A Vietnam veteran and a 1960s radical met on a bus headed for Khe Sanh The Washington Post By Daniel Malloy
April 28, 2016
DA NANG, Vietnam -- A half-century ago, they were on opposite sides of a nation divided over a distant war.
Suel Jones fought with the Marines in the jungles near the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Vietnam. Later, he broke up an antiwar protest in Texas with his fists.
Mark Rudd was a Columbia University campus radical turned domestic militant with the Weathermen, battling those he called warmongers by any means necessary.
Last month they sat on adjacent bus seats in Da Nang traffic, having formed an unlikely but powerful bond. Jones spoke of rejecting his former self, forging a new path.
“What you’re describing is word for word my situation,” Rudd replied.
The men had joined a two-week tour of Vietnam sponsored by the antiwar nonprofit Veterans for Peace -- part of a group of a dozen veterans, protesters and others who were just curious about what the country looks like today. The group leaned left (Bernie Sanders would have won a bus straw poll), but individually, the travelers approached Vietnam from strikingly different perspectives. read more here
Home is hope for war vet, single mom Gaston Gazette
By Michael Barrett
Posted Apr 27, 2016
Hogan was one of dozens of people eating in the base's crowded chow hall tent during lunchtime when a suicide bomber disguised as an Iraqi National Guard soldier detonated an explosive vest, killing 22 people and injuring 72 others.
U.S. Army veteran Lauren Hogan with her daughter Roxanne, and her father Otis Whitehurst during the Mission Kickoff at her Bessemer City home that will be renovated by the Purple Heart Homes organization. JOHN CLARK/THE GAZETTE
Lauren Hogan's burden from her time in the Iraq War is symbolized by the shrapnel she carries in her spine.
The bothersome piece of metal has come with her across the country in the decade since she left the Army. It has followed along on her job interviews, on efforts to further her education and during her constant quest to find a permanent, fulfilling home for herself and her two daughters.
As a disabled veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, Hogan's journey is similar to those taken by tens of thousands of other soldiers who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan. But she and her family are closer to finding solace and a path to a positive future, thanks to a nonprofit that works to help get wounded veterans in reliable homes. read more here
Suffolk Military Cross winner’s anger at MoD over treatment of PTSD war veterans UK East Anglian Colin Adwent April 2016
Combat no longer involves the Iraq and Afghanistan veteran putting himself in mortal danger.
It now reflects the 41-year-old’s daily struggle with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The ex-Royal Irish Regiment Colour Sergeant, who lives in the Woodbridge area with his wife and five-year-old son, served his country for almost 20 years. He was awarded the Military Cross for risking his own life to protect comrades in Iraq.
But he feels he, and many others like him, are being treated shamefully by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
Mr Coult is scathing in his condemnation over the help those with PTSD receive.
Mentally fragile, they return to civilian life haunted by flashbacks, frayed nerves and financial pressures.
For a few it is too much and they take their own lives. Others end up homeless or in prison. Relationships break down. Drugs or alcohol become a source of self-medicating comfort.
Mr Coult believes the MoD casts off many veterans too cheaply by giving them a few thousand pounds as an interim payment, with a proviso their cases will be reviewed in two years. read more here
Armed with new research, Vietnam vets push VA to link bladder cancer to Agent Orange By Mike Hixenbaugh, The Virginian-Pilot
and Charles Ornstein and Terry Parris Jr., ProPublica
April 27, 2016
Eller is one of about 5,000 veterans and family members who’ve shared their Agent Orange exposure stories with ProPublica and The Virginian-Pilot over the past several months. More than 125 of them said they’ve been diagnosed with bladder cancer. Hundreds more reported having one or more of the other conditions being reviewed by the VA.
Alan Eller has spent more than a decade trying to convince the Department of Veterans Affairs that his bladder cancer was the result of exposure to Agent Orange almost 50 years ago in Vietnam.
The Army vet has filed three claims with the agency, most recently in 2014, since a doctor told him the cancer was likely tied to the toxic herbicide.
Each time, even as he found additional doctors to vouch for the link between his cancer and his service, the VA rejected Eller’s claim, arguing there was no proof.
But a report last month by a prominent committee of scientists said there’s now research suggesting otherwise. As a result, the VA is studying whether it should reverse its position and add the condition to the list of illnesses it presumes to be linked to Agent Orange, which the U.S. sprayed across Vietnam during the war. read more here
