rose program for Northeast Tennessee, noted that Vietnam veterans are dying at a rate of about 290 each day, many from the effects of exposure to Agency Orange, a herbicide that was sprayed from the air onto jungle vegetation to deprive the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese of cover.
read more here
http://www.greenevillesun.com/story/307649
Haiti aid mission uses lessons of war
Haiti aid mission uses lessons of war
By Jim Michaels - USA TODAY
Posted : Monday Jan 18, 2010 6:53:51 EST
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — This is not war, this overwhelming humanitarian effort. But after eight years of dealing with counterinsurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, the lessons learned there — getting into the communities to understand the people’s needs — apply here to the job of distributing food and water and providing medical help.
“Those skills are transferable,” said Army Col. Chris Gibson, commander of the brigade from the 82nd Airborne Division that is getting established here.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers and Marines have learned to seek out local leaders and learn gritty details about sewage, electricity and water. They’re doing the same thing here, but no one is shooting at them.
Lt. Col. Mike Foster’s unit established a position at the Pétionville Club, adjacent to more than 10,000 refugees living on its golf course.
Families are lying on the ground, shielded from the sun by sheets or blankets held up by wooden poles. Some are injured and waiting for medical help. Most are waiting for adequate food and water.
read more here
Haiti aid mission uses lessons of war
By Jim Michaels - USA TODAY
Posted : Monday Jan 18, 2010 6:53:51 EST
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — This is not war, this overwhelming humanitarian effort. But after eight years of dealing with counterinsurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, the lessons learned there — getting into the communities to understand the people’s needs — apply here to the job of distributing food and water and providing medical help.
“Those skills are transferable,” said Army Col. Chris Gibson, commander of the brigade from the 82nd Airborne Division that is getting established here.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, soldiers and Marines have learned to seek out local leaders and learn gritty details about sewage, electricity and water. They’re doing the same thing here, but no one is shooting at them.
Lt. Col. Mike Foster’s unit established a position at the Pétionville Club, adjacent to more than 10,000 refugees living on its golf course.
Families are lying on the ground, shielded from the sun by sheets or blankets held up by wooden poles. Some are injured and waiting for medical help. Most are waiting for adequate food and water.
read more here
Haiti aid mission uses lessons of war
New Hampshire doing what needs to be done to prevent suicides
NH group updates suicide prevention plan
By Jillian Jorgensen
jjorgensen@eagletribune.com
A state group has revised its plan for suicide prevention, bringing together public agencies and private organizations in an effort to raise awareness and help prevent suicide in New Hampshire.
Suicide is the second-leading cause of death, after accidental injury, among New Hampshire residents younger than 34. It is the fourth-leading cause of death in adults 34 to 55.
"You can have people sit in an office and write a great document, but if it's not carried out, it's not worth the ink that it's written in," said Elaine de Mello, supervisor of training and prevention at National Alliance on Mental Illness New Hampshire and a member of the Suicide Prevention Council. "The revision shows that people are looking at it, and thinking about it."
This is the first revision to the plan since it was created in 2004. The plan updates were made by the state's Suicide Prevention Council, made up of representatives from state agencies and nonprofit groups, as well as politicians, medical professionals and others.
Funding for the council's initiatives come from grants and from the agencies that make up the council and follow the plan's guidelines for dealing with and preventing suicide.
The plan's goals include reaching out to agencies from corrections facilities to schools to help officials around the state be more prepared to deal with suicidal people or the aftermath of a suicide. Many of those organizations have representatives on the council.
read more here
NH group updates suicide prevention plan
By Jillian Jorgensen
jjorgensen@eagletribune.com
A state group has revised its plan for suicide prevention, bringing together public agencies and private organizations in an effort to raise awareness and help prevent suicide in New Hampshire.
Suicide is the second-leading cause of death, after accidental injury, among New Hampshire residents younger than 34. It is the fourth-leading cause of death in adults 34 to 55.
"You can have people sit in an office and write a great document, but if it's not carried out, it's not worth the ink that it's written in," said Elaine de Mello, supervisor of training and prevention at National Alliance on Mental Illness New Hampshire and a member of the Suicide Prevention Council. "The revision shows that people are looking at it, and thinking about it."
This is the first revision to the plan since it was created in 2004. The plan updates were made by the state's Suicide Prevention Council, made up of representatives from state agencies and nonprofit groups, as well as politicians, medical professionals and others.
Funding for the council's initiatives come from grants and from the agencies that make up the council and follow the plan's guidelines for dealing with and preventing suicide.
The plan's goals include reaching out to agencies from corrections facilities to schools to help officials around the state be more prepared to deal with suicidal people or the aftermath of a suicide. Many of those organizations have representatives on the council.
read more here
NH group updates suicide prevention plan
Familiar face answers the call for veterans
Familiar face answers the call for veterans
Ruth Gonzalez, formerly of Governor’s Outreach Center, to aid vets as volunteer.
BILL O ’ BOYLE boboyle@timesleader.com
The Veterans of Vietnam War and Veterans Coalition have a new person, but hardly a trainee, helping out in a volunteer capacity.
FRED ADAMS/FOR THE TIMES LEADER
Ruth Gonzalez, formerly of the Governor’s Outreach Assistance Center, is donating her time at the office on the Pittston Bypass to do what she does best – help veterans.
A Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam era, Gonzalez said she wants to finish what she left incomplete when the outreach assistance center closed because of state budget cutbacks.
“Suddenly, with little notice, I had to leave my office, and in my eyes, abandon all the veterans that I always took care of – the veterans who came to me for help,” Gonzalez said.
“They came to me one after another for all the problems and issues facing today’s American veteran, whether they be World War II, Korea, Vietnam, peacetime and especially -- our new young brave veterans of today -- our veterans who’ve been coming home from multi-tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
read more here
Familiar face answers the call for veterans
Ruth Gonzalez, formerly of Governor’s Outreach Center, to aid vets as volunteer.
BILL O ’ BOYLE boboyle@timesleader.com
The Veterans of Vietnam War and Veterans Coalition have a new person, but hardly a trainee, helping out in a volunteer capacity.
FRED ADAMS/FOR THE TIMES LEADER
Ruth Gonzalez, formerly of the Governor’s Outreach Assistance Center, is donating her time at the office on the Pittston Bypass to do what she does best – help veterans.
A Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam era, Gonzalez said she wants to finish what she left incomplete when the outreach assistance center closed because of state budget cutbacks.
“Suddenly, with little notice, I had to leave my office, and in my eyes, abandon all the veterans that I always took care of – the veterans who came to me for help,” Gonzalez said.
“They came to me one after another for all the problems and issues facing today’s American veteran, whether they be World War II, Korea, Vietnam, peacetime and especially -- our new young brave veterans of today -- our veterans who’ve been coming home from multi-tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
read more here
Familiar face answers the call for veterans
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