A Time in My History

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experience, help, military service, nonprofit, service, service platoons, veterans

I practiced and practiced with the platoon until each of us had a chance to dress a chest wound and a head wound just like the book said.

First aid maneuvers

There was a lot to learn in the 10 weeks of basic training, most I was completely unfamiliar with. I had never fired a weapon before, any kind of weapon, and the Army trusted me with an M-16! I was thrilled when I qualified as an Expert with it.

I only got close to two or three girls in basic, and I kept in touch for a few months, but we each landed on our feet far away from one another, so it seemed rather pointless to write. (Yes, this was before email was a twinkle in anyone’s eye!)

After a tour in Maryland, I deployed to Delta Junction, Alaska, to Ft Greely, the home of the Cold Region Test Center. This would be my home for the next several years.

It wasn’t long before I began to build a very special relationship with a soldier there with a history in Vietnam. Together, we marveled at the dancing Northern lights, the enormous star blanket & and the largely virgin landscape. We used to lie down on the hood of his truck and watch the Northern Lights by the hour, even in bitter cold temperatures, the heat from the engine warmed us.

Generally speaking, he was not a “talker,” but once in a while, he would talk about his experience in Vietnam. He would finger his “dog tags” as he spoke, recalling the dreariness and the beauty of the Vietnamese landscape. He reminded me that among the other information on the dog tags, is the blood type of the soldier. He talked about the booby traps he encountered and the explosives he had to neutralize or defuse – and those he never had the chance to. Repeatedly, in these times, he would say that the only thing he ever wanted was to come home.

"Hanoi Jane" Fonda openly conspired with the North Vietnamese against our US Troops!

I asked him, too, about that day, the day he returned to US soil. 1968 it was. Like many of our service members, he was spat upon and was the object of tomatoes and bottles. “Kill the heroes,” the grungy youth shouted. “Kill the killers!” Tears silently filled his eyes. I just squeezed his hand.

To this day I cannot fathom how that must have felt. What a horrendous, shameful thing to have done to our national Heroes. Certainly a shameful time in America’s history. But what about now?

How do our heroes feel today? News of the wars is largely ignored. Millions and millions of soldiers have returned home and now stand in the unemployment lines. The same outrageous numbers of PEOPLE are victims of government backlog that leaves the medically untreated, psychologically placebo’ed, and generally, unappreciated and left to flounder. They ask for nothing more than what their contracts promised, what they earned in danger’s way!

VA Will Cut Off Disability Payments If Shutdown Lasts a Month

“If a government shutdown continues through the end of October, the Veterans Affairs Department said it will have to cut off disability and education benefits payments, which could cause financial devastation to veterans, according to the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

“Veterans Benefits Administration claims processors will continue to handle disability and education claims during a shutdown, VA said. The department employs roughly 19,000 claims processors.

“VA has excepted VBA claims processors so that it can continue to process claims and beneficiaries will continue to receive their payments,” VA spokeswoman Victoria Dillon said. “However, those benefits are provided through appropriated mandatory funding, and that funding will run out by late October. At that point, VA will be unable to make any payments.”

“VA will only update its main Web page and hospital Facebook and Twitter feeds intermittently during a shutdown, the department said in a fact sheet. VA also said it will furlough its entire public affairs staff during a shutdown.

“Call centers for disability claims will operate during the shutdown, but VA said it will close the education benefits hotline. VA will also not operate provide matriculated vets with on-campus counselors.

“The 152 hospitals, 800-plus clinics and 300 vet centers operated by the Veterans Health Admninistration, funded by multi-year appropriations, will continue to operate, VA said. VHA employs roughly 250,000 people who would continue to work and draw pay during a shutdown.

Navy veteran Tristan Williamson speaks to homeless veterans during a service project in San Diego earlier this year. Williamson, a former Mission Continues fellow, is heading up one of the group’s new service platoons.
Courtesy of Mission Continues

One innovative Veteran took unemployment as a mission. “Tristan Williamson has been out of the military for five years, but he’s back in a platoon.

“This time, the Navy veteran is fighting hunger, not the enemy.

“Williamson’s platoon — 20-plus veterans, already at work on community gardens in San Diego — is among the first of what Mission Continues officials hope will be dozens of neighborhood outreach groups led by veterans.

“The nonprofit group launched its new service platoons initiative this week. Officials have dubbed it a veterans’ report-for-duty call, with veterans trained in charitable work leading chapters in 30 cities.

“It’s an extension of the group’s existing goal of engaging veterans through community service, often in areas with limited military presence and even less knowledge of the challenges troops face returning to civilian life.

“The idea of second service for veterans has emerged as a theme in recent years, with the first combat generation of the all-volunteer force slowly leaving the military but retaining ideals of civic duty.” More HERE

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The Last Bayonet Charge in Vietnam

I was a Marine grunt in Vietnam. I served with 2nd squad, 2nd platoon of BLT 1/26, a Marine Special Landing Team.

I won’t call myself a hero, in fact no real Marine would, it is considered an insult to call a Marine a hero, always has been. Let’s talk about “Dying Delta.” That would be Delta Company, 1/26.

We also had a unit called “The Walking Dead” which was 1st Bn, 9th Marines. Frankly, these were just names people made up. I can talk a bit about Delta though. Back during the summer of 69, Delta Company was set up on a perimeter a couple of clicks inland between Hoi An and Chu Lai.

We were operating, supposedly, with the Korean Marines. In truth, they were living on ships and we were fighting. This is how Americans buy their allies. This was war like TV, bayonet charges, death every day, continual combat.

Delta had been surrounded by a large force of North Vietnamese Army troops, maybe numbering in the thousands. This was like the movie Zulu, for those familiar with such things.

The area had once been French, half destroyed villages here and there and abandoned plantations, even hedge rows like in Normandy, except temperatures well over 100 degrees with stifling humidity.

Delta had sent out a patrol that had gotten past a hedge row and was ambushed. Our squad was called in to get them.
We had three Amtracks, huge lumbering vehicles that picked us up and brought us to the other side of the hedge row, where we could hear the wounded on the other side.

This was a wild ride, several kilometers cross country, but I am getting ahead of myself.

CONTINUE READING

Former Army Captain Luis Carlos Montalván and Tuesday are inseparable

Wounded Warrior’s Bond With Dog Saves Both

Montalván and Tuesday - best friends for a lifetime!

Former Army Captain Luis Carlos Montalván and Tuesday are inseparable.

Montalván, who struggles with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, has gone to places he would have never been by himself because of Tuesday – an irresistible golden retriever that is considered an ECAD (Educated Canines Assisting with Disabilities).

Montalván and Tuesday take on New York City on a daily basis. But man and best friend also take on a more tangible challenge, too – the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“A complete an utter overhaul of the Department of Veterans Affairs needs to happen,” Montalván said.

Montalván, who has Cuban and Puerto Rican roots, enlisted in the United States Army when he was 17-years-old. During his childhood, while other kids dreamed of other professions, Montalván had no doubts about his aspirations.

“I pretty much, right away, fell in line with being a soldier,” he said.

Montalván realized his dream and joined the military, and was eventually deployed to Iraq. CONTINUE READING

What are America’s Vital Signs?

Twas the Month before Christmas

Jesus, the Christ, born of a Virgin, raised a carpenter, taught the teachers, died as a criminal, and arose again like no one before! You decide: Greatest Liar or God incarnate?

Author Unknown

Twas the month before Christmas,
When all through our land,
Not a Christian was praying,
Nor taking a stand.

The PC* Police had taken away
The reason for Christmas so no one could say.
The children were told by their schools not to sing
About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.

It might hurt some feelings, the teachers would say
December 25th is just a ‘Holiday’.
Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit
Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!

CDs from Lady Gaga, an X BOX, or I-Pod
Something was changing, something really quite odd!
Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa
In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.

As Targets were hanging their trees upside down
At Lowe’s the word “Christmas” was no where to be found.
At K-Mart and Staples and Penny’s and Sears
You won’t hear the word Christmas; it won’t touch your ears.

Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-si-ty
Are words that were used to intimidate you and me.
Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen
Obama, and Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton!

At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter
To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.
We spoke not a word, as they took out our faith
Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace,

The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded
The reason for the season, stopped before it started.
So as you celebrate ‘Winter Break’ under your ‘Dream Tree’
Sipping your Starbucks, please listen to me.

Choose your words carefully, choose what you say
Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS , not Happy Holiday!
All neighbors join together, wish everyone you meet
A very, MERRY CHRISTMAS, or Happy Chanakah!

Christ is The Reason’ for the Christ-mas Season!
If you agree please respond, if not, just move on!

*NOTE: Political Correctness (PC) is merely the resentment of spoilt children directed against their parent’s values.

Difficulties Mastered are Opportunities Won ~ Churchill

“A man does what he must –
in spite of personal consequences,
in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures –
and that is the basis of all human morality.”
Winston Churchill

10 mile march, double-time w/ full pack ... Tough?

Difficulties face each of us in different ways but at fairly regular intervals. For some, the hurdle is an illness or illness of a loved one. For some, difficulty comes in the form of utility bills with insufficient money to cover them. For still others, hardship comes in the form of addiction to drugs, alcohol, porn, or yes, even chocolate. It is clear that these vicious “attacks” do not just affect the “victim”, but the entire family, neighborhood, community, like ripples on a pond.

“Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak;
courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” WC

Personal defense

Similarly, as an individual faces the challenge in front of him (her), unknown strength arises from within, a strength deposited there by smaller battles won. Learning to walk – each tumble produced the response of another attempt until the falls stopped. Learning to talk, try after try until actual words formed. Learning to read, learning to ride a bike, learning to drive, learning to love … all these things we learn through trial and error.

“I have nothing to offer but blood,
toil, tears and sweat.” WC

In the end, life is what we make it. The more effort we put into our life, the more we get out of it. I used to teach my children to “plant” the seeds for the crop they wanted to reap. If they wanted friends, BE a friend. If they wanted kindness, BE kind. If they needed strength to overcome some task or obstacle, USE the supply of strength on hand and more would arrive just in time.

I believe there are many Americans who have never learned this lesson. Strength begets strength! Wealth begets wealth. Courage begets courage! Try it!

*NOTE: Three quotes above issued forth from the heart and mind of Winston Churchill!