VFW Honors Cold War Veterans

A editorial from commander-in-chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S.

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By Thomas J. Tradewell Sr.

Columnist Robert F. Dorr has once again missed the mark regarding the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. ["Some vets still more equal than others," Nov. 16]. His insinuation that we regard Cold War veterans as "second-class citizens" is disingenuous, and the facts reveal a different story altogether.

The VFW is a membership organization that is open to all who currently serve or have served, provided they meet eligibility requirements as established by Congress through public laws. Founded in 1899, the VFW is America's oldest major veterans' organization, and with more than 1.5 million members, we are also her largest organization of combat veterans, an all encompassing category that includes those who went to war as well as those who deployed in support of contingency operations.

All who have deployed into the unknown are forever bound by a common experience — regardless of service, conflict or MOS — and so, too, are our families. It is a "One Team, One Mission" concept that only we who have been there can understand. It is unfortunate that Mr. Dorr continuously refuses to understand this concept and its critical distinction.

He used the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall to say we "betrayed" Cold War veterans because our membership requirements are more exclusive than inclusive, and he cites Korea in trying to validate his point. Had he checked VFW eligibility requirements, he would have discovered that those who served in Korea from the end of World War II forward are eligible. So, too, are those who flew clandestine reconnaissance flights over the former Soviet Union or its satellite states, provided hostile fire or imminent danger pay or an expeditionary medal was awarded.

Mr. Dorr seems to intentionally ignore VFW eligibility requirements, which have always been based on earning a campaign medal. Currently, six campaign medals encompass some 30 military actions, operations and duty stations that constitute the Cold War, to include the Berlin Occupation Medal. The award of any one of which conveys VFW eligibility.

Sitting in a missile launch facility or on strip alert in the old days of Strategic Air Command are not qualifiers, but just because someone is not eligible for VFW membership does not lessen our respect for their service. Our nation's defenders serve with honor and dignity where assigned, and the VFW fully values the contributions of every member of the "Team."

On Capitol Hill, some organizations represent officers, others NCOs, or those who are disabled or have lost loved ones. The VFW's membership eligibility is strict because we represent those who have gone into harm's way, as our initial congressional charter was intended.

Cold War veterans are included in every legislative initiative we conduct in Washington. They were among the 95,000 veterans we helped to recoup $1.2 billion in earned compensation and pension from the government last year, regardless of whether they were VFW members. They are among the 88,000 missing American servicemen we are seeking answers on from the governments of Russia, China and Vietnam, and at our most recent annual convention, VFW delegates passed a national resolution that supports the creation of a Cold War Service Medal.

One constant is that all wars end. When that time comes, the focus of the American people and our Congress will begin to fade on those who serve, our wounded and survivors. It is a top VFW priority to ensure a grateful nation does not forget her warriors of past or present, and their families.

Thomas J. Tradewell Sr., a combat wounded Vietnam veteran from Sussex, Wis., is the commander-in-chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S.

Relics of Cold War linger in San Gabriel Valley

By Troy Anderson, Staff Writer
Posted: 11/28/2009 08:34:39 PM PST

Los Angeles County Area D coordinator Brenda Hunemiller displays a geiger counter from the 50's which Los Angeles County still has in storage. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of its Civil Defense program, Hunemiller and other area coordinators are now more concerned about natural disasters. (Photo by David Crane/Staff)

EL MONTE - As Los Angeles County celebrates the 50th anniversary of its Civil Defense program this month, officials have rediscovered remarkable treasure troves of relics from the 1950s.

Among the finds are a massive underground bomb shelter in El Monte now used to store new cars, and storage rooms full of old rations and guidebooks that sound almost quaint today in their tips for nuclear-war survivors.

Another find was military instructions on what to do in case of a coastal invasion of Southern California.

"I found letters in the storeroom from World War II generals to the area coordinators, saying the last stand would take place in the San Gabriel Valley and they would move all the civilians back to the shelter of the San Gabriel Mountains," said Brenda Hunemiller, an area coordinator for the county's current disaster management program. "It's pretty amazing stuff."

Rummaging through an old Azusa storeroom, Hunemiller recently discovered Civil Defense materials that included a book listing hundreds of fallout and bomb shelters and 55-gallon drums filled with K- and C-rations, medicines and other survival supplies.

In November 1959, 12 cities signed a joint powers agreement with the Board of Supervisors to create the Civil Defense program in case of nuclear attack.

Today, the program has evolved to focus on a variety of potential disasters, such as earthquakes and wildfires.

But despite the move away from preparations for nuclear war, Office of Emergency Management spokesman Ken Kondo said the recent discovery of the Civil Defense supplies and a large fallout shelter in El Monte has renewed interest in the Civil Defense program and the shelters.

Among the hundreds of bomb shelters in the county, officials recently discovered a still-intact one below what is now one of the world's largest car dealerships. At Penske Longo Lexus in El Monte, customers can pick out their car from inside the former bomb shelter built by a previous business, Kondo said.

"It's a big and cavernous place," Kondo said. "It's gigantic. You could sit several football or soccer fields in there."

The federal Civil Defense program was created after World War II. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the military was concerned about a potential invasion of the Southern California coastline, Kondo said.

After WWII, many in the government and the public feared a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. In an effort to protect the public, the Federal Civil Defense Administration was created in 1951.

One of the first campaigns emphasized building and designating fallout and bomb shelters.

"We still have those rusting, old air-raid sirens around," said Joel Bellman, an aide to county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.

A fallout shelter sign is still on the wall in the lobby at the county Hall of Records downtown. Underneath the hall and surrounding areas is a labyrinth of underground facilities and tunnels connecting one of the largest government complexes in the nation.

However, most of the fallout shelter signs throughout the county have been taken down over the years.

Since the creation of the Civil Defense program, the OEM has responded to numerous natural disasters, including the 1992 riots, 1994 Northridge Earthquake and numerous wildfires, floods and mudslides.

But even though the "Big One" - an earthquake of 7.8 magnitude or greater - can't compare to the 10.5 earthquake that destroys Los Angeles in the movie "2012," Kondo said the film highlights that not only government agencies, but residents too need to prepare for the next catastrophe in the "disaster capital of the world."

"It showed me we have a lot of work ahead of us," Kondo said.

http://www.whittierdailynews.com/ci_13887480?source=rss#

Cold War-Era Manual Reveals CIA 'Magic'

Published on November 27, 2009

by EU News Network

(EUNewsNet.com and OfficialWire)

WASHINGTON, DC


A Cold War-era CIA manual instructing agents in the arts of deception and stage-style trickery is headed for U.S. book shelves.

"The Official CIA Manual of Trickery and Deception," written in 1953 by stage magician John Mulholland, includes tips for hiding small objects, handing off documents and spiking food and drinks with "knockout" drops, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday.

Espionage historian Keith Melto and Bob Wallace, a former CIA director, uncovered the manual, the BBC reported Thursday. The new release came from the only surviving copy of Mulholland's work, they said, and the rest were destroyed by the agency in the 1970s.

"Magic and espionage are kindred spirits," former deputy CIA Director John McLaughlin writes in the book's forward. "Mulholland's writing on delivery of pills, potions and powders was just one example of research carried out back then in fields as diverse as brainwashing and paranormal psychology."


Contact
European News Network
EU News Network
wire@eunewsnet.com
Tel: +44 (0) 758-845-6978

Cleanup at Cold War comm site

MATHESON


A three-month effort to remove hazardous waste and remnants of an old military communications site in Black River-Matheson were completed this week.

"Kempis Mountain, also known as Mid-Canada Line site 070, was ... the last link of a chain of Mid-Canada Line communications sites that stretched north to Hudson Bay," about two kilo-metres from Butler Lake, just south of Matheson, said township mayor Mike Milinkovich.

"Up to now, it was totally fenced in. There were no signs of buildings. All that was left were slabs of concrete where the powerhouse was" and other remnants.

The project was part of a larger effort announced earlier this year by the federal and provincial governments to clean up 16 abandoned Cold War radar sites throughout Northern Ontario.

Kempis Mountain was not a radar facility but a communications site linked to similar sites located north of Cochrane, in Fort Albany and at Cape Henrietta Maria on James Bay.

These were part of a series of early warning detection systems that were developed when there were tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union and fears of Moscow launching missiles across the Arctic.

Back around 1957, when the Kempis Mountain site was established, Milinkovich worked as an engineering technologist and helped install and maintain this Matheson-area facility.

This week, he was invited as a township representative to take part in a formal ceremony marking the final stage of its dismantling and removal.

"Unfortunately one of the dangerous legacies left behind at all the sites across Canada including site 070 is an organic chemical compound called polychlorinated biphenyl or as commonly known, PCBs," Milinkovich explained. "This chemical was commonly used for many years in various types of electrical power equipment installed at all the sites.

"PCBs are classified as persistent organic pollutants meaning PCBs never degrade or disappear but persist in the environment and accumulate in human and animal tissue. The only way to get rid of it from the environment is to remove it and destroy it by various methods at specially-designed facilities. PCBs can cause serious health problems in humans and other mammals such as lowering of the immune system, birth defects, health problems such as cancer and diabetes or a failure by males to reproduce."

The onsite cleanup operation began Aug. 26.

By the end of the project, a team had removed more than 17,000 tonnes of material from Kempis Mountain.

"This material was trucked to sites in Quebec and other locations in Ontario for proper disposal," Milinkovich explained. "In total 2,342 samples of soil, leachate, hydrocarbons, concrete, bedrock, PCB wipe tests for nonporous materials and water were tested for contaminates."

Milinkovich recalled the role site 070 played during the height of the Cold War era.

"Data that was collected by the Mid-Canada Line Doppler Detection Sites (radar sites) was transmitted south from site 070 by land line to the 'hole' in North Bay. The 'hole,' as it was called, was the colocated headquarters for the northern region of NORAD. The other NORAD headquarters site was located in the Cheyenne Mountains in Colorado. Together, these two sites controlled North American defences against potential threats from the air by analyzing data and information from the northern radar lines to determine if jets had to be scrambled to meet potential threats from attacking forces."

He said the site provided ample employment for people in the surrounding area.

"During the construction of site 070 and during the years it was manned, people from the Township of Black River-Matheson played a big part.

"The road up Kempis Mountain and the levelling of the site for construction was done primarily by the late Vic Hembruff's company now called R. J. Lougheed Trucking Ltd. and currently owned by Bob Lindsay. Much of the concrete work and construction was completed by a company called H&D Construction and owned at the time by the late Ernie Dambrowitz and Floyd Hembruff. Sadly this company no longer exists. Many people from the towns of Holtyre, Matheson, Ramore, Shillington and Val Gagne also worked for years at various occupations at the site."

Having worked on the installation and maintenance of the facility as a young man, Milinkovich said he felt privileged to be formally involved in its final stage.

"I was honoured to be asked to participate in the closing ceremonies to represent the Township of Black River-Matheson and also from a personal perspective as one of the survivors whose site 070 story began 52 years ago. From 1956 to 1961 it was my privilege to have worked on all three radar lines" the U. S.- built Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line, the Canadianbuilt and manned Mid- Canada Line (MCL), and the jointly erected Pinetree Line.

"I worked in every province in Canada from the tip of Vancouver Island at Holdberg to Newfoundland and north of the Arctic Circle on Baffin Island. This experience profoundly cemented my deep love and appreciation of this wonderful country of ours at an early age."

http://www.thedailypress.ca/PrintArticle.aspx?e=2183438#

Sunday Dec. 6 Ewa WW-II History "Troop Train" ride

all for Ewa WW-II History "Troop Train" ride tickets before they are all
sold out. There are two train rides, but tickets are going fast.
This is a great family event to spend 90 minutes riding through the Ewa
countryside on a classic WW-II narrow gauge railway that actually carried
many US troops who fought in the Pacific War. Discounts with military ID.

CALL (808) 681-5461 to reserve your Ewa WW-II History "Troop Train" tickets
NOW. The Hawaiian Railway Society Train Museum is a non-profit group located
between Renton Rd. and Roosevelt Avenue and is part of where WW-II in the
Pacific actually started- and strafed by Zeros and Val dive bombers on Dec.
7, 1941

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************************************

Aloha,

History will be made on Sunday, December 6, 2009.

An historic West Oahu Battlefield- on its way to becoming an officially
recognized National American Battlefield. Military Honor Guards, Rifle
Salute Teams, vintage WW-II vehicles, aircraft and Ewa historic 90 minute
"Troop Train" ride will all help underscore this exciting and colorful West
Oahu History event for the entire family.

Many consider this Ewa battlefield "Ground Zero" - the start of WW-II in the
Pacific. Before Japanese Naval fighters and bombers even reached Pearl
Harbor on December 7, 1941, a fierce air attack was already underway in West
Oahu.

Also of historic note, the famous Hollywood dogfights depicted in the Dec. 7
movies between P-40's and Zeros actually happened over Ewa Field, not over
Pearl Harbor. This was the largest single air battle on December 7, 1941 and
where the US response by Hawaiian Air Force (7th Air Force) aircraft faired
well during the two hour attack. Numerous Japanese planes were shot down by
two intercepting P-40 Warhawks over Ewa Field.

Two Americans of Japanese Ancestry were at last year's Save Ewa Field event
and were eye-witnesses to the early morning Ewa airfield attack. They lived
around the Marine airfield in 1941 and saw what happened as children that
morning. Two Ewa Village civilians were killed by the attack and many others
wounded by flying bullets. Most people on Sunday, December 7 only think
about "Pearl Harbor"- and the West Oahu battle sites mostly forgotten- until
now.

USMC Ewa Field, the site of a major December 7 air attack in the opening
minutes of the Pacific War, was struck by Imperial Japanese Zero fighters
five minutes before the actual bombing attack on Pearl Harbor begin. The
A6M2 Zero was Japan's elite, top-rated fighter in 1941 and out-classed
nearly every American plane the US had then. The Zero fighters were
lightning fast and their pilots highly trained with two years of previous
combat experience in China.

Not since the end of WW-II, after the Ewa Marine Corps Air Station was
closed, absorbed into Barbers Point Naval Air Station, has there ever been
an official ceremony by US Marines to honor the fallen Marines on the actual
battle site, for who died defending the airfield. That will change on
Sunday, December 6, at 10 AM, when US Marines will perform a color guard and
rifle salute ceremony with a bugler playing taps.

All previous ceremonies for the fallen Ewa Field US Marines were held at the
Barbers Point Golf Course, which was once part of the later 1944-45
expansion of the Marine air base, but not the site of the actual 1941
battlefield, which still exists in 1941 bullet marked condition and remains
endangered by development.

The Ewa Field Marine fighter aircraft parking ramp exists today in 1940's
condition, and is now on its way to becoming a recognized National American
Battlefield under a National Park Service grant. This can lead to an
eventual National Park and National Monument- and save the historic WW-II
battlefield forever.

This would be West Oahu's first and only National Park and recognized
national battlefield, similar to Civil War and Revolutionary war
battlefields on the US mainland. Recognized battlefields have served to
create visitor magnets and would really place the West Oahu area on the
national map. WW-II sites are Oahu's number one visitor attractions.

Events being held on Sunday, December 6 include a convoy of WW-II military
vehicles to Ewa Field and special WW-II History "Troop Train" rides
conducted by the Hawaiian Railway Society from their Ewa Station.

The Ewa Train Museum location is very significant in itself in that it is
located at the actual front gate to the 1941 Ewa Marine Corps airfield, and
was strafed by Japanese Zeros. Spent 7.7 mm machinegun cartridges from
Japanese planes could be found everywhere after the battle.

Joel Fujita, now 89 years old and a 442nd combat veteran, remembers a
Japanese Zero swooping down very low, spotting him and his brother on the
roof of their Ewa Village home where they were watching the start of the
attack on nearby Ewa Field.

The Zero pilot waved at them through his open canopy--and then came back by
on a second pass and began strafing the area by the railway tracks and
Marine airfield front gate. Joel later picked up the spent 7.7mm shell
casings from the A6M2 Zero machineguns and still has them today.

Japanese Navy planes literally "hosed' the Ewa area for almost two hours
because it was a major gathering point for the various IJN units that went
over to the Pearl harbor area.
IJN Naval Air units that had unloaded their bombs then had the "free time"
to look for other available strafing targets- and this was usually Ewa
Field- before leaving back to their waiting carriers north of Oahu.

US Army WW-II veteran, Ramsay Hishinuma, was another eye-witness to the
attack on Ewa Field and nearly lost his life from all of the intense fire
and strafing that morning.
He was camping with friends at Hau Bush, a popular local Ewa beach camping
spot.

Both Hishinuma and Fujita attended last year's "Save Ewa Field"
Commemoration at the actual airfield battle site on December 7, 2008. Both
are expected to attend again this year on Sunday, December 6 at 10 AM at Ewa
Field.

"I vividly remember how close I came to getting killed by Japanese planes,"
Hishinuma said in a later news interview.

"Right above us, at just about tree-top level, we saw a plane with large red
ball insignia on its wings and fuselage chasing a Navy dive-bomber. The
machine-gun bursts from the Japanese plane were intense and ear-shattering.
The Navy pilot was able to get out of his plane before he crashed, and he
parachuted into the entanglement of nearby kiawe trees."

"He looked more than bewildered by the time we approached him and his first
words were 'What the hell is going on?'

Ironically, it took many 1941 military units on Oahu several minutes to
realize that this was not another "drill"- but the real deal.
Finally, as bombs were falling all over Pearl Harbor, Honolulu radio
stations interrupted their Sunday music with the report that "Pearl Harbor
is being bombed, This is NO DRILL".

By that time IJN Zero's were chewing up the US Marine planes at Ewa Field,
and IJN Val dive bombers had jumped incoming Navy SBD aircraft from the USS
Enterprise and were shooting them down along the Ewa coast.

Come out to West Oahu on Sunday, December 6, 2009 and experience some real
history, hear Pearl Harbor historians like Daniel Martinez recount events
and hear veterans re-tell their eye-witness stories.

See the military Honor Guards and Rifle Salute. Experience the emotions of
"Taps" being played at the actual WW-II battlefield for those US servicemen
killed in combat.

View the actual Zero fighter bullet marks in the aircraft ramp and where
Marine fighters burned up and actually melted into the concrete as Marines
fought back armed only with bolt action rifles, 45 pistols and a few
Thompson machineguns.

See the WW-II vehicle convoy, the WW-II aircraft and ride the WW-II Ewa
"History Train" which starts from the original front gate of the Ewa Marine
airfield where some of the very first shots of WW-II in the Pacific were
fired by strafing IJN Zero fighters.

MAP TO HOW TO GET THERE:

http://www.december7.com/1941/Map/index.html

Call for Ewa WW-II History "Troop Train" ride tickets before they are all
sold out. There are two rides, but tickets are going fast.
This is a great family event to spend 90 minutes riding through the Ewa
countryside on a classic WW-II narrow gauge railway that actually carried
many US troops who fought in the Pacific War. Discounts with military ID.

CALL (808) 681-5461 to reserve your Ewa WW-II History "Troop Train" tickets
NOW. The Hawaiian Railway Society Train Museum is a non-profit group located
between Renton Rd. and Roosevelt Avenue and is part of where WW-II in the
Pacific actually started- and heavily strafed by Zeros and Val dive bombers.

You can experience Hawaii's GROUND ZERO - the historic start of WW-II in The
Pacific. You will not likely have a chance like this again soon to get SO
CLOSE to actually see, touch and feel REAL HISTORY! Bring your children and
your cameras for these events.

(Events Release By John Bond, Save Ewa Field  808-685-3045)

Cold War tax exemption recognizes forgotten group of men and women

By David Robinson
The Evening Times
Fri Nov 20, 2009, 04:47 PM EST

Frankfort, N.Y. -

A small group of residents attended a public hearing Tuesday in the town of Frankfort to witness passage of a local law on tax exemption for military veterans.
But this law signified much more than a tax break.

It served as long-overdue recognition of a forgotten group of men and women that served in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Town board members voted to approve a limited tax exemption to veterans of the Cold War, defined as Sept. 2, 1945 to Dec. 26, 1991.

After the vote, the seven men applauded in appreciation.
The Frankfort law allows eligible residents exemption from town taxes up to 10 percent of the assessed value of their home, or up to $8,000 in equalized value. Those with disability claims can receive up to 50 percent of the assessed value of their home, not to exceed $40,000.

The exemption becomes effective on the 2010 final assessment roll, officials said.
While the money saved could provide much-needed relief in these difficult economic times, some of the men spoke to the law’s impact beyond just dollars and cents.
“It’s about more than the money,” said John Tucker, of Frankfort, “it’s about making sure the veterans feel like real veterans.”

Several of the men joined Tucker in describing years of being kept from joining groups or being ineligible for certain benefits because they had served in the military during a time not officially classified as a period of war.

It takes a program like the Cold War tax exemption, they said, to start changing people’s attitudes. But like most changes in public perception it is catching on slowly, and many of those that benefit are simply unaware.

The town of Frankfort became just the fourth municipality in Herkimer County, joining the city of Little Falls, village of Ilion and town of Schuyler, to adopt some form of the Cold War exemption.

The city of Little Falls passed a resolution on Nov. 17, 2007, becoming the first municipality in the county to adopt the Cold War exemption, according to Joy Presta, city assessor. For 2009, 10 veterans are currently receiving the exemption at a total equalized value of $66,119, she added.

The county also offers the program, with 75 residents receiving exemptions from county taxes with a total value of $612,004, after multiplying by the latest state equalization rate, according to Mary Ann Barbuto, county Real Property Tax Service Agency director.

There are still Cold War veterans that have no knowledge of the program, however.
When asked if they were aware of the county exemption, several of the men attending Frankfort’s public hearing said they had not heard about the county offering the tax break.

The town of Frankfort does have 10 people signed up for county Cold War exemption benefits and two residents that receive the benefits through the village of Ilion, according to Jim Fresco, town assessor.

Several of those in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting gave Fresco contact information, anticipating to submit an application for the county and town tax exemptions.
Tucker feels getting more information to the public is the first step, but making sure more municipalities adopt some form of the resolution is the ultimate goal.
“Hopefully we’ll all get on board in this county,” he said.

Mary Ann Barbuto, county Real Property Tax Service Agency director, provided some details on the Cold War exemption, as well as the Alternate Veterans exemption.
•Each county, city, town and village has the option of deciding whether to grant the Cold War veterans exemption.

• he Cold War exemption authorizes limited exemption from real property taxes for those who rendered military service to the United States during the Cold War (defined as Sept. 2, 1945 to Dec. 26, 1991).

•A veteran can not receive both the Cold War exemption and the Alternative Veterans exemption.

•The maximum levels from county taxes on the Cold War program are the reduced 15 percent, which equals a maximum $9,000 for service and maximum $30,000 for disability, both real values accounting for state equalization rates.

•The veteran must have been honorably discharged or released from service. As proof of the dates and character of service, a copy of Form DD 214 or other appropriate evidence should be attached to the application

Cold War Casualty on KFYR-TV








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Thanksgiving in a Foxhole

Thanks to Gary for sharing this poem with us.


by Gary Jacobson © November 2006

Well, here it is, Thanksgiving in a foxhole...
I'm trying to fathom what thankful presentments fill my soul.
You know, it could be a whole hell of a lot worse
I could be pushin' up posies 'stead a here spoutin' verse.
So I guess most of all, I'm thankful I ain't yet dead
Laced with bullet holes oozing red
Here in Vietnam, ten thousand miles from home
Sent forth the rotting jungle to roam.

War has reduced my passionate patriotism to stone
Still so abandoned ... still so alone
Still bearing pains born in this land of egregious hurt.
To survive it this grunt just keeps on poundin' dirt.
So pardon me for wish'n for family, hearth and home
'Stead of walkin' this park from dawn till dark
Just a might cumbersome.. .
Just a might adventuresome. ..
This blithesome war chuck full o' shock and awesome.

I guess I'd like to say I'm truly thankful
Heaps more thankful than regretful
Sent where ham and choker C-rats take an awful toll
Leaving spirits kinda sick ... kinda droll.
I'd give my left, uh, you know, manhood, the Nam to quicken
Fer a bucket o' golden Kentucky Fried Chicken.
U'um, I'd like some of that bird finger lick'n good
You better know I would.

In my foxhole, visions of drumsticks float in my head
Remembering feeling good and overfed
Thanksgiving feasts with heaping turkey back in the world
The parties, the girls, the cruising, the girls unfurled
My car, the girls, my mother and apple pie, the girls, my family.
That's why I'm here, just an armed turkey
Mired in Nam's fickle state of perplexity
Surviving eternal "move 'em outs" with a grunt's dexterity.

I'm most thankful for rare nights of relative calm
I laugh and joke with brothers, peace on weary minds a balm
When there's no bloodshed, no firefight
No Charlie's comin' through the wire tonight
Just the routine clamor of interdictive artillery overhead
Reassuring I can snuggle into Nam's warm ground, my bed
Though in my foxhole repressive fears always abound
Senses acutely attuned to every little sound
Tight so nothing escapes you, in or out-bound.

You see, I'm fighting here for freedom's bright ray
And they can't take that away
Though war's full of conundrums, in this dirty little fray
Where I clearly see man's hypocrisy and greed
Vile corruption in hatred's evil seed
For which my brothers for the good fight bleed
So I'm here for them, my brothers, my fellow man
Laboring alongside surviving in the heart of Vietnam.

I'm thankful for good things in this park that abound
Deep dank dark depths of hell in the devil's compound
True brotherhood forged in this gory battleground
Where men to duty bound, astonish and astound,
Men honor bound, war's complexities bewilder and confound
In Vietnam, where I lost the boy, but found the man
Mid contentious toil and strife
Roiling, boiling hatreds brewing his carnal life.

I'm thankful to know I'm living
To pay sorrowful homage to the dead and dying
I survived this war's inhumanity unfurled
Surviving back to this knock down ornery world,
From war's pack of lies to rise to kiss the skies
Grateful to live through what I've seen
That from wars bestial carousel careen
Living with ghosts of brothers and enemies unseen.

Though by the Nam heart-stricken
This 'ol home-boy can take a lickin'n keep on tickin'
Held in the service of our country
That sent me so far to march with hell's infantry
Carrying in every deed His ever righteous sword
In the service of our Lord...
Gone for the world to save
Risen from a most foul grave.

I'm grateful for my PTSD
Given with a worlds sweet pain to comfort me
Guiding me back to war's malignant melee
Once again down in the valley of the shadow reverie
Forever riding bestial iron horses of the infantry
War's ogres dancing betimes with me
Do-si-doing in and out of the maw of death
Welcome back ... grateful to take a peaceful breath...

So chow down on your turkey with humble thanks giving
Grunt, be ever grateful for your living
Grasp your family to your bosom dearly
Know there are men out there, who this night do not rest easy
Who yet hear brave voices whispering in hot war winds breezy
Daily contending with wrong and right
Men, women, this very Thanksgiving night
Valiantly pursuing for the land they love, the eternal fight.
************
read entire poem here

World War Ones youngest victim



The 26-year-old victim of the First World War

An encounter with an unexploded RAF bomb changed Maité Roël's life for ever. Robert Fisk finds out what the Great War means to her

Friday, 20 November 2009


Maité Roël is just 26 and she is the youngest victim of the First World War. And when she walks to meet me past the old churchyard in her village of Bovekerke, she limps, ever so slightly, on her left leg, the living ghost of all those mutilated, long-dead men whose memory the world honoured on Armistice Day earlier this month. She even holds a First World War veteran's card – "mutilée dans la guerre" – and when she shows it to the local railway ticket inspectors for reduced fare train trips, they suspect her – with awful inevitability – of stealing it from dead grandfather or great-grandfather.

But it's all true. After shaking off – so far – a 10-year addiction to the morphine which Belgian doctors gave her during 29 excruciatingly painful operations on her leg, Maité is now a young mother with a year and a half old baby and, incredibly, a total disinterest in the war that almost killed her. Only an hour before I met Maité, I was listening to the "Last Post" at the Menin Gate, 15 miles away in Ypres. "I know nothing about it," she says to me with indifference. "I've read nothing about it. This month was the first time they ever took me to show me the preserved trenches of the war."

They are all around her. Bovekerke was in German-occupied Belgium during the First World War, on the very edge of the Allied-held Ypres salient, and so was the military camp at Wetteren near Ghent when a bomber of the newly created RAF, successor to the Royal Flying Corps, dropped a bomb there in 1918. The Germans were already in retreat across France and Belgium, abandoning the terrible battlefields of Ypres and the Somme, pursued by British, French, Empire and newly-arrived American troops, harried by RAF bi-plane fighters and bombers. Those critical last months of the "War to End All Wars" almost did for Maité 17 years ago.
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"We went on a scout camping expedition to Wetteren and I remember now that it was an old military camp," Maité recalls very slowly. She has tiny dreadlocks that hang down her slim face and a silver ring in her nose – not the usual face of a First World War victim. "It was July 6th, 1992. I knew nothing about war. I remember we all built a fire using bricks round the outside and the other kids starting throwing logs on it. I was tired and so I went a few metres from the fire so I could sleep. Then there was a sudden explosion – I woke up and saw sparks from the explosion. Everyone was running and shouting and I tried to get up and I couldn't. Everyone was looking at me and I looked down – and I saw that my left leg was hanging by a piece of skin."

A million British soldiers had experienced this same terror in this same land more than 60 years earlier. But Maité could not understand. She was rushed to the local hospital at Wetteren where there were no specialist surgeons and she had to be rushed by air to Ghent University Hospital. For three hours, she wept and cried in pain before doctors could give her a sedative because the doctors were not sure which medication to administer. "I only started feeling the pain when I saw my leg – and then it never stopped," she said.

Nor has it stopped now. The doctors took skin and muscles and arteries from thighs and back and ribs to reconstruct her left leg – and saved it after 29 operations in which Maité spent two years in hospital, all of them on morphine. For the next 10 years she was addicted, desperate to detoxicate but still finding the pain unbearable. Maité now has only one artery in each leg. The birth of her child, Damon, and the love of his father, Kurt, helped her, she says, admitting with a smile that she still needs cannabis and alcohol to survive the pain but has been without morphine for a year and five months.

She is now cared for by the Belgian Institute for Veterans' Affairs and War Victims. The Institute, along with doctors and police officials, quickly realised that the scouts must have picked up the cylindrical RAF bomb, thinking it was a mouldy log – and thrown it on the fire. The explosion blasted the bricks into pieces, one of which almost severed Maité's left leg. Belgian explosives officers later identified the fragments as those of an RAF bomb – typical of many found over battlefields in the decades that followed the 1918 Armistice – manufactured in 1918 and used during the German retreat. The Wetteren camp was used by the Reichswehr during this period because the town was a major rail centre for German military traffic to the front.

With one of those bitter ironies that war alone can produce, the RAF's youngest victim – long after both the pilot and his intended targets must have died – turns out to be partly British. Maité's grandmother, Janette Matthieson, is Scottish and now lives in Ostend, making Maité's French-speaking mother half-British. Maité now lives on £700 a month, a stipend available to her since she was 16. When she was so grievously hurt, not a single newspaper outside Belgium mentioned her fate.

Belgian authorities are still paying monthly allowances to much older victims of First World War munitions as well as survivors of the Second World War – including Belgian Jewish survivors of the Holocaust – and newly-arrived wounded from Afghanistan. Maité wants to go on a clothes-making course and open a boutique – "I don't want to work for a boss," she says as cheerfully as any 1914-18 British soldier with a "Blighty" wound, though she may be more successful than the men who came home in 1918 and found that theirs was not a land fit for heroes.

"I have an '051'-coded card from the First World War veterans' department and when I buy train tickets, they often question me about it," Maité says. "They think I've taken it from an ancestor but it's completely real. I'm just the youngest victim of that war."

I ask her why she shows no interest in this terrible period of history which struck her so mercilessly – and so literally – when she was younger. She shrugs her shoulders. So much for the Somme and Verdun and Gallipoli and the nine million military dead of the Great War and the Last Post just down the road in Ypres. But I rather suspect Maité is right. Her boutique and her home-made clothes sound a far better future than an examination of the awful mud upon which her village of Bovekerke was rebuilt after the War to End All Wars.

USS Intrepid Serves Those Who Served With Job Fair

USS Intrepid Serves Those Who Served With Job Fair

video

The New York State Department of Labor held a special job fair this week for the state's veterans.

NY1 Employment reporter Asa Aarons was there and filed the following report.

There was a time when 1,000 military members on line to board the USS Intrepid meant one thing – war. It still does, though now it’s a different combatant, a battle with late mortgages sinking credit, and dwindling grocery supplies.

Today’s military veterans are face to face with the enemy called unemployment.

The New York States Depart of Labor chose the Intrepid for a career fair this week featuring 75 companies offering more than 2,000 jobs.

In the shadows of the world’s fastest, strongest, most aggressive machinery, veterans are donning the new battlefield armor, a business suit and updated resume.

With unemployment at nearly 15 percent for the state’s veterans, soldiers-turned-jobseekers poured in from every area and every era.

“Vets, we paid our dues,” said vet Charise Herbert. “Serving in Iraq, putting my life on the line.”

“I served in the Vietnam War,” said vet Victor Cotto.

Regardless of the era of service or military branch, veterans are known to bring strong qualities to the workplace.

“They are true professionals with a strong work ethic,” said Pedro Rodriguez, an Air Force veteran.

The DOL serves nearly 50,000 veterans each year. At this event, in addition to job matching, the agency hoped to show area vets ways to expand and improve their job-hunting skills.

“We get someone to look at their resume, give them some tips on interviewing skills, and also to let them know where the jobs are,” explained Leo Rosales of the DOL.

“The times are tough now and anything they can do to help anyone find a job is greatly appreciated by everyone,” said job-seeking veteran Lee Drescher.

And, some of the opportunities available at the job fair are practically tailor made for veterans.

“Basically our requirements are 39 college credits,” said New York City Department of Corrections worker Mark Washington. “But if they served two years active in the military with an honorable discharge, it’s equivalent to the 39 college credits. So they don’t have to have the college education.”

The USS Intrepid is one of the world’s most famous docked vessels. With the job fair, it becomes a ship serving those who served, and bringing them from the storm to safe harbor.

Disabled Combat veteran beaten At McDonalds by Employee

 

 

Iraq Vet Says McDonald's Workers Beat Him

 

 

By BARBARA LEONARD 
ShareThis

     BROOKLYN (CN) - A disabled Army captain who was wounded in Iraq claims McDonald's employees beat him with garbage can lids after he brought his service dog to the restaurant. Luis Montalvan says the attack came as he was photographing the restaurant after he repeatedly complained about the treatment he received there. 

     Montalvan says he became disabled after 17 years in the Army and began using a service dog named Tuesday in November 2008. 

     Montalvan says he was wounded with knives and hand grenades during his first tour of duty in Iraq, and developed post traumatic stress disorder, in addition to his spinal cord damage and brain injury. He was awarded a Purple Heart and two Bronze Stars, according to his federal complaint.

     He says that when he brought his dog Tuesday to McDonald's, the employees told him he had to leave his "pet" outside.
     

Montalvan replied that Tuesday was a service animal, not a pet, as indicated by the bright red vest the dog wore. He says the employees continued to make him unwelcome and uncomfortable by hovering over him and glaring at him.
     

He says the rude treatment brought on a panic attack that hurt his performance on final exams at Columbia University, where he is enrolled in a master's program in journalism.
     

Montalvan says he complained about the treatment he received, and McDonald's area supervisor Claudia Alvarez apologized and said employees would receive training to help disabled customers.
     

Six weeks later Montalvan says he returned to the McDonald's with Tuesday, but manager Carlos Sala said the dog was not allowed in the restaurant, despite a new sign welcoming service animals.
     

Montalvan says he explained that service animals are allowed in public restaurants under the Americans with Disabilities Act, but Sala said he was a new manager and had not been trained with on the ADA.
    

 Two days later, Montalvan says returned to the restaurant to find that it had been shut down for health code violations. He says he took some photos of the place, and then unidentified McDonald's employees beat him with garbage can lids, pinching a nerve that forced him to use a neck brace for 8 weeks.
     

Montalvan seeks punitive damages for ADA violations, discrimination, and assault and battery. He is represented by David Lackowitz with Gersten Savage

http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/10/30/Iraq_Vet_Says_McDonald_s_Workers_Beat_Him.htm

 

VA and Kaiser Permanente Invite Veterans to Participate in Health Record Pilot Program

VA and Kaiser Permanente Invite Veterans to Participate in

Health Record Pilot Program

Working Together to Share Records Safely, Improve Care



WASHINGTON (Nov. 25, 2009) - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and
Kaiser Permanente today announced an exciting program designed to
improve care and services to our Nation's heroes.  VA and Kaiser
Permanente are launching a pilot program to exchange electronic health
record (EHR) information using the Nationwide Health Information Network
(NHIN) created by the Department of Health and Human Services.



"The ability to share critical health information is essential to
interoperability," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Eric K. Shinseki.
"Utilizing the NHIN's standards and network will allow organizations
like VA and the Department of Defense to partner with private sector
health care providers to promote better, faster and safer care for
Veterans."



This week, VA and Kaiser Permanente will send a joint letter to Veterans
in the San Diego area who receive care from both institutions, to invite
Veterans to participate in this first-ever pilot program.  Veterans, who
respond and ask to participate, will enable their public and private
sector health care providers and doctors to share specific health
information electronically, safely, securely and privately.  This
initial pilot is planned to begin in mid-December 2009.



"This partnership demonstrates the power of a large-scale EHR that
safely connects several care systems.  Securely digitizing American's
health care information is only the first step in realizing the cost
saving and improved quality benefits possible with health care
technology," said Andrew M. Wiesenthal, MD, associate executive director
of The Permanente Federation. "The reality is that most people receive
care from multiple providers.  Without the ability for caregivers and
patients to have access to their data, all of the time, there is the
possibility for wasted time and resources duplicating tests and
procedures.  Exchange of current health record data at the point of
treatment also improves quality, allowing medical decisions to be made
quickly, with the relevant background."



The pilot program connects Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect(r) and the
VA's electronic health record system, VistA, two of the largest
electronic health record systems in the country.



The program puts the highest priority on patient privacy and data
security, and no exchange of information will occur without the explicit
permission of the individual patient. Explicit policies and technologies
to safeguard patient information are part of the NHIN. Patient
information will not be shared without first obtaining their consent.
Veterans' access to care will in no way be affected at either
institution if they choose not to participate.  Patients who do choose
to participate will benefit by allowing their doctors at any one of the
institutions to obtain key health record information from other
participating institutions.



VA, DoD, and HHS have been working closely to create a system that will
modernize the way health care is delivered and benefits are
administered.  DoD will be included in the next phase of the pilot
program in early 2010.

Aloha, Update on Ewa Field

Aloha, Update on Ewa Field

We have confirmed that MARFORPAC and K-BAY will Be sending Color Guard,
Rifle Team and Chaplain To Ewa Field event. US Navy Pacific Fleet Band Will
be sending a bugler.

Special guests for Fort Barrette and Ewa Field will include:

Ray Emory, USS Honolulu Pearl harbor survivor And Pearl Harbor historian emeritus

National Parks Historian Daniel Martinez, who Will speak at both events and
will be providing significant TV news media support and coverage.
NPS is VERY INTERESTED in these two events!

Sgt. Major Allan Kellogg, USMC Medal of Honor Recipient.

Mark Moses, Director, VA Hawaii.

Louisa Cooper, granddaughter of Brig. Gen. Barrette

Master of ceremonies is Daniel DeGracia, pastor and very knowledgeable on
military history and affairs.

Waianae High School JROTC is lined up for Fort Barrette ceremonies with
possibility of Hawaii Guard Support- still pending arrangements.

ttp://www.december7.com/1941/Map/index.html

Senator Mike Gabbard has confirmed attendance. Rep. Kym Pine
will have a representative because she will be on the mainland.
Still awaiting notification by Sen. Will Espero and Rep. Sharon
Har.

MORE will be added in updated report soon.

John Bond 685-3045
Save Ewa Field - Fort Barrette

SENATOR DORGAN (D-ND)
on Progress Against al Qaeda

Making Real Progress in Our Mission to Disrupt, Dismantle, and Defeat al Qaeda

SENATOR DORGAN (D-ND) – DPC Report on Progress Against al Qaeda -- Interview on 11/20/09 (0:38).

Sean Eagan of americancoldwarvets.org on POW-MIA Radio Hosted by Rod Utech Sunday November 21st to discuss the newest Cold War veteran recognition and remembrance efforts .

Broadcast is 55 minutes long Cold War Segment starts about 19 minutes in.






Our scheduled guests on POW/MIA Radio for Sunday, November 22, 2009 are:

2:00pm Mtn - Mr. Leo Hrdlicka: Leo's brother, Capt. David Hrdlicka, USAF, lost and Missing in Action 44 years ago on May 18, 1965, was on a mission that took him over Laos. He successfully parachuted from his F-105 after being hit by ground fire. David was seen alive afterward and appeared in a Vietnamese newspaper and on a taped recorded broadcast. China claimed him as a prisoner and he appeared in Russia's PRAVDA. Our own intelligence reported him alive in the cave complex near Sam Neua, Laos. Leo has worked extensively for his release, even travelling the Mekong River seeking information on his brother. He remains active in the issue and will offer his comments on current issues today and the best selling book by former congressman Billy Hendon and Beth Stewart, An Enormous Crime: The Definitive Account of American POWs Abandoned in Southeast Asia. Leo has lived much of the history that is presented in the Hendon/Stewart book. For more information, please visit: http://www.enormouscrime.com/ .

3:00pm Mtn - Open Show: The season for giving is upon us; Christmas is only a month away. Are you looking for the perfect gift? A gift that is rewarding to both giver and recipient. Can you imagine a gift that is not put on the shelf and forgotten, not used only once, not returned for color, size or style, not made in China and truly keeps on giving? There are such gifts! Yes, no batteries needed, no assembly required and no need to worry about being politically correct. The only requirements are that the giver provides an enthuisiastic endorsement of the gift and the recipient receives it with an open mind. We will discuss such gifts this hour. Once I get into this discussion, you'll know what I mean and are welcome to offer your suggestions by calling in to join me at 1-877-254-7524.

4:00pm Mtn - News and Views: An hour of the latest POW/MIA and veterans issues. This hour we will be joined by Mr. Sean Eagan, Public Affairs Director for American Cold War Veterans. Sean will discuss recently introduced legislation for the Cold War Service Medal, S.2743.

IMPORTANT NOTE: House Resolution 111 currently has 226 co-sponsors. Yes, we need to continue to get as many new co-sponsors as possible, but we need to contact our reps who have co-sponsored, thank them and ask them to push to have this resolution brought up on the floor of the House for a vote! Please visit http://www.nationalalliance.org for additional information on how you can make this legislation successful.

Remember Jack and Wilma Laeufer at Lima Area MIA-POW have many items available for purchase in support of our veterans and missing Americans. Please contact them at 419-641-2340.

Thanks to our sponsors for this sponsorship period:

Mr. Earl Wood
The Gregory J. Harris Military Courtesy Room
Chained Eagles of Ohio

Listen to POW/MIA Radio every Sunday on The American Freedom Network, http://www.americanewsnet.com . We also broadcast with 10,000 watts on KHNC-AM, 1360khz, Johnstown, Colorado. If you are unable to get the show on the website, please re-enter the URL in your browser address line and try again. Please note our show call-in number, 1-877-254-7524.


Rod Utech

"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God!" Patrick Henry, 1775

Every now and then you get a good forward

As I came out of the supermarket that sunny day, pushing my cart of groceries towards my car, I saw an old man with the hood of his car up a lady sitting inside the car, with the door open.

The old man was looking at the engine. I put my groceries away in car and continued to watch the old gentleman from about twenty five feet away. I saw a young man in his early twenties with a grocery bag in his arm, walking towards the old man. The old gentleman saw him coming too and took a few steps towards him.


I saw the old gentleman point to his open hood and say something. The young man put his grocery bag into what looked like a brand new Cadillac Escalade and then turn back to the old man and I heard him yell at the old gentleman saying,You shouldn't even be allowed to drive a car at your age. And then with a wave of his hand, he got in his car and peeled rubber out of the parking lot.

I saw the old gentleman pull out his handkerchief and mop his brow
as he went back to his car and again looked at the engine.

He then went to his wife and spoke with her and appeared to tell he
r it would be okay. I had seen enough and I approached the old man. He saw
me coming and stood straight and as I got near him I said, 'Looks like you'
re having a problem.'

He smiled sheepishly and quietly nodded his head. I looked under the hood myself and knew that whatever the problem=A0was, it was beyond me. Looking around I saw a gas station up the road and to ld the old man that I would be right back... I drove to the station and went inside and saw three attendants working on cars. I approached one of them and related the problem the old man had with his car and offered to pay them if they could follow me back down and help him.

The old man had pushed the heavy car under the shade of a tree and appeared to be comforting his wife. When he saw us he straightened up and t
hanked me for my help. As the mechanics diagnosed the problem (overheated engine) I spoke with the old gentleman.

When I shook hands with him earlier, he had noticed my Marine Corps ring and had commented about it, telling me that he had been a Marine too. I nodded and asked the usual question, 'What outfit did you serve with?'

He had mentioned that he served with the first Marine Division at Tarawa, Saipan, Iwo Jima and Guadalcanal .

He had hit all the big ones and retired from the Corps after the war was over. As we talked we heard the car engine come on and saw the mechanics lower the hood. They came over to us as the old man reached for his wallet, but was stopped by me and I told him I would just put the bill on my AAA card.

He still reached for the wallet and handed me a card that I assumed
had his name and address on it and I stuck it in my pocket.. We all shook hands all around again and I said my goodbye's to his wife.

I then told the two mechanics that I would follow them back up to the station. Once at the station I told them that they had interrupted their own jobs to come along with me and help the old man. I said I wanted to pay for the help, but they refused to charge me.

One of them pulled out a card from his pocket looking exactly like the card the old man had given to me. Both of the men told me then, that they were Marine Corps Reserves. Once again we shook hands all around and as I was leaving, one of them told me I should look at the card the old man had given to me. I said I would and drove off.

For some reason I had gone about two blocks when I pulled over and took the card out of my pocket and looked at it for a long, long time. The
name of the old gentleman was on the card in golden leaf and under his name'Congressional Medal of Honor Society..

I sat there motionless looking at the card and reading it over and
over. I looked up from the card and smiled to no one but myself and marveled that on this day, four Marines had all come together, because one of us needed help. He was an old man all right, but it felt good to have stood next to greatness and courage and an honor to have been in his presence. Rememer, OLD men like him gave you FREEDOM for America.



Thanks to those who served...& those who supported them.

Sean Eagan and of americancoldwarvets.org will be on POW-MIA Radio Hosted by Rod Utech Sunday November 21st to discuss the newest Cold War veteran recognition and remembrance efforts .

Listen Live on line Sunday November 21st at 4:15P.M. MST 6:15 P.M. EST

Here

POW/MIA Radio is broadcast by the American Freedom Network

Sean and Rod will discuss Cold War veteran issues and new Cold War Medal legislation S. 2743, A bill to amend title 10, United States Code, to provide for the award of a military service medal to members of the Armed Forces who served honorably during the Cold War, and for other purposes. Introduced November 5, 2009 by Senator Olympia J. Snowe (ME), with co-sponsors Jim Webb (VA), Blanche Lincoln (AR), and Mary Landrieu (LA).

A similar bill, H.R. 4051, was introduced in the House by Steve Israel (NY). Along with the Medal bill Rep. Israel also introduced H.Res.900 - Supporting the goals and ideals of a Cold War Veterans Recognition Day to honor the sacrifices and contributions made by members of the Armed Forces during the Cold War and encouraging the people of the United States to participate in local and national activities honoring the sacrifices and contributions of those individuals. * Introduced: November 05, 2009 by Steve Israel (NY) .





(http://www.americanewsnet.com). Its flagship station is KHNC 1360AM out of Johnstown, CO. You can also catch their broadcast on Satellite: G-9 Channel 2, Sub-Audio 7.76, Horizontal Polarity.


LISTEN LIVE

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Letter to Obama www.congress.org

Subject: Cold War Service Medal

To:
President Barack Obama

November 20, 2009

Mr. President, I am contacting you to ask for your support of H.R. 4051 (Authorization of a Cold War Medal). As a Retired Senior Chief Petty Officer who voted and support you and has proudly served our country for over 22 years I believe all of us who served during that most trying time should be recognized for our service in a tangible way. I believe it's just a small token that would go a long way to say thank you to all the Veterans who were either drafted of volunteered, but did their duty. All of us hear how "politicians support the Troops", but when it come to Veterans we are the first to be forgotten. Thank you for your time. AMCS(AW/SW) John M. Branning, USN(Ret.)

Depew , NY


http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/userletter/?letter_id=4294799191

Secretary Shinseki Announces Study of Vietnam-Era Women Veteran

Comprehensive Study Will Help VA Provide High-Quality Care



WASHINGTON (Nov. 19, 2009) -Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K.
Shinseki announced the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is launching
a comprehensive study of women Veterans who served in the military
during the Vietnam War to explore the effects of their military service
upon their mental and physical health.



"One of my top priorities is to meet the needs of women Veterans," said
Secretary Shinseki.  "Our Veterans have earned the very best care.  VA
realizes that women Veterans require specialized programs, and this
study will help VA provide high-quality care for women Veterans of the
Vietnam era."



The study, which begins in November and lasts more than four years, will
contact approximately 10,000 women in a mailed survey, telephone
interview and a review of their medical records.



As women Vietnam Veterans approach their mid-sixties, it is important to
understand the impact of wartime deployment on health and mental
outcomes nearly 40 years later.  The study will assess the prevalence of
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental and physical
health conditions for women Vietnam Veterans, and explore the
relationship between PTSD and other conditions.



VA will study women Vietnam Veterans who may have had direct exposure to
traumatic events, and for the first time, study those who served in
facilities near Vietnam.  These women may have had similar, but less
direct exposures.  Both women Veterans who receive their health care
from VA and those who receive health care from other providers will be
contacted to determine the prevalence of a variety of health conditions.



About 250,000 women Veterans served in the military during the Vietnam
War and about 7,000 were in or near Vietnam.  Those who were in Vietnam,
those who served elsewhere in Southeast Asia and those who served in the
United States are potential study participants.



The study represents to date the most comprehensive examination of a
group of women Vietnam Veterans, and will be used to shape future
research on women Veterans in future wars.  Such an understanding will
lay the groundwork for planning and providing appropriate services for
women Veterans, as well as for the aging Veteran population today.



Women Veterans are one of the fastest growing segments of the Veteran
population.  There are approximately 1.8 million women Veterans among
the nation's total of 23 million living Veterans.  Women comprise 7.8
percent of the total Veteran population and nearly 5.5 percent of all
Veterans who use VA health care services.  VA estimates women Veterans
will constitute 10.5 percent of the Veteran population by 2020 and 9.5
percent of all VA patients.



In recent years, VA has undertaken a number of initiatives to create or
enhance services for women Veterans, including the implementation of
comprehensive primary care throughout the nation, staffing every VA
medical center with a women Veterans program manager, supporting a
multifaceted research program on women's health, improving communication
and outreach to women Veterans, and continuing the operation of
organizations like the Center for Women Veterans and the Women Veterans
Health Strategic Healthcare Group.



The study, to be managed by VA's Cooperative Studies Program, is
projected to cost $5.6 million.

Encourage Congress to pass honors for Cold War veterans

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=296833&ac=PHedi

November 18, 2009

The Cold War was America's longest war, lasting from September 1945 to December 1991. Yet it seems to be something few people remember; especially how close the world came to nuclear war.

Yet there is no medal or award to honor the brave and dedicated men and women who defended us during that time. We faced the same dangers and did the same jobs as today's military, who have all kinds of medals being issued. At the present time there is legislation in Congress that will correct this injustice, and bring honor and respect so long overdue.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, along with Sens. James Webb, D-Va., Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., and Mary Landrieu, D-La., have introduced a bill to end this oversight (S. 2743, The Cold War Medal Act of 2009).

In the House, Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., has introduced a parallel bill, H.R. 4051, and has also introduced House Resolution 900, to designate May 1 as Cold War Veterans Recognition Day. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., has introduced House Concurrent Resolution 207, expressing the sense of the Congress regarding the victory of the United States in the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

I ask everyone to ask their elected officials to become cosponsors and vote for rapid passage of these bills. Include the bill number and name to ensure the proper bill is considered.

Jerald Terwilliger

National Chairman

American Cold War Veterans, Inc.

South Portland

Key Members to contact for House Res. 900 and HR H.R. 4051 The Cold War Medal Act

Buck McKeon, Ranking Member

Roscoe G. Bartlett

Mac Thornberry

Walter B. Jones

W. Todd Akin

J. Randy Forbes

Jeff Miller

Joe Wilson

Frank A. LoBiondo

Rob Bishop

Michael Turner

John Kline

Mike Rogers

Bill Shuster

Cathy McMorris Rodgers

K.Michael Conaway

Doug Lamborn

Rob Wittman

Mary Fallin

Duncan Hunter

John C. Fleming

Mike Coffman

Thomas J. Rooney

Todd Russell Platts

Honoring Stalin at the D-Day Museum GTFOH

I don't know what genius decided to erect a bust of Stalin at the D-day Museum but lets just say its not a great idea. This column is from Huffington Post thought it is worth a read.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-storozynski/us-honors-stalin-on-hallo_b_363141.html?view=print

U.S. Honors Stalin on Hallowed Ground, Will Saddam Hussein Be Next?

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russians began taking down their statues of Josef Stalin, the mass murderer who killed millions of people. Astonishingly, in America, the National D-Day Memorial is honoring Stalin by placing his bust on a pedestal at its museum in Bedford, Virginia.

This misguided move will haunt millions of Ukrainians, Russians, Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, Jews, etc. whose families were massacred by this Soviet tyrant. Stalin's killing machine slaughtered more people than Adolf Hitler and the Nazis did.

Hitler and Stalin were allies and started World War II in 1939 by both attacking Poland at the same time. But William McIntosh, the D-Day Memorial's president says that because Stalin became a U.S. ally after Germany invaded Russia, he deserves to be acknowledged along with Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

McIntosh is wrong. Stalin only gave lip service to the allies so that they would attack Nazi Germany on the Western front. Stalin did not liberate Eastern Europe from the Nazis in 1945; he sent in Soviet troops that occupied half of Europe until the Berlin Wall fell in 1989. Stalin the communist barely hid his disdain for capitalist America during WWII, and once the war ended, he began the Cold War and ordered his scientists to work on missiles and nuclear weapons that could destroy the United States.

Given McIntosh's logic, should America put up a statue of Saddam Hussein because he was an ally of the U.S. in the 1980s when we supported Iraq in a war against Iran?

Congress authorized the D-Day Memorial and private donors raised $19 million to honor soldiers that fought in the invasion of Normandy. Now McIntosh is lobbying Congress to make his museum part of the National Park Service so that it can receive federal tax dollars.
By placing a bust of Stalin on hallowed ground, McIntosh disrespects veterans, including my father who took part in the Normandy invasion. When the war began, Dionysius Storozynski was 17 and living in Lvov, Poland. He fought in the underground against Stalin's army that invaded Poland and later joined the Polish troops in France that fought the Germans in the West. When France surrendered, he was evacuated to England and trained for the allied invasion of Normandy.

In 1944, when the beachhead was taken, Corporal Storozynski rode a motorcycle off a transport from England as part of the 24th Lancers Regiment of the 1st Polish Armored Division. It was lead by Major Jan Kanski with 47 officers, 634 men, 52 Sherman tanks, 11 Stuart tanks and six anti-aircraft tanks. My father sped ahead of these troops, and scoured the French countryside with his binoculars. He radioed the coordinates of the Germans to Polish tank commanders. Gen. Dwight Eisenhower inspected my father's regiment, which saw heavy action in Caen, Falaise and Aberville in France. They helped liberate Belgium and Holland.

During the campaign, my father lost part of his hearing when he drove over a land mine. Major Kanski lost his life.

My maternal grandfather, Sgt. Wladslaw Krzyzanowski, also fought in the Polish Army against Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany. In 1939 he was tortured and sentenced to death by Stalin's NKVD, forerunner of the KGB. His crime? He fought against Stalin's ally at the time, Hitler. My grandfather's sentence was commuted to life, and he was one of 1.5 million Poles sent to Stalin's forced labor gulags in Siberia in the years 1939-1941. He escaped and joined the army of Polish Gen. Wladyslaw Anders that fought alongside British General Bernard Montgomery. The Brits and the Poles pushed the Germans across North Africa and together with the American military liberated Italy. My grandfather won medals at the Battle of Monte Cassino.

Other Polish soldiers were not as lucky. The NKVD took 22,000 Polish officers into the Katyn Forest, tied their hands behind their backs, and one by one shot them in the back of their heads. The bodies were dumped into mass graves. Many have yet to be recovered for proper burial.

That's how Stalin treated prisoners of war. He wasn't much better to his own people. Before World War II began, the NKVD killed millions of Russians during the "great purge" of Stalin's political enemies. Stalin forced collectivization, stole farmland from peasants, and starved to death 10 million Ukrainians in a vengeful act of genocide. And it was Stalin's 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop pact with Hitler that split Poland in half, allowing the Germans to carry out the Holocaust that murdered six million Jews.

Stalin enslaved the Russian people. That's why Russia has taken down most of the statues of Stalin and Russian President Dimitri Medvedev is critical of those who gloss over Stalin's image. "From the point of view of the law, killing of a huge number of compatriots for political or unsubstantiated economic motives is a crime," Medvedev recently told Der Spiegel magazine. "The rehabilitation of those involved in these crimes is impossible."

In addition to the civilians that Stalin murdered, he sent Russian soldiers to their death by using them as cannon fodder, marching them directly into the line of German gunfire without a cohesive battle plan. Medvedev said recently on his web site, "Stalin's crimes cannot diminish the heroic deeds of the people who triumphed in the Great Patriotic war."
If McIntosh wants to honor Russia's contribution to the victory over Nazi Germany, he should put up a statue of the Unknown Russian Soldier. That would make more sense than a bust of Stalin.

It took the people of the former Soviet Empire five decades to right the wrongs of Stalin's "evil empire," as Ronald Reagan called it. These days, the Poles are planning to put up a statue of Reagan in Warsaw to acknowledge his role in ending Soviet Communism. How ironic that in Virginia, America is putting up a bust of Stalin.

Army's record suicide rate 'horrible,' general says
Despite high total, awareness campaign shows signs of helping

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli on Tuesday called the Army's record suicide rate this year "horrible" and said the problem of soldiers taking their own lives is the toughest he has faced in his 37 years in service.

As of Nov. 16, 140 soldiers on active duty and 71 soldiers not on active duty were suspected to have committed suicide. "We are almost certainly going to end the year higher than last year," which was also a record for Army suicides, Chiarelli said at a Pentagon news conference.

"This is horrible," he said. "Every single loss is devastating."
However, Chiarelli, who has made suicide prevention a priority, said that despite the high total, the monthly suicide rate has largely declined since March.
In January and February, there were about 40 suicides, or about one-third of the active-duty total this year, and since March the general trend has been down, with the exception of a couple of months, he said. He attributed that progress primarily to a campaign to increase the involvement of Army leaders at all ranks in suicide prevention efforts.

Chiarelli voiced frustration that the Army has not yet been able to identify any causal links among the suicide cases, except that soldiers are more likely to kill themselves when they are away from their stations, where help is available. "There is no simple answer," he said. "Each suicide case is as unique as the individuals themselves."
But Chiarelli said that in more than 40 percent of the cases this year, the soldier involved had seen a behavioral health specialist.

Substance abuse, which can be related to mental health problems and suicide, is on the rise in the Army, Chiarelli said, and he added that the force is short about 300 substance abuse counselors.


The Army is also short an estimated 800 behavioral health specialists, he said, describing prewar authorization levels for such specialists as outdated. "I have been pounding the system to . . . determine what we need after eight years of war," Chiarelli said.

The Army recently refined the questionnaire it uses for incoming soldiers to better screen for psychological problems and has instituted a training program to build mental resiliency within its ranks.

In addition, the Army has launched a pilot program to have soldiers returning from overseas undergo an immediate half-hour evaluation -- either face-to-face or online via Web cameras -- by mental health providers. In the one battalion that has participated in the program so far, the evaluations led to a doubling of the referral rate for mental health issues compared with soldiers who simply filled out a post-deployment assessment form, according to Brig. Gen. Richard Thomas, the Army's assistant surgeon general for force protection.

Chiarelli declined to discuss the case of Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, charged with fatally shooting 13 people at Fort Hood, Tex., this month. Asked whether he was concerned about the risk of other violent individuals in the force, Chiarelli said, "We always have to be concerned about that."

Cold War symbol on display on South Dakota prairie

NEAR WALL, SD (KTIV) -- This week marks twenty years since the Berlin Wall came down, the fall of communism and ultimately the end of the Cold War. There is another symbol marking the end of the Cold War in the center of the Rushmore state.

At one point, there were enough nuclear bombs in South Dakota to create what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki more than 150 times over.


It's a modest building in the middle of the South Dakota prairie. And for more than three decades only a select few people had ever been inside. An elite group that held the nation's top military secrets some 30 feet below the ground. This is the Delta-one launch site for the Minuteman Missile program.

"People drove by these facilities for years and didn't realize what was out here," says National Park Service tour guide Jack Hanson. "It's a fascinating part of American history."

And eye-opening. The amount of power and potential destruction capable of the 150 nuclear warheads in South Dakota alone contained power than what was dropped in all of World War II.

"That whole war start to finish including the atomic bombs, was a two megaton war. We had 180 megatons in South Dakota, so roughly 90 times the destructive force of all of World War II, just in South Dakota," Hanson said.

The people who manned these facilities since the early 1960s knew the risks and the realities of their job. The topside crew consisted of enlisted military who spent twelve hours a day here, with the main goal of security. Down below, two people -- the commander and deputy commander -- worked 24-hour shifts in a tiny space inside a protected capsule with the ability to launch a nuclear war.

"They open that up, inside are two keys and the code that the president carries. The president has a military officer with him at all times carrying a briefcase. It's called a football and inside that are the atomic launch codes. Inside here it's called a cookie. They take the cookies out, match that to the codes they've been given, and if they match, they know they're going to have a launch," Hanson said.

An action, with consequence.

"Once they turned the keys, they were committed to nuclear war, because there were no do-overs," Hanson said.

If the decision to launch was made, a missile with a 1.2 megaton nuclear warhead sitting in a silo about 15 miles away from the key turn, would have been sent on a journey to a destination in the Soviet Union. It could have reached that target within 30 minutes.

It's estimated that in the first hour of a nuclear exchange between the US and Soviet Union, 30 million Americans would have died. Forty million Soviets would be killed. Hanson says each site in South Dakota was targeted by the Soviets, so would those at the launch site survive?

"Survivability? Only if the bomb hit more than a mile away."

The crew underground would have enough air to last a few days. Those topside had no protection. A former missileer says everyone was mentally trained for "what could have been."

"There was times when we were down their playing backgammon, watching baseball games and then there were times when you first become a crew member where you may get your first emergency action message. It's real versus an exercise. But you get desensitized to that," said former missileer Kerry Davis.

Some kept their humor, shown by artwork on the eight-ton door to the launch room. Now a national historic site, people can tour this facility and learn a part of American history that few have yet to really study.

Hanson says, "It was such an important part of our history. The absolute destruction that would have been created had these weapons ever been used."

The START treaty signed by the US and the Soviets in 1991 led to the dismantling of all 150 Minuteman Two missiles in South Dakota. The warheads were removed and the silos destroyed, except for the Delta Nine launch facility which is now part of the tour at the Minuteman Missile National Historic site.