The circle of friends I am closest to includes around a hundred Vietnam veterans, also known as Namvets or Vietvets or VN vets. My daughter's father was a doorgunner on a helicopter gunship for 13 months incountry, near Cu Chi (the area where those famous tunnels are) and Tay Ninh (near the "Black Virgin" mountain).
Through him and other VN vets I have met online and in person during the last eight years, I was drawn into a loosely knit culture of military types and their friends, families and supporters. The first Namvet group I joined for online discussion of the war happened to be affiliated with a university in New York state, and those 112 members included professors and others who had protested the war "back then" in addition to the "lifers" and other veterans of the War in Vietnam. And YES, IT WAS A WAR. That business about a "conflict" is just government-speak and no one even tries to use it much anymore -- even the government.
In the years since I went online at home in 1997, I have been in about a dozen military groups and have grown very close to quite a few people I met there. Many of them I have met IRL, primarily because I rode a Greyhound bus from Tulsa to Washington, DC in 1999 for the Veterans Day activities and to see the Vietnam Memorial (The Wall) for the first time. During my five-day stay there I roomed with two women, one of whom was a Namvet and the other had been a fiancee to a pilot whose name had finally been put on The Wall even though he went MIA in 1967 and was never found or officially reported as KIA after his Spectre gunship went down. (For those who don't know or didn't immediately guess, KIA is Killed In Action. And did you know there is also a category called DOW? Died Of Wounds, usually more than a few days after being wounded -- like one of our Iraq vets who came home badly wounded, ended up in a coma, and died a couple of days ago.)
In 1999, I went to the Delta-to-DMZ Dance at the Doubletree Hotel where we were staying and talked and danced for hours with a lot of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines -- and maybe a Coast Guardsman, Reservist, or National Guardsman or two as well. But of course unlike the current war, few people were sent from the ranks of the Reserves or the National Guard....
That weekend of November 11, 1999 happened also to be a birthday celebration of the Marines as a branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, and a big group of jarheads at the dance had a huge cake with a truly massive load of candles -- which they eventually managed to blow out with some kind of device they rigged, I think. :)
We all -- soldiers and vets of every stripe and many friends and family members danced for hours to tunes from the Vietnam War years, and it was an extremely moving time for us. The Vietnam vets do this every year, the Delta-to-DMZ Dance, just like they do Rolling Thunder in DC on Memorial Day. Even on Veterans Day there were a LOT of biker vets, too -- I snapped one photo of four of them in their leathers with military patches standing thoughfully and silently in a row in front of the three solders' statue near The Wall. They were completely unaware I was taking their picture....
The military group online that I am still very active in and whose members I consider my dearest friends are women vets from the Vietnam "Era" and their families, loved ones, and supporters. We also welcome any woman who was affected by "our" war and who would like to join us. It's a pretty small group that could be called a "spin-off" from other vets' groups, and it was started by a terrific lady whose job during the war had been to train and ready helicopter crews to be sent to Vietnam. Mary still has nightmares about helicopters and flashbacks that are disturbing, though she is generally well adjusted and still works a fulltime job. Once when she was visiting friends at a military base, she was sprayed by a lawn sprinkler that came on suddenly and it flashed her back to training exercises she'd gone through with "her" crews in the 60's -- for decontamination if they were ever dowsed with any of the dangerous chemicals used during the war. Another time Mary was at a military base and she caught a glimpse of bright light reflected from metal out of the corner of her eye and flashed back to low-flying helicopters -- and she ducked. Turned out it was a small model of a helicopter set on a statue stand on the base grounds. A Huey, the same model as most of the ones she trained with and the one which is most identified with the Vietnam War.
These are just a couple of real incidents of one woman who did not even serve incountry during the war but who was powerfully affected by her service then. Imagine how many of those troops she trained were wounded or died in the war. I've heard firsthand literally hundreds if not thousands of stories from vets who were incountry, including at least 25 women. Many of those women were nurses and others in hospital units, including some on the hospital ships offshore, who saw more wounds, blood, suffering and death during their tours of duty than just about anyone there because it was their job.
I've heard a lot of combat stories from the vets, too, and some of them would shock even those of you who know about such things, who have experienced combat personally. You might not be surprised, exactly, but the horrors are truly shocking nonetheless.
What those who are sent to fight in wars go through has been documented in a great many places by a large number of people over the long years of recorded human history, but I am still horrified and upset when I hear new stories of violence and terror, injuries and death. What our current president does not relate to the tiniest bit, IMO, are these very combat experiences of our troops, and the many tragic stories of the aftermath, the long lasting effects on the lives of veterans and their families.
He can't relate to such suffering because he obviously does not want to hear the stories and learn of the pain close up. I understand neither he nor Laura have attended even ONE funeral of a soldier killed in Iraq, which to me is beyond inexcusable. His avoidance of Cindy Sheehan is making his position and his cowardice very clear to the world, and I'm so glad of this.
Here is an article posted to Sanctuary, my women vets group, a few days ago. It's very closely related to the article that is the subject of this original post.
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=...Through my Namvet friends I have come to know a lot of those who are active duty now and I know several soldiers serving in Iraq presently -- and at least one who will be shipping out soon. He only has a few years left in the Army before he retires, but they forced him to be a recruiter for the last four years and he hated it so much he has moved back into the "Regular Army," knowing full well that he would be sent to Iraq to join his beloved "Screamin' Eagles," the 101st Airborne. This particular soldier is my best friend's son, and he has seen duty in Germany, Korea, Bosnia, and Somalia. In both Bosnia and Somalia, he was not allowed to shoot back even when shot at, and he had arrived in Mogadishu shortly after the events told in the "Blackhawk Down" story took place. Imagine what THAT must feel like!
My friend Christina's online handle is Armymom, and she writes war tribute poetry that is very moving. She has a gift for opening the eyes of many who might not otherwise understand why they should think about war at all. Her website is here:
http://armymom.ozbard.comChristina's site is one place where those who would like to know more about the human side of the military life can learn much. Chris is very sweet and shy, but she has the courage of a warrior when it comes to facing the truth about war and what it does to people -- and telling their stories inflinchingly and with great sensitivity. She also writes about the suffering of children and other civilians in lands affected by war.
You can read one of my poems posted at her site. It's about this topic of soldiers who have returned home from war.
http://armymom.ozbard.com/z_spencerv/do_you_w.htmThe other item by me on Armymom's site is called On The Evening News -- it's the lyrics to one of my songs. I wrote it from the perspective of a VN vet's teenaged daughter when I noticed how she watched her dad as her family and I were viewing a TV movie about Jan Scruggs' efforts to get The Wall memorial placed on the grounds at "the Mall" in DC. He wept silently during the program, and she clearly did not understand what it was all about....
Sorry for such a long response, but the article you posted here really got to me. I have said many times since the day our troops first moved across the border of Kuwait into Iraq that we were going to have huge numbers of Iraq War veterans facing troubled lives and torn-apart families when they come home. When I first learned about the daily dangers in Iraq from IED's, I commented to friends that these devices alone would ensure that PTSD was rampant and especially fierce among our veterans. Of course, we must also keep in mind that many thousands of Iraqis can suffer the same sort of tragic results of trauma.
And it's all so very FUTILE. Why DID we send our troops there when there was no need?
Thanks for listening. I appreciate DU very much!
Vicki S
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