This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Veterans Issues

  • Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day; March 30th

    In the event that you haven’t heard, the Senate passed a resolution last week proclaiming March 30th “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day”. Introduced to the Senate by North Carolina Republican Richard Burr, the date is meant to commemorate March 30th, 1973 when the last combat troops withdrew from South Vietnam;

    “I’m pleased that the Senate has agreed to set aside a day to give our Vietnam veterans a warm, long-overdue welcome home. I strongly encourage communities throughout North Carolina and across the country to observe this day with activities and events that honor these veterans for their service. It’s time they receive the recognition they have earned and deserve. This day also provides our nation with an important teaching moment. Never again should our men and women serving in the armed forces receive the same treatment as those returning from Vietnam,” said Senator Richard Burr.

    As I’ve always said, Vietnam veterans were truly the greatest generation. Not only did they fight a ruthless enemy in a ruthless terrain, they came home to face a largely ungrateful nation. In a final spit in their collective face, Jimmy Carter, on his first day in office, gave amnesty to the draft-dodging cowards who fled from their duty after 17,725 combat deaths in Vietnam were draftees. 5,997 Reservists, 101 National Guardsmen and 8 women were killed in action. From a 1993 survey, 91% of veterans of actual combat and 90% of those who saw heavy combat are proud to have served their country. 66% of Viet vets say they would serve again, if called upon.

    My service began in the closing months of our involvement, so my training was conducted largely by Vietnam veterans. The fact that I survived two decades in the infantry around the world was largely due to these guys and their experience. I’ll forever be grateful and humble to the Vietnam generation. Those who are with us and those who’ve passed on to recon for us once again.

  • Virtual Veterans Job Fair

    Just A Grunt sent us a link to a “virtual” job fair being held tomorrow. JAG says his own employer is participating in this, so it must be on the level.

    To build on the success of past Milicruit virtual career fairs, we have joined forces with MOAA. This event will provide veterans and military spouses an opportunity to meet with dozens of industry leading employers as if in person, but from the comfort and convenience of home. On the day of the event you can login and visit employer booths, view/apply for jobs, watch employer videos/presentations, chat with recruiters, and yes even video interview right from your computer.

    Here’s a video tour of the fair.

    You should really pass this link around to your veteran friends.

  • Government handouts are 1/3 of US salaries

    Cortillaen sends us a link from the UK’s Daily Mail which reports that one-third of US salaries are the result of government handouts;

    The payouts – including Social Security, Medicare and unemployment insurance – are placing an increasing burden on the state at a time it is trying to dig itself out from a mountain of debt.

    And economists fear the toll on taxpayers will only increase further if quick action isn’t taken before the majority of baby boomers reach retirement age.

    MSNBC writes;

    Social welfare benefits have increased by $514 billion over the last two years, according to TrimTabs figures, in part because of measures implemented to fight the financial crisis.

    Yeah, but both sides of the budget battle would prefer to cut veterans’ pay and benefits instead of hacking away at what’s really dangerous for the economy. Of course, that’s because veterans squeal less, and there are more welfare voters than veteran voters.

  • Frank Buckles Controversy Part II

    It seems that Congress is still not going to allow last World War I veteran Frank Buckles to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda, according to the Washington Times. Senators and Democrats, both,Rockefeller and Manchin, from West Virginia, Mr. Buckles home state, blame the Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner (like I do), but they’re overlooking their own Senate Majority Leader, Democrat Harry Reid who has equal say in the matter;

    Mr. Boehner and Mr. Reid instead said they will ask Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to allow Mr. Buckles‘ family to hold a memorial service at the amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery, where he will be buried.

    But neither leader explained his position not to allow the body of the longtime West Virginia resident to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda, an honor reserved — though not exclusively — for presidents.

    “Like everyone else, Sen. Reid honors Mr. Buckles for his service to our country,” said Reid spokesman Jon Summers.

    It seems to me that the two Senators from West Virginia would put pressure on their own party’s senior member in the Senate, where they weild some measure of clout, instead of just plinking across the aisle and across the Capitol Building…that is if their primary intention is to get Buckles in the Rotunda.

    Rosa Parks was awarded the honor, certainly a soldier in the first world war and a prisoner in the second should get some measure of respect in this regard.

    Call Boehner’s office at;

    H-232 The Capitol
    Washington, DC 20515
    Phone: (202) 225-0600
    Fax: (202) 225-5117

    Reid at;

    522 Hart Senate Office Building,
    District of Columbia 20510-2803
    Phone: (202) 224-3542
    Fax: (202) 224-7327

    ADDED: More from Laughing Wolf at Blackfive.

  • Three more “Unknown Soldiers”

    We thought the days of the “Unknown Soldiers” at Arlington wereover. There’s a mass grave in the garden near the Lee Mansion which overlooks the city of Washington with more than 200 Confederate soldiers interred and of course, the monument next to the Amphitheater. But now, there are three sets of unidentified remains at Arlington, according to the Washington Post;

    Criminal investigators looking into how eight sets of cremated remains ended up crowding a single grave have concluded that three of them are unidentifiable – not because of the brutality of combat, but because of actions at the cemetery.

    Of course, the solution to the problem for Kathryn Condon, the new superintendent at Arlington, is make excuses for her predecessors and to spend more money to punish tax payers.

    It is boosting its staff from 102 employees to 159, hiring additional funeral representatives, technology experts and ground crew members. It is buying more burial and landscaping equipment, such as hand-held tampers to level graves, which previously had been done with backhoes, she said.

    “They didn’t have the proper equipment to do the job really to the standard they needed to do,” Condon said.

    I don’t know how backhoes are to blame for mixing up graves.

    Yeah, here’s what you should do, Kathryn; those two who screwed this up so bad under their “leadership” should be called back to duty and straighten the problem out. And take their retirement pay from them. Then they can worry about where their remains will be buried.

  • Frank Buckles controversy

    We’ve done our best here at TAH to honor the last American World War One veteran, Frank Buckles in life as well as his recent death. There is a campaign seeking to allow Mr. Buckles to lie in State in the Capitol Rotunda to represent the sacrifice of that entire generation of warriors.

    Well not much is done in that building without it being partisan to a certain extent. According to CBS News, my Senators (both Democrats) are blaming Republicans for blocking this honor;

    Sens. Jay Rockefeller and Joe Manchin III both released statements saying the speaker had blocked the Capitol honor. Asked if that were true, Boehner spokesman Mike Steel said the speaker and Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid would seek Defense Department permission for a ceremony for Buckles at Arlington National Cemetery, outside Washington.

    Well, I have a phone so I used it and called the Speaker’s office. The answer I got was “Mr. Buckles will be properly honored in the Capitol as well as at Arlington. You don’t have to worry about that.”

    As with everything we hear from Washington, I guess we’ll have to wait and see what the hell that means.

    In the interim, here’s the Speaker’s contact information if you can’t wait;

    H-232 The Capitol
    Washington, DC 20515
    Phone: (202) 225-0600
    Fax: (202) 225-5117

  • Everyone is an expert on PTS

    Just A Grunt sent us a link from the Marietta Daily Journal about a young film maker, Leslie Lugosi, who wrote a script and filmed a movie entitled “Listen” about a Vietnam Veteran who becomes a victim of Post Traumatic Stress year after he’s discharged. I can imagine that the film is a typical Hollywood portrayal of the PTS-affected veteran. Lugosi admits a thin history with PTS;

    “My father served in Vietnam, and he was adversely affected by the war,” she said.

    And her technical advisor on the film? He only provided advice on terrain.

    With the help of Master Sgt. Gerald Edwards, a Vietnam veteran who served as military adviser for the film, Lugosi made the backwoods of Canton look like the jungle wilderness of Vietnam.

    It seems to me that if she wanted to make a film about PTS, she would have had an advisor who could tell her about PTS, not a guy who transform a patch of woods into a jungle.

    Her star is no help, either;

    Jon H. Costales, a Fayetteville resident, played the lead role. For Costales, who studied acting in college, playing a person with PTSD was a learning experience.

    “In a way it was challenging,” he said. “Someone who had trauma years before can have emotional scars suppressed for years.”

    Being a part of the film was a good experience, said Costales.

    “Hopefully, people who watch it will become aware of what soldiers with PTSD are facing and realize it’s something going on now and should be addressed,” he said.

    It’s a good thing that actors are smarter than the rest of us so they can teach us stuff.

    There may be something realistic to this film and I applaud young Leslie on her efforts, but excuse me if I’m more than a little skeptical about the project based on the information in the article and this “teaser” from Lugosi;

    Teaser for “LISTEN” from Leslie Lugosi on Vimeo.

  • “Their struggle is your struggle”

    Cortillaen and ROS sent this link to the Washington Post this morning about Lieutenant General John Kelly. Both Cortillaen and ROS included that this type of article is a rare appearance in the Post.

    “Their struggle is your struggle,” he told the ballroom crowd of former Marines and local business people. “If anyone thinks you can somehow thank them for their service, and not support the cause for which they fight – our country – these people are lying to themselves. . . . More important, they are slighting our warriors and mocking their commitment to this nation.”

    Kelly is the most senior U.S. military officer to lose a son or daughter in Iraq or Afghanistan. He was giving voice to a growing concern among soldiers and Marines: The American public is largely unaware of the price its military pays to fight the United States’ distant conflicts. Less than 1 percent of the population serves in uniform at a time when the country is engaged in one of the longest periods of sustained combat in its history.

    You really need to read the entire piece – it’s also rare that I recommend that in the Post, but there’s no way that I can tell the story as well as it’s told by Greg Jaffe, the Post reporter.

    I’ll just say this; there is a huge disconnect between the troops and the rest of Americans. It’s probably the fault of the length of this war and the millions of detractors of the politics leading up to this war and through out the war. It’s certainly not the fault of veterans of previous wars who’ve stepped into the information gap created by petty politics. Not me, of course, but the thousands of real milbloggers, the Gathering of Eagles, the American Legion Riders, the Patriot Guard Riders and so on.

    I’m just a late-comer who glommed on to the rest of these folks.