Vietnam Veterans Remembered

When you hear news reports about Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, there are some things you need to know.

America’s homeless veterans have served in World War II, the Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam War, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, Persian Gulf War, Afghanistan and Iraq (OEF/OIF), and the military’s anti-drug cultivation efforts in South America. Nearly half of homeless veterans served during the Vietnam era.

Two-thirds served our country for at least three years, and one-third were stationed in a war zone.

About 1.4 million other veterans, meanwhile, are considered at risk of homelessness due to poverty, lack of support networks, and dismal living conditions in overcrowded or substandard housing.

Before there were Veterans Courts, this was life looked like for some our veterans

There were an estimated 140,000 veterans held in state and federal prisons. State prisons held 127,500 of these veterans, and federal prisons held 12,500.

Male veterans were half as likely as other men to be held in prison (630 prisoners per 100,000 veterans, compared to 1,390 prisoners per 100,000 non-veteran U.S. residents). This gap had been increasing since the 1980s.

Veterans in both state and federal prison were almost exclusively male (99 percent).

The median age (45) of veterans in state prison was 12 years older than that of non-veterans (33). Non-veteran inmates (55%) were nearly four times more likely than veterans (14%) to be under the age of 35.

Veterans were much better educated than other prisoners. Nearly all veterans in state prison (91%) reported at least a high school diploma or GED, while an estimated 40% of non-veterans lacked either.

Pro Bono Resources for Veterans American Bar Association has a list by state where you can find legal help.

Vietnam veterans had been kicked out when they needed help, much like the newer veterans today still find as repayment for their sacrifices. It took a lawsuit before their records were reviewed.

“This decision will not be a blanket approval for every upgrade request, but it does open an avenue for those veterans who may have been diagnosed with PTSD years after separation to submit new evidence and hopefully correct an injustice from the past,” said John W. Stroud, the national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States organization.

The Pentagon will now likely face scrutiny over how quickly petitions are processed, and what it will do for those affected. The lawsuit said 250,000 Vietnam-era veterans received other-than-honorable discharges, and that 80,000 of them could have post-traumatic stress.

Still as Vietnam veterans returned home, turned away from the major veterans organizations, they started their own group. Vietnam Veterans of America. Unlike the other groups though, they understood what it was like to be thought of as less than the other generations.

VVA'S FOUNDING PRINCIPLE "Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another."

Suicides are another subject that shows they have been left behind. While the false reports of 22 a day were supposed to be about all veterans, most folks thought it only meant the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. Here's the truth on that one.

Veteran suicide numbers have gone up in recent years with much of the attention focused on veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan killing themselves. However, almost seven out of 10 veterans who have committed suicide were over the age of 50, according to a Department of Veterans Affairs study.

There were no wounds Vietnam veterans came home with that were different other than battlefield medicine had more surviving. There is no wound the newer generation suffers from today that is new, other than yet again, battlefield medicine has helped more survive.

The only difference between Vietnam veterans is they decided to fight for the wounds no one could see to be treated. They pushed for all the research done on PTSD. What was done to the was wrong and it is still going on.

When you watch this new video on Vietnam Veterans Remembered, ask yourself why they have been forgotten about then ask yourself what you can do to make sure they are not last of the list of veterans needing help.

Woman Charged with Stealing from Disabled Vietnam Veteran Was Care-taker

Care assistant charged with stealing from disabled veteran
WCBV News Boston
Mar 28, 2015

$128,500 stolen from a disabled Vietnam War veteran

BOSTON —A grand jury in Boston has indicted a personal care assistant on charges she stole nearly $128,500 from a disabled Vietnam War veteran for whom she was caring.

The Suffolk County grand jury Thursday indicted 48-year-old Michelle Allix of South Boston on eight larceny charges. Arraignment was set for April 16.
read more here

Six Decades After War Wounded Him, WWII Veteran Died After Vindication

Combat veterans face ‘cruel’ struggle to prove their service to VA, amid missing records 
FOX News
By Ruth Ravve
Published March 27, 201

"I have a huge box of letters that he sent to the VA over the years in his attempt to get benefits," said Friedman's wife of 61 years, Minna Rae. "He tried over and over and over again to get help, but they just kept turning him down."

Friedman -- who, as he would later learn, suffered from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder -- was not alone.

Garrett said he was stunned to learn that six decades after the war ended, a soldier was still locked in battle.

Once he got benefits, Friedman had greater access to care, which included long-awaited therapy for PTSD.

"We're very fortunate he lived long enough to get verification for his service because many other World War II vets died before that happened," Minna Rae said.

In the final years of his life, Stanley Friedman was eventually able to move to a veterans' residence not far from his suburban Chicago home, called the Green House homes at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center.

He found peace among the caring staff and his fellow veterans.

Friedman died in his sleep there at the age of 94
read the rest of his story here

Desperation Drove Vietnam Veteran to Seek Arrest

Vet who asked to be arrested gets help finding home 
Cincinnati.com
DeMio
March 29, 2015

"Nobody wanted me," McKenney explained simply. "I'd been to the hospitals. Everything. The only thing I had left was to have them arrest me."

Michelle McKenney, of Hebron, helps her father, Eugene McKenney, to a chair in his room at Atria Highland Crossing, Fort Wright. McKenney, 63, a Vietnam War veteran who was homeless and went to the Elsmere Police Department and asked to be arrested for vagrancy so he could get shelter. Several social service agencies and family members have worked to get him help and shelter. (Photo: The Enquirer/Patrick Reddy)

ELSMERE – The rail-thin man wore a cap that stood out to Elsmere Police Sgt. Todd Cummins. This was a Vietnam veteran.

The man had slowly pushed himself with a walker to the door of the Elsmere Police Department on March 12 and quietly demanded to be arrested, but Cummins wasn't about to do that.

The man had done nothing wrong. He just had no place else to turn.

The officer sought help from nearby homeless ministries for Eugene McKenney, starting a turn of events in the veteran's life that would lead to a future potentially more promising than he'd had since before he went to Vietnam in 1970. "I was a door gunner,"

McKenney offered last week, sitting with his daughter, Michelle McKenney of Hebron, and two advocates from Northern Kentucky homeless ministries who've been helping him. McKenney speaks little these days. He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, Parkinson's disease and has had multiple strokes. He sat back Wednesday as his daughter relayed one of his most vivid memories of Vietnam.
read more here

DAV Remembering Vietnam Veterans Suffered Same Wounds of War

Vietnam Vets Dealing With Effects of War Decades Later 
KDLT News
Caiti Blase, KDLT News Reporter
Mar 28, 2015

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Thousands of South Dakotans served during the Vietnam War with hundreds making the ultimate sacrifice.

Many returned home, but are still dealing with the effects of war decades later. An event to remember those who served during the Vietnam era was held in Sioux Falls Saturday.

Ritchie Wilson said, "I went to Vietnam in the spring of 1970." It's been over 40 years since Wilson served in the Vietnam War. "I was with the 25th Infantry Division. I was an infantry squad leader,” said Wilson. But the scars of battle are still with Wilson many years later.
read more here

Where Do Veterans Go When Everyone Stopped Watching?

Soldiers Failed, Veterans Turned Away
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 29, 2015

This is a great example of Congress pushing for "something" to be done to fix what reporters got ahold of.

Demand down for soldiers needing JBLM’s Warrior Transition Battalion reported by Adam Ashton for The Olympian shows how the community stepped up to help take care of the wounded soldiers.

It starts with

On the back of a horse at a farm in Yelm, Mike Buccieri began letting go of the psychological wounds he carried after an Afghan insurgent’s bullet tore into his back and ripped him from the Army life he loved.

He found the equine-based therapy that worked for him when the Army sent him to a Warrior Transition Battalion, a medical unit he had once disparaged as a purgatory for “broken soldiers” on their way to being “kicked out” of the military.

Yet as Congress claims to be investigating the facts discovered by The Dallas News and NBC joint effort to bring the suffering of the wounded to our attention, it has been going on right under their nose and they just didn't care enough to do the right thing before they were forced to even take a look at it.
Remember the scandal at Walter Reed Hospital?

Embarrassed by allegations of mistreated wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in 2007, the Army spent more than $1.2 billion building facilities for its severely injured troops at large posts around the world.

So Congress did "something" about it.

Col. Chris Toner, chief of the Army Warrior Transition Command, told the House Armed Services Committee last month that 4,196 soldiers are enrolled in the program – down from a peak of 12,451 seven years ago.

Despite the falling numbers, Army leaders insist they want to maintain the warrior transition model rather than reuse the costly facilities for a different purpose.

“We’ve come a long way since the days of medical holding companies and long wait times for injured soldiers,” Toner told lawmakers. “We will not return to that setting.”

Yet, when reporters were not watching, this is what happened over and over again across the country to wounded servicemen and women.

Recently, The Dallas Morning News and KXAS-TV documented examples of mistreated patients and verbal abuse at warrior units at Army hospitals in Texas. Their investigation prompted the Army to issue new training guidelines for the soldiers who volunteer to work in warrior transition battalion.

A 2013 Defense Department Inspector General audit of JBLM’s Warrior Transition Battalion documented similar concerns from soldiers and staff members. It spelled out the systemic flaws that have dogged warrior transition battalions since the program launched, such as:

• Inconsistent training for staff members.
• High turnover among the active-duty and Reserve soldiers who oversee patients.
• Frustration among patients who felt stuck in a program of indeterminate length. Some could be enrolled in a battalion for two years or more.
• Barriers to connecting patients with job-training programs in the civilian sector that could prepare them for opportunities after they leave the military.

The report, based on site visits in the summer of 2011, included several revealing comments from anonymous patients and staff members about the pressures they felt inside the battalion.

The Warrior Transition Battalion “steals your soul and puts you in a deeper depression,” one National Guard soldier told the auditors. “They tell me to plan for the future, but they cannot tell me when I can leave.”

So now they'll have empty buildings but it isn't as if they overplanned for the wounded. It is more that the wounded soldiers are no longer in the military.

So what happens to them now? It isn't as if their wounds have vanished. The DOD doesn't have to count them anymore. They don't have to count the number of veterans committing suicide or needing care for PTSD any more than they have to account for the physical needs.

The VA has had trouble for decades as reported by veterans going back to the 70's. Congress has not had to answer for what they failed to do on that end either.

Their latest answer is, "Hey we'll just privatize it" hand out cards so veterans could go see a doctor charging a lot more money for the same work the VA is supposed to be providing. Sure, no wait times in a private office or at hospitals. At least that is what Congress wants us to envision. Guess they never had to rely on what the rest of experience on a daily basis.

This is really simple. Congress has had since 1946 to get it right for our veterans and even longer to get it right for the wounded yet what veterans got were more problems than solutions.

Guess who is to blame? Us. We vote for folks to do a job (both sides) yet never bother to make sure they're doing it. It takes reporters to tell the stories they live with on a daily bases, so God love them for that, however, they forget that we need to be reminded about what happened before that made it this bad. It is for sure that Congress won't blame themselves but veterans do.

Any idea what members of Congress are up to knowing that more and more disabled veterans are heading home from combat? They show no indication of learning from the past about anything so just expect more of the same excuses and a longer line of veterans suffering.

They plan, as in the past, to  have communities step up and take care of them.  Sounds good until you ask about where all the billions a year spent to "care for them" went.  Also sounds good until you wonder what happened to all the money folks donated to huge charities using professional fundraisers to gain millions a year while Congress refuses to hold them accountable.

When it comes to veterans, it seems they can't really count on anyone for very long.

St. Pete Medal of Honor Veteran Says Patriotism Lives in Florida

Medal of Honor recipient recalls the ‘battle’ 
Tampa Bay News
By BOB McCLURE
March 25, 2015

“I look at it as honoring the men and women in uniform, present and past. It just shows the patriotism the citizens of Florida have toward our men in uniform.”

Photo by BOB McCLURE
Retired U.S. Army Command Sgt. Major Gary Littrell of St. Pete Beach wears the Congressional Medal of Honor he was awarded in 1973 following his heroic actions during a 1970 battle in Vietnam.

ST. PETE BEACH – Winston Churchill once said success is not final and failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.

That phrase sums up the actions of retired U.S. Army Command Sgt. Major Gary Littrell of St. Pete Beach who for four days in early April 1970 took command of a South Vietnamese Ranger battalion under siege by more than 5,000 North Vietnamese troops. Out of an original group of 477, Littrell was among 41 walking and wounded to safely leave the hill they gallantly defended.

His actions and decisions led him to receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1973.

He is the only Medal of Honor recipient in the area, one of three in Florida and one of 79 currently alive in the U.S.
read more here

After Veteran's Wheelchair Stolen, Police and Overstock.com Stepped Up

Police surprise 84-year-old veteran with replacement wheelchair 
ABC 4 News Utah
Rick Aaron
03/24/2015

"I'll never forget it," Officer Wersland said while choking back a sob. "I've been doing this for 20 years and I've never experienced anything like this."

TAYLORSVILLE (ABC4 News) - A U.S. Navy Veteran who thought he would be homebound after his motorized wheelchair was stolen got a big surprise Tuesday thanks to the Salt Lake Unified Police Department, the City of Taylorsville and Overstock.com.

Roy Feragen can walk but at 84 years old not very far or very steadily. So what did he say when his wheelchair was stolen from the front of a Savers store in Taylorsville last week?

"I ain't gonna use that kind of language," Mr. Feragen said.

Officer Mike Wersland started working on getting Roy a replacement chair and Overstock dot com donated a top of the line Drive Medical model they surprised him with at Taylorsville City Hall. Mayor Larry Johnson presented Feragen with the device.
read more here

Disabled Gulf War Veteran Turns to News Station For Help

Disabled veteran’s long wait could be over 
WIVB News
By Al Vaughters, News 4 Reporter
Published: March 24, 2015

"Chris Krieger, co-founder of Western New York Heroes, a veterans self-help outfit, said the VA’s program of adapting homes and vehicles for disabled veterans is overrun with regulations."

HAMBURG, N.Y. (WIVB) — Disabled veteran Dale Dart’s quest for a more independent life could soon be within reach.

Dart turned to the government to re-work his home to accommodate his wheelchair, but it got bogged down in government paperwork, so he contacted Call 4 Action.

The Army veteran of Operation Desert Storm (1991) does have a bedroom and bathroom in his family’s Hamburg home that are wheelchair accessible, but they are in the basement.

Dart vented his frustration earlier this week, “I just sit in my room, and sit in my room.”

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs came up with a way to retrofit the Dart’s ranch style house with a first floor bedroom and bathroom that would be fully accessible, and the planning and permits have taken nearly two years to complete. But just as the contractor was about to break ground on the room addition, the VA threw more red tape at the project, which could delay the job enough to send it back to the drawing board.

 Dale’s sister-in-law, Pamela Dart said the VA cited regulations which require a second contractor for the project. read more here

Iraq Veteran, Army Ranger Boston Officer John Moynihan in Coma

UPDATE
Boston officer improving after surgery to remove bullet
The Associated Press, March 29, 2015

Decorated Boston cop, Iraq veteran in coma after being shot in face 
South Coast Daily News
March 28, 2015

The suspect in the shooting hopped out of the stopped car on Friday evening and opened fire on officers, striking Officer John Moynihan just below his right eye and an apparent bystander in her arm, police Commissioner William Evans said

BOSTON (AP) — A police officer who was honored for his role in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing was in an induced coma fighting for his life early Saturday after being shot in the face during a traffic stop, authorities said.

The suspect in the shooting hopped out of the stopped car on Friday evening and opened fire on officers, striking Officer John Moynihan just below his right eye and an apparent bystander in her arm, police Commissioner William Evans said.

Other officers returned fire and killed the suspect at the scene, Evans said. The woman suffered a flesh wound and was in good spirits, and three other officers were taken to a hospital with stress-related problems, he said.

The names of the suspect and wounded woman weren't immediately released.

Moynihan, 34, is on the police Youth Violence Task Force and is a highly decorated military veteran, Evans said.

He is a former Army Ranger who served in Iraq and was honored at the White House in May with the National Association of Police Organizations TOP COPS award. 

Moynihan received the award for being one of the first responders in Watertown following the April 2013 gunbattle with the Boston Marathon bombers.

Moynihan had helped transit police Officer Richard Donohue, who was shot in the leg and nearly bled to death when police tried to apprehend Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Lieutenant Michael McCarthy said. read more here