August 2001

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“The Monthly Diamondhead”

Editor-Reporter-Chief Cook-Web Slave-

304-728-7012 rollayo@earthlink.net

Last month the medical question deformities in grandchildren due to Spina Bifida. It is still the question this month. If any of you have or know of grandchildren with Spina Bifida please advise me. It may be due to the effects of Agent Orange. There are numerous ailments and meical problems that are seeming to skip generations. I am adding to an e-mail and web address from Vietnam that will substantiate this. The e-mail follows:

Please forward this to Ron Leonard ASP.

Not a half hour ago after an extensive conversation with a man I met here in Da Lat, I came here right away to get this information to you. I hope it goes through.

This man's name is Roger Farrell who is not a Veteran but over 50 and is here with his wife and a group of 45 people. He is with Kids First/Tre Em Tren Het. He is part of a group (some vets) that help children with birth defects and other problems. He comes here 2 times per year. He is setting up a hospital in Quang Tri now. This may be a blessing for you Ron and your family from our Lord. You may get documentation you need. This man told me he has seen every birth defect you can imagine over here from AO. Yes. Many illnesses have jumped generations like in your case. Go to his site and then contact him when he returns to the states. He knows about you and you can mention my name and that we met in Da Lat. Below is his information.

Roger Farrell, PO Box 11814, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110 USA, Phone 206-842-6558, Fax: 206-842-6369, E-mail: rogerf@seanet.com, website www.kidsfirstvietnam.org

I am excited about this discovery and truly believe it to be a blessing. This is better than any book. I may be working with this fellow and I am sure we vets have a great source regarding AO now.

There is jut one other medical thing. If you have not had yourself checked for Hepatitis-C please do, it is free at any VA medical facility.

On the Diamondhead side of things, I have posted 91 new names and addresses, they are listed in RED. If you could all review them and contact those close to you it would help the cause of finding our lost brothers. As they are contacted they will revert from being in red to crème with e-mails or phone numbers or both if available.

There again have also been several Little Bears added to the roster. If the calls don't happen to find the guys, I will be into mailing cards once again. I will require afew volunteers of about 9 cards each, until we make contact with them all.

I recently received 25 Lbs or more of documents, AAR's and Lessons Learned from Hawaii. It should clear out everything I am missing from 1966, and some of 1967, and a little more of 68. Without the help and dedication of Julia Finch, Dorothy Cook, Deanna Pendleton, and new helpers Michelle Comerford and my daughter Hope Leonard, it would be an insurmountable task. If any one else wants to volunteer I got plenty for everyoneJ

There has been a reunion countdown counter added to the front page to keep posted on the time left. I will post an addendum to the newsletter with those people on the tentatively coming list, instead of cluttering it up here. If you haven't contacted Ercie Leach or me and are figuring on coming let me know. We need to know how many people are coming to make sure enough rooms are made available to us, if you plan on staying in the Holiday Inn Mt Pleasant S. C. etc. My e-mail is rollayo@earthlink.net Ercie can be found at eleach@knology.net . For you new guys the dates are April 12,13,14 2002.

The 5-0-Deuce Report:

Due to the overwhelming support of Veterans across the nation and over seas. The good Sheriff of Charlotte County Florida has knuckled under and consented to returning 5-0-Deuce to it's rightful home, the 101st Airborne, B. Company. He has cannibalized it severelly and has no idea that it will be a whole helicopter he has to turn in to GSA to get the Government off his back. He has been blasted severely in the Media and from e-mails from us. This has been a case of Internet Networking at it's finest.

This it what we are fighting for. Our heritage, our right to look at those old pictures, and a living breating thing..502. don't take this away from us also like you did our youth.

"The operation was conceived in doubt and assailed by skepticism, preceded in confusion."

Dr. Henry Kissinger on Lam Son 719

ABC NEWS COMMENTARY

You can't help but have the feeling that there will come a future generation of men, if there are any future generations of men, who will look at old pictures of helicopters and say, "You've got to be kidding."

Helicopters have that look that certain machines have in historical drawings. Machines or devices that came just before a major breakthrough. Record -changers just before the lightweight vinyl LP for instance.

Mark Twain once noted that he lost belief in conventional pictures of angels of his boyhood when a scientist calculated for a 150-pound men to fly like a bird, he would have to have a breast bone 15 feet wide supporting wings in proportion.

Well, that's sort of the way a helicopter looks.

The thing is helicopters are different from airplanes An airplane by it's nature wants to fly, and if not interfered with too strongly by unusual events or incompetent piloting, it will fly.

A helicopter does not want to fly. It is maintained in the air by a variety of forces and controls working in opposition to each other.

And if there is any disturbance in this delicate balance the helicopter stops flying immediately and disastrously. There is no such thing as a gliding helicopter That's why being a helicopter pilot is so different from being an airplane pilot, and why in generality airplane pilots are open, clear-eyed, buoyant, extroverts. And helicopter pilots are brooders, introspective anticipators of trouble.

They know if something bad has not happened it is about to.

All of this, of course, is greatly complicated by being shot at. American helicopter pilots are being shot at more often and more accurately these days from Khe Sahn to Tchepone than at almost any other time in this whole War.

It's been a helicopter war all along. And the strange, ungainly, unlovable craft have reached the peak of being needed and the peak of being vulnerable at the same moment. Everyone who has flown over combat zones in VN in a helicopter knows the

heart-stopping feeling you get when you have to go below 2.000 feet. Well the men going in and out of Laos rarely get a chance to fly that high. They must be very brave men indeed. This is a War we could not have considered without helicopters.

The pilots are beginning to feel like Mark Twain's man who was tarred and feathered. If it weren't for the honor of the thing they would just as soon have missed it.

I got an advance copy of a letter announcing a joint program between the Viet Nam Veterans Memorial Fund and Kinko's (the copy place). Beginning 12 Sept 01 thru Veteran's Day Kinko's will provide at no cost the necessary resources <scanned image> to put the appropriate veterans picture on the Virtual Wall. Their program is called "put a face with a name".

Here's a great response to an op-ed letter in the San Diego Union complaining of USMC flight training exercises. The author of the complaint, a Mrs. Harvey, clearly ruffled the captain's feathers but his response, while liberally laced with sarcasm, makes the point about why they do what they do.

Responding to Maura Harvey's letter wondering if the Marine helicopter training flights that passed above her Del Mar home were simply to harass residents, I can say that, yes, our mission is to harass

residents, specifically Mrs. Harvey.

We do not train 24 hours a day, seven days a week to provide freedom and security to all residents of the United States. We exist only to annoy the very people we are sworn to protect, against all enemies,

foreign and domestic.

We spend months and years overseas, away from our families and loved ones, in some cases making less than minimum wage, choosing to live a life in which many qualify for food stamps, just to have the chance, one day, to annoy people like Mrs. Harvey. There is no more sought-after position in the military than the Maura Harvey Annoyance Task Force.

As a matter of fact, the Marines who spent Christmas dug into fighting positions in northern Kuwait and their brothers in the sky, braving antiaircraft missiles and artillery, were just training to come back to the States and fly missions over Mrs. Harvey's house. It has nothing to do with the security of the nation. It has no impact on our ability to carry out missions in Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, and it has no bearing on Mrs. Harvey's ability to enjoy "nature and peaceful, quiet living." The "strange, almost science fiction war scene" she described was put on solely to make noise and to destroy her "scenic view corridors" in Del Mar Terrace. It certainly was not valuable and necessary training to help sustain the lives of those who ensure this nation's freedom, should they ever be sent into harm's way to do just that. Next time, Mrs. Harvey may want to look upon those loud machines and think about the men and women, who fly, ride in, and maintain them. Ponder the sacrifices they make in providing this nation with the warm blanket of freedom we all enjoy. Maybe she might even imagine how much more disturbing it would be if she were not sure what country the helicopters were from, or whether they were going to attack her beautiful neighborhood.But she shouldn't worry too much about that, because we will not let it happen.

CAPT. JOHN F. PETERSON, USMC Pacific Beach

Washington Times

A Kinder, Gentler, Less-Fit Military?

Walk, don't run. That's an order for the service men and women of U.S. Southern Command headquarters in Miami. Their weekly fitness runs were terminated recently when a female officer claimed they were "demeaning."

According to media reports, the officer objected that the Friday jogs” subjected slow runners to ridicule from faster runners." And you thought war was hell.

To make matters worse, the officer's letter of complaint - discreetly sent to members of Congress as well as Pentagon brass - has sparked a full-bore investigation within the Defense Department. But as the department's inspector general investigates the weekly run and other complaints about the” command climate" at SOUTHCOM HQ, those concerned about America's military readiness can only shake their heads about what has happened to the warrior culture that once infused our armed forces.

As more and more of our troops fall into the hands of people more interested in social experimentation than national security, it's becoming apparent that military readiness has been sacrificed on the altar of political correctness. Most of the problem can be traced to the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, a 50-year-old civilian board that, according to its charter, advises the secretary of defense "on the full range of matters relating to women in the services." Over the years, the board has morphed into a hotbed of feminism driven by the flawed theory that, were it not for artificial barriers to women, they would be interchangeable with men in all military tasks.

Hence today's "gender-integrated" basic training, tellingly summarized in Lee Bockhorn's review of Stephanie Gutmann's 2000 book, "The Kinder, Gentler Military." Mr. Bockhorn writes that boot camp has been transformed from a "tear-'em-down-and-build-them-back up" experience to one devoted to boosting recruits' self-esteem.

Mr. Bockhorn points out that recruits used to have to earn the designation of soldier; now, they are considered such from Day One. Obstacle courses are now called "confidence courses." Teamwork has been given a whole new meaning to mask the fact that some jobs - say, carrying a wounded 200-pound comrade back from the front or handling a fire hose on a burning ship's deck -require twice as many women as men. There are also ability groups, limits on drill sergeants' motivational techniques, and even training timeouts when the poor dears get too tired.

Time once devoted to physical training now gets wasted on sensitivity training. Recruits learn that looking at a female for more than 3 seconds constitutes sexual harassment. Performance standards have been "gender-normed" at the behest of the advisory board on women. Women get a 3-minute grace period to complete their 3-mile run. One can only hope that when an Army unit is needed to contain an enemy breakthrough a few miles away, it will be no big deal if the female contingent straggles into the

fray a few minutes late.

And yet, even with the dumbing down of basic training, 47 percent of females in the military bail out before the end of their third year of service, compared to 28 percent for men. Perhaps that's because female soldiers resent how the women's board, in its zeal to make the military more female-friendly, advocates policies that lead to lower standards and declining military readiness.

President Bush was right to request more money to restore military readiness. Yet the problem demands more than additional funding. The president and Congress must roll back the policies of social experimentation that weaken our nation's ability to fight and win. Let the social scientists worry about verbal interaction among "ability groups." But let the administration and Congress put national security ahead of political correctness.

Jack Spencer is a policy analyst at the Davis Institute for International Studies at the Heritage Foundation. This article was distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.

AUGUST 17, 13:04 EDT Mass. College Suspends Professor

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. (AP) - A Pulitzer Prize-winning history professor who admitted he lied to his students about being a Vietnam combat veteran will be suspended for a year without pay, Mount Holyoke College said Friday.

Joseph J. Ellis, 57, also must give up his endowed chair at the college. ``I strongly rebuke Prof. Ellis for his lie about his military experience,''

Mount Holyoke President Joanne Creighton said. ``The year away should give him and the college time for reflection and repair. This sanction is consistent with our honor code for students and its emphasis on education, reflection and ultimately restoration to an honorable place in our community.''

Ellis became a popular professor in part by sharing his experiences in Vietnam. He issued an apology in June after The Boston Globe reported that he had never served overseas.

``The tumultuous events of the summer have been all-consuming and deeply painful for me, my family, and many members of the Mount Holyoke community,'' Ellis said. ``I am solely responsible and wish to express my personal regret

to all students, faculty, and administrators who have been affected.''

In a statement Friday, Ellis said he accepted the sanctions determined by Creighton. Ellis was commissioned as an Army second lieutenant when he graduated from college in 1965, but his active duty was deferred four years while he was in

graduate school. He did his Army service by teaching at West Point from 1969 until 1972. The integrity of Ellis' books was never called into question. He won the 2001 Pulitzer for history for his best seller ``Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation.''

Among his other books is ``American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson,'' which won the National Book Award in 1997.

I suggested that we reread the history of the Vietnam War. Here is an excerpt from a larger chronology of the war. It gives an insight as to the early stages of the war and who really bailed out on the re-unification elections of 1956. I will file the chrono in its entirety later.

From; The Conflict In Vietnam, by Dr. Geraild Kurland

President Eisenhower was fully aware of how hopeless the French military situation was. He also knew that if American troops were sent to Vietnam they would not be supported by the local populace, and that their presence would only serve to rally the people behind Ho Chi Minh, who could pose as the defender of the nations honor. In addition, having promised to end the war in Korea, the President could not very well lead America into a new war in Southeast Asia. Accordingly, Eisenhower refused to send American ground troops to Indochina. It was this refusal, coupled with the growing war weariness of the French people, that persuaded the French government to seek a political settlement in Indochina.

THE GENEVA CONFERENCE, APRIL 26 TO JULY 21, 1954...Attended by France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, Communist China, and the representatives of Ho Chi Minh as well as numerous lesser powers, the Geneva Convention sought to stabilize conditions in the Indochinese region. When the conference opened, Ho's forces were already in effective possession of three-fourths of Vietnam, and the fall of the French stronghold at Dien Bien Phu on May 7, 1954 further strengthened his demand that he be recognized as the ruler of all Vietnam. Curiously, it was the communist world which sought to persuade Ho Chi Minh to be more moderate in his demands. Russia and Communist China urged him to accept a compromise solution for Vietnam.

The final settlement reached at Geneva merits close attention as it applies to Vietnam. The Accords provided for the following terms:

(1) A provisional military demarcation line was to be established at the 17th parallel, but this demarcation line was not to be construed as creating a permanent international boundary.

(2) The Vietminh were to regroup their forces north of the 17th parallel, while the French regrouped to the south of that line. Regroupment was to be completed within 300 days from the implementation of the agreement.

(3) Both sides pledged to make no reprisals against civilians residing in their respective zones, and to permit civilians to freely cross the 17th parallel.

(4) No foreign military bases were to be established anywhere in Vietnam and the nation was not to align itself with any foreign powers.

(5) By the summer of 1956, free elections (open to all political factions) were to be held by secret ballot to select a government which would unify the north and south in a single Vietnamese state.

(6) Any Vietnamese government established in the south to succeed the French colonial government was to be bound by the terms of the Geneva Accords.

(7) Finally, an International Control Commission consisting of Canada, Poland, and India was created to supervise the armistice and the national elections.

Unfortunately, the United States refused to sign the Geneva Accords, and thus disassociated itself from the agreements reached on Vietnam. President Eisenhower declared that Southeast Asia was vital to the security of the free world, and asserted that national elections would result in a Communist triumph so long as Ho Chi Minhs forces dominated the northern half of the country. A Communist take-over in Vietnam, Eisenhower felt, would inevitably lead to the fall of free governments throughout the region (the "domino" theory), a consequence the United States could not, in its own self-interest, permit. In September, 1954 Secretary of State Sulles organized the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization which, like NATO, was empowered to take collective action to repel Communist aggression against member states. Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos were prevented from joining SEATO by the Geneva Accords, but Indochina was included within SEATOs protection. SEATO was authorized to take suitable action to protect the Indochinese states against external Communist aggression.

THE RISE OF NGO DINH DIEM...Since the United States government had not signed the Genva Accords, it was not bound to respect or honor them. It was decided by the highest officials of the American government that a Communist regime in South Vietnam would directly and significantly endanger the national security of the United States. Accordingly, the Eisenhower administration decided to support a native government in South Vietnam and ensure that Ho Chi Minh did not establish his authority south of the 17th parallel. In arriving at this decision, Eisenhower administration decided to support a native government in South Vietnam and ensure that Ho Chi Minh did not establish his authority south of the 17th parallel. In arriving at this decision, Eisenhower was acting in what he conceived to be the best interests of the United States, and in this perspective his decision was quite legitimate. Every nation has the unquestioned right to safeguard its vital national interests. Unfortunately, the South Vietnamese leader with whom the United States worked was so repressive and so corrupt that he alienated his own people. In the spring of 1955, at the insistence of the United States, Bao Dai named Ngo Dinh Diem, a Roman Catholic career military officer, as premier of South Vietnam.

DIEM REPUDIATES THE GENEVA ACCORDS...In the spring of 1955, in anticipation of national elections and in accordance with the provisions of the Geneva Accords, 100,000 Vietminh troops were withdrawn north of the 17th parallel. Ho Chi Minh was confident that he would easily win the national election in 1956, and he wanted to provide the Western powers with no excuse for repudiating the Geneva Accords. Premier Diem, however, lacking the same confidence that he could win a free election, systematically violated the Accords. In mid-1955 between 15,000 and 50,000 southern civilians were sent to concentration camps. Some of these people were civilian workers for the Vietminh, who were preparing for the 1956 elections and whose activities were specifically protected by the Geneva Accords. The rest were non-Communist Buddhist opponents of the Diem regime. In July, 1955 Diem formally repudiated the Geneva Accords and declared that there would be no unified elections until Ho Chi Minhs northern regime adopted democratic institutions. At this point, the United States SEATO allies broke with America and with Diem. They pointed out that Diems government could scarcely be considered democratic, that the Geneva Accords did not require democratic institutions as a precondition for national elections but merely required that the elections be conducted in a democractic manner, and that Diem had illegally nullified the Geneva agreements. As a result, SEATO would not come to Diems assistance in the event of an attack from Ho Chi Minhs forces in the north! Diem, however, did not stop there. In October, 1955, apparently with the backing of the United States, Diem toppled Bao Dai as emperor, and in a carefully controlled election 98.2% of the South Vietnamese people voted to make Diem president. On October 26, 1955 the Republic of South Vietnam was formally proclaimed with Diem as president.

DIEMS UNPOPULARITY...Between 1955 and 1960 the United States contributed $2 billion to defray the costs of maintaining South Vietnams government, and trained and paid salaries of a South Vietnamese army of 150,000 men. During this same period American technical, economic, and military aid amounted to another $1 billion, and South Vietnam became the United States most costly client-state. Unfortunately, no amount of American money could make Diem palatable to the South Vietnamese people. The more than 700,000 Roman Catholic Vietnamese who fled south from the Tonkin region constituted the backbone of Diems popular support. Since they were also well-trained and skilled people, the Vietnamese Catholics dominated the government and civil service of South Vietnam. However, they could not understand the problems of a largely Buddhist population, nor were they able to win their trust and confidence. Diem made the fatal mistake of appointing to high office men who had collaborated with the French, thus destroying his nationalist credibility. Furthermore, Diem restored the landlords to power throughout South Vietnam, and the peasants not only had to pay exorbitant rents to their landlords but were also saddled with high taxes imposed by the Saigon government. American officials begged Diem to institute meaningful land reforms, but he was so dependent upon the political support of the landlords and the Roman Catholics that he was unable and unwilling to do so. In the summer of 1956, Diem utterly alienated the peasants by abolishing their elected village councils and replacing them with predominantly Roman Catholic officials appointed by and responsible to the Saigon government. Diem imposed strict press censorship and suppressed all political groups opposed to his rule. In June, 1957 anti-Communist South Vietnamese organized the National Salvation Movement in Paris to save the country from Diems dictatorship. All the while, the American people believed that Diem was a genuine democratic nationalist. He had used some of his American aid to hire an American public relations firm to enhance his American reputation!

EVENTS IN THE NORTH...In mid-1956 Pham Van Dong, North Vietnams premier, requested the International Control Commission to help in arranging national elections in accordance with the Geneva agreements. However, Ngo Dinh Diem refused to cooperate with the I.C.C., and the elections were never held. At this time, Ho Chi Minh did not wish to reopen the civil war with the United States at the very time that Russias Nikita Khrushchev was seeking better relations with America. Secondly, such a war would force Hanoi to depend upon the Red Chinese for assistance, and Ho, remembering Chinas thousand year occupation of North Vietnam, did not trust his northern neighbors good intentions. Moreover, Ho was having domestic difficulties and did not need the added headaches of a full-scale war. North Vietnams peasants were resisiting the partys collectivization of agriculture, and in the fall of 1956 a serious peasant uprising forced the Hanoi government to make concessions to the peasants. In line with Mao Tse-tungs "hundred flowers" campaign, Ho Chi Minh permitted a greater degree of press freedom, and invited criticism of the regime. Unexpectedly, criticisms of Ho's government came in such torrents that is produced a major political crisis in Hanoi. Ho clamped down on the press, slapped his critics into jail, and decided that he had better concentrate on building a secure and powerful base in North Vietnam before engaging in military adventures in the south. Accordingly, his government continued to work for national elections through diplomatic means, but made no effort to forcibly overthrow the Diem government.

CIVIL WAR RESUMES...From 1956 to 1960 Ngo Dinh Diems government grew ever more repressive and corrupt. Tonkinese Catholics continued to dominate the regime, the Buddhist peasants continued to suffer from exorbitant land rents and high government taxes, civilian opponents of the Saigon regime continued to languish in jail, and Ngo Dinh Nhu (Diems brother) did little to hide the fact that government power was being used to build the wealth and influence of the Ngo Dinh Dime family. In March, 1960 southern veterans of the Vietminh, who had laid down their arms and returned to their homes in accordance with the Geneva Accords, rose in rebellion against Diem. According to the United States government these former Vietminh soldiers were operating under the direct orders of Hanoi and were part of an external Communist plan of aggression against South Vietnam. If this assessment had been correct American aid to Diem would certainly have been justified; however, according to knowledgeable European, Asian, and American observers this was not the case. Most of them have maintained that the rising of the southern Vietminh was a spontaneous action against Diems intolerable oppression, and that it was neigher ordered nor controlled by Ho Chi Minhs government in Hanoi. In support of their contention they cite the fact that Hanoi did no endorse the southern rebellion until September, 1960 and did so only to keep from losing political support in the south. Even then Hanois aid to the southern rebels remained minimal until the American buildup of Diems forces, in response to which the north was forced to increase its aid to the southern Communists. Hindsight tends to bear out their contention, and this explains why the American effort in Vietnam has not been supported by Americas European allies. However at the time the considered judgment of American experts was that the southern rebels were agents of Hanoi, and it was on that basis that the U.S. acted.

The following story appeared in The Globe Online:

Headline: More deception from Kissinger

To read the entire story, click on the link below or cut and paste it into a Web browser:

Vietnam Memorial Faces Controversy

AUGUST 23, 01:46 EDT

Associated Press Writer

Proposed education center

WASHINGTON (AP) - It is Washington's most visited memorial, honoring the dead of the 20th century's most divisive war. Now the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, created two decades ago amid bitter acrimony, is becoming the subject of dissension and controversy yet again. The veterans who helped build the memorial want to add a structure nearby to educate visitors, not about the war but about the memorial itself. Critics, not least among them the National Park Service, are appalled. The black granite wedge is engraved with the names of the 58,226 men and women killed in or still missing from the war. Its designer, architect Maya Lin, intended it to be ``a quiet place, meant for personal reflection and reckoning.''

The proposed 1,200-square-foot education center would change that intent, says the park service, which manages the memorial in addition to those within its sight honoring George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. ``We believe we risk diminishing the original work by adding adjunct structures to this site,'' John Parsons, a regional park service official, told a congressional committee last month.

Lin's simple concept for the memorial, chosen from a national design contest, roused a furor among many Americans who felt it cheapened and demeaned the memory of those who died. Inclusion of a statue of three combat-weary servicemen overlooking the wall was a key part of the compromise that had the Wall built. Many now consider the monument the most poignant of all the sites on the National Mall.

The memorial's purpose, the park service says, is ``to separate the issue of the sacrifices of the veterans from the U.S. policy in the war.'' A quarter-century after the last American GIs left Vietnam, scholars agree that passions still run so strong as to defy an objective assessment.

``Objective, noncontroversial history that everyone can agree on doesn't exist with the Vietnam War,'' said Ronald Spector, chairman of the history department at George Washington University. The National Capital Planning Commission, the government agency that reviews federal land development proposals, also opposes the proposed center. Lin is remaining mum for the time being, according to her spokeswoman. Nonetheless, plans for the education center are speeding ahead, and legislation authorizing it is before committees in both the House and Senate, where support is overwhelming.

Among the backers are Sens. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., Max Cleland, D-Ga., and John Kerry, D-Mass., all Vietnam veterans. Kerry, who earned three purple hearts in the war but led demonstrations against it after he returned home, said focusing on the veterans makes Vietnam easier to understand. ``Despite the war's confusing moral backdrop, we tried to make sense of our mission,'' Kerry said. ``The faults in Vietnam were those of the war, not the warriors.''

Veterans groups also support the idea, saying the project would elaborate on the lives of the men and women whose names are on the wall and provide basic information about the war without interpreting it. ``The purpose is not to teach the long and difficult and confusing history of the Vietnam War,'' said Jan Scruggs, originator of the memorial and president of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund. ``The purpose is to understand why the

memorial is such a significant place.''

The education center, with space to accommodate about 50 people at a time, would replace a Park Service kiosk now at the site. Financed by private and corporate donations, its construction would take about a year once approved by the government.

Scruggs said it would house some of more than 62,000 items such as dog tags, photographs, bracelets and toys that have been left at the memorial since its construction. It would also have computers where students and visitors could read and view remembrances about the veterans whose names are on the Wall.

Ten years after completion, the center would be evaluated, and Congress would decide if it should stay or come down.

The Vietnam War inflames American passions. It is nearly impossible to keep controversy at bay when talking about it, scholars say.

``You can't do anything about Vietnam today without aggravating someone,'' said Texas Tech University history professor James Reckner. ``As long as two people are alive from the Vietnam generation, there will be an argument.''

The Vietnam Memorial, which attracts 3.7 million visitors each year, now includes the Wall, two statues and a commemorative flagpole. In the works is a memorial plaque honoring veterans who died after the war but as a direct result of their service in Vietnam.

The bills are H.R. 510 and S. 281

ARLINGTON, Va. (Army News Service, Aug. 21, 2001) --

A World War II Army nurse who endured almost three years as a prisoner of war was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Medal Aug. 20 at the Women's Memorial, Arlington National Cemetery.

Maj. Maude C. Davison, chief nurse of the Army's Philippine Department, led her staff in nursing the sick and wounded of Bataan and Corregidor as U.S. forces fought to defend the Philippines from an overwhelming Japanese invasion.

Imprisoned at Manila by the Japanese for three years, she managed the nursing care given to thousands of interned

men, women and children.

In recognition of Davison's inspiring leadership while suffering illness and every privation, Lt. Gen. James B. Peake, the Army Surgeon General, presented the Army's fourth highest medal to Davison's niece, Velma Willis of Cannington, Ontario, Canada.

Davison, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was born and is buried in Cannington.

Captured on Corregidor Island in May 1942 when the American garrison at Corrigedor surrendered, Davison and other Americans were moved to Manila's Santo Tomas Internment Camp in August. Davison, age 57 and at that time a captain with more than 20 years service, was the highest ranking nurse.

She took command firmly, maintaining the nurses' identity as nurses throughout the hard years of captivity, malnutrition and illness. She insisted that all nurses wear their khaki blouses and skirts while on duty. She maintained a regular schedule of nursing duty, from which nurses were excused only if bedridden.

Called "Ma" by the other nurses because of her authoritative leadership, Davison's drive and spirit inspired even during the bleakest moments, witnesses reported. She placed herself at risk with the Japanese to ensure her nurses' safety in their quarters. Many of the nurses credit her with their survival; all 66 under her command survived to see liberation in February 1945.

At that time, the Army awarded her the Legion of Merit for her service in captivity, although some of her superiors recommended a Distinguished Service Medal. One of those supporting the latter recommendation was Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who wrote:

"Major Davison ... was the leader and symbol of the entire Nursing Corps which so distinguished itself throughout the Philippine Campaign. Her performance was an outstanding example to all. The standards set by her and through her by her corps, established a precedent not only within the gallant forces on Bataan, but for the entire Nursing Corps in

our Army in all theaters."

After her release, Davison was promoted to the rank of major, and she and the nurses imprisoned with her also received the Bronze Star. Two books detail the hardships that nurses faced while in captivity in the Philippines: "We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese," by Elizabeth M. Norman, and "All This Hell: U.S. Nurses Imprisoned by the Japanese," by Evelyn M. Monahan and Rosemary Neidel Greenlee. Davison figures prominently in both.

Major Davison entered the Army as a general nurse in June 1918 after earning her registered nursing degree at Pasadena, Calif., Hospital Training School for Nurses. She served in nursing assignments at Letterman General Hospital, San Francisco; the Disciplinary Barracks Hospital, Fort Leavenworth, Kan.; U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y.; and Walter Reed General Hospital, Washington, D.C. Also qualified as a dietician, she served in that capacity at William Beaumont General Hospital, Fort Bliss, Texas and overseas at Koblenz, Germany. She went to the Philippines in March 1939.

Major Davison's health declined as a result of her captivity, and she retired from the Army in 1946 to California. There, she married a family friend, the Rev. Charles Jackson. She died in 1956 at the age of 71.

I have just read and signed the online petition:

"Veterans' Disability Compensation Injustice - Support HR 303"

Hosted on the web by PetitionOnline.com, the free online petition

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Publication July 19th. 2001

By: Major General J. J. Johnson, USMC (Ret)

If by chance you younger folks are thinking of joining the military, and maybe scratching your head over hearing some yellow-bellied former Senator whine over what happened in Vietnam, please don't let it confuse you. You

see, it was war back then. And when you're in the military and at war, there is no such thing as innocence. It's called kill or be killed. Some of you may think you put on a uniform just to go to college, run for office, or impress

your girlfriends while sinking Japanese fishing boats, but it's not.

It gets real ugly. Problem is, in the days of political correctness, revelations about simply doing your job as a Navy SEAL can get you in political hot water. If you listen to the news-speak of the day, war is a neat and clean operation, where we only kill the bad guys who shoot at us (first.....if we can't bring them to trial. Please, if you're enlisting soon, this is NOT the way we fight and win wars.)

What that worthless chump Kerrey is all choked up about is EXACTLY how we (the taxpayers) want you to perform if you ever find yourself in the same dilemma. If and when you want to blame someone for your lethal actions during war, so long as you followed orders, and did what you thought was best to achieve the objective, just blame the politicians who sent you there. Heck.....for that matter, go ahead and blame us. And if down the road you or your buddies do something like this, we as Americans frankly don't want to hear about it. Just kill the enemy (without mercy), win the war, don't bring any weird diseases back home, and don't leave any orphans over there. This is the real definition of "don't ask, don't tell." We'll add one more: Don't miss. To put it bluntly, young folks of America.....THIS AIN'T A DAMN NINTENDO GAME!

God help us if we have to go into a serious war and these damn politicians have to send you there with weapons you don't know how to use, and better not even LOOK at while you're here (unless you're over 21, go through local, state, and federal background checks, fingerprinting, etc. Your only hope is that if you're white, these stupid idiots in Washington will probably get women and minorities killed first as part of some stupid military affirmative action program (don't let that happen either). We beg you, if we have to send you to war, please.....PLEASE forget the crap you were taught in school. You get reminded each day about the horrors of Columbine?

That's what war is. That's what you will need to do to the enemy.....not your classmates. We don't care how you feel about it. We don't care if "that's not what you joined the military for." And I don't care if I've painted a sick

picture in your head. That's your job. You don't have to like it. But if you do, there will be a pat on the back waiting for you when you get back as well.

As much as you hear us preach that "violence never solves anything," it's just a bunch of B.S., so you won't haul off and shoot us grown-ups before our time. Trust us when we say: "Violence has solved every war we've waged so far." You see, as much as we claim to be a peaceful, civilized bunch, we have proven repeatedly that we are the most lethal S.O.B.'s on the face of the earth. You think greasing a Vietnamese village is bad? Some of you new recruits may be too young to remember a highway between Kuwait and Baghdad.

THAT was a work of art. B-52's doing target practice on thousands of folks trapped on a turnpike trying to escape a fake invasion. It was too cool.

Think we were horrified? We ordered pizzas while watching it on CNN. This is not to take away from places like Dresden, Germany, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

That was different. We were really pissed back in those days. In fact, anyone ever tell you some of the horror stories on how we took this country, or the last time we unleashed our type of hell on this soil" Some other time

Back to the matter at hand. Look, we really don't like going to war unless the economy really sucks or someone attacks us; at least that's the way it used to be (ah.....the good ol' days). But we've learned at least one and a half times that letting politicians dictate the rules of war only will get our butts handed to us on platters. It may not be the policy of Washington these days, but it is the policy of the Real American that any country that

wants to pick a fight with us knows they will see a vast reduction of their population and infrastructure. We hand out medals for that kind of stuff. So when you see tear-jerking sub captains, ex-Navy SEALS expressing sorrow,

dope-smoking draft dodgers, and women who insist on getting combat pay during peacetime, then getting pregnant to avoid battle (followed by demanding the Pentagon pay for the abortion), rest easy with the fact that this is only a small fraction of military reality, and these types will die off or just fade away as time goes on. Then, we can get back to the glory days of uncensored ruthlessness, indescribable death and destruction, winner take all, and when you're done.....smoke 'em if ya got 'em.

Now run along, and don't be late for school.

Interesting Stories and Poetry

It wasn't noon yet, but the temperature was already approaching ninety-five degrees on the morning I started my flight training at Fort Wolters. It was warm for May, even for Texas, and since the base was intended to be a training ground for Vietnam, the heat just made the experience all the more authentic. We knew that the lucky few who made it through the grueling nine-month warrant officer flighttraining course would soon be off to a destination even hotter than Texas.

As nearly two hundred of us stood at attention, we were flushed with excitement. On this day, we would finally begin the "hands on" portion of flight school. We had been through nine tough weeks of basic training in Louisiana and four weeks of continuous harassment from our tactical officers while we began the ground school portion of our classes. The purpose of the harassment, we knew, was to shake out anyone from the program who couldn't handle the pressure of intimidation and confusion. The ability to remain focused during combat is critical to survival.

That morning, however, no amount of harassment could have taken away from the excitement of climbing into the

cockpit of the TH-55 training helicopter to actually begin learning to fly. Although it was common knowledge that only

a portion of those who began flight school would actually end up with wings, each of us was convinced that we would

soon fly "above the best." Lunch, and our tactical officers, were all that stood between our first flight and us. We knew from experience that the tac officers could be brutal, so we wondered, uneasily, what they would throw at us during this portion of our training.

As we stood rigidly facing the tac officer, waiting for instructions, a tiny robin hopped out in front of our formation. It seemed confused and a little frightened. Suddenly, its mother flew a low swoop across the lawn, as if encouraging her youngster to take to the air. Despite our efforts to remain focused on the men in command in front of us, everyone's eyes followed the birds. Even our officers turned to watch, mesmerized by the scene.

Over and over, the tiny bird ran as fast as its little legs could move, taking off after its mom. But despite its best efforts, gravity kept it tethered to the earth. Again and again, the little ball of feathers raced across the grass, flapping its wings, only to hop up on a stone at the end of its long run.

Completely ignoring the crowd of staring bystanders, the mother robin swooped down after her baby's attempts to fly, cajoling and chiding it. "Like this," she seemed to be saying. "Try again." All two hundred of us watched breathlessly, silently praying for the little bird to succeed. Each time it flapped and hopped its way across the lawn in front of us, we'd groan at its failure.

Finally, after we had stood at attention for what seemed like hours just watching, those tiny wings took hold of the air, and the baby bird became airborne for a few feet. You could almost see the little bird swell with pride. Then, on one last run across the front of our formation, the gray piece of fluff rose into the air. Two hundred would-be warrant officers burst into wild cheers. We watched, ecstatic, as the little bird followed its mother to the horizon. Our tac officers turned back to us,

smiling. What could they add? It had been the ultimate flight lesson.

Unfinished Business

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO, our pow's came home from North Vietnam. they looked better than anyone could have imagined, after what they had endured. Only months later, Air Force Capt. E. Alan Brudno committed suicide; he was the first to die. It was national news. How could anyone give upjust when he had won his freedom after more than seven

years of unspeakable torture? As his brother,one who feels the pain of his loss as deeply today as when it happened, perhaps I can provide some of the answers. Suicide never has simple causes, but his story reveals some unfinished business from the

This young American flyer had nothing to be ashamed about. Posthumously, he received the Silver Star, two Purple Hearts and other medals. He took the worst the North Vietnamese dished out. His fellow prisoners said he was "hard-core, tough...he often mocked his captors and kept his honor...he was one of us." he was one of the POW's who were

paraded through Hanoi, called war criminals and subjected to incredible physical abuse. For his first After the euphoria of his release wore off, he realized that a lot of the propaganda that had accompanied his torture sessions was true. His own

countrymen went beyond being against the war; many supported those he understandably viewed to be the "enemy." This was not some philosophical or political concept for him. The enemy were the people who had beaten some of his comrades to death. His idealized image of what would follow his return began to crumble. I begged the person who set the "truth" about the war not to do so, or at least to give him some time. I said he had to believe what he endured was worth it somehow. Despair, then self-disaster struck.

He became a victim not just of the North Vietnamese, but of the inability of so many in his own country, during that horrible war, to separate the war from the warriors. Many returning soldiers before him were spat upon and branded as murders, often just after surviving their own harrowing experience. No wonder there was a "Vietnam Syndrome"

Like my brother, few wanted to go to war, yet Americans on the left did not respect their sacrifice, because it somehow conflicted with their passionate antiwar beliefs. Draped in the freedom of speech this country provides, self-righteous and designating themselves as true patriots, they silence over the treatment of the POW's by saying that all that has to be done to help the POW's is end the war.Unfortunately, that took a while. Today, many antiwar protesters proudly claim that they were right about the war, in part as a result of Robert McNamara's belated admission that he was wrong. Whether the war was right, or wrong, these were our boys. They deserved our support whatever the cause, whatever the result.The antiwar movement has yet to recognize the pain and heartache that it caused. My brother had no say in the politics that sent him to war. The lack of appreciation for what he had done, combined with the rationale of those who gave aid and comfort

to the enemy, helped destroy the will to live that had kept him alive for all those years.

All that was needed then was for the most vocal American antiwar spokespersons, the ones Hanoi was clearly listening to, to say that while they believed the war was wrong, our POW's must be treated according to the Geneva Convention. History has now documented Hanoi's great sensitivity to the swings of American public opinion. For years, my family and I begged these leaders of the left to do this, but to no avail. To do so would have been "pro-war" somehow. As a result, the North Vietnamese had years of free rein to torture and kill our men.When the POW's families were finally able to get attention in 1971 and 1972, the treatment dramatically improved. For many of the POW's, unfortunately, the damage was done. This is the unfinished business of that war. Few Americans who were silent then have acknowledged much responsibility for the consequences of their actions on the home front. Whether the war was right or wrong, then or now, is irrelevant.

Years ago, I tried to get my brother's name added to the Vietnam Memorial wall. I was told that I could not, because the wall was for servicemen who were killed in Vietnam or died later from wounds received there. Technically, I guess, Alan Brudno was mortally wounded back here.

I am passing this story on to all of you because I have never read such a wonderful description

of the process of coming home from Vietnam. The writer was one of my medics and perhaps the smartest man I have ever known. He was College Professor PHD who submitted his name to the draft so he would receive the same treatment as all draft age American. His sense of Duty, Honor, Country was so strong he threw the dice with the rest of us. He asked no favors and received none. As a matter of fact he volunteered to be a DUST OFF medic. When I was first introduced to Jon I was and E-5 and he a Pvt-2. With-in the hour I just wanted to call him BOSS but it was always a pleasure. Jon has given me permission to share this story that was written last year for his local Newspaper just prior to Veterans day. The keynote speaker for the veterans day dedication was Jon. The standing 25 minute applause he received before he even started the address was based on the following story.

Most Vietnam veterans are now in the 50's or close to it. We have taken our various experiences, and moved on in lives as different as one could imagine. But there are some experiences, some flavors that bind us together because we all experienced them in one way or another. Such an experience was coming home in a way American soldiers never had been before. We were sent over as individuals, rather than as intact units that had trained and then traveled together. We were piped into functioning units to replace men and women whose 365 tour was up. Then when our tour ended, we were wrenched out of the warzone, suddenly and individually, while our units continued its operations, and flown to a modern clean US airport. We were suddenly back in the world. And it was a world that was confusing and hostile to us. Here is a story of one such homecoming.

BLOODY CHARON COMES HOME

by Jonathon D. Saphier ED .D

Grand Central Station was my last port of embarkation before I finally got home from Vietnam.Once inside the cavernous hall I descended two steps to the kiosk. A well dressed middle age women bustling in my direction. In a second she was upon me, shaking he finger in my face, her features scrunched. "You ought to be ashamed!" She wagged her finger under my nose and shook her head. Then she was gone.

I blinked. Thoughts just stopped for a few seconds. Then "Boy! What did I do lady?" What did she think I'd done? Here I am trying to save lives every day and she's treating me as a war criminal.

I had been a "dust off medic, " an army medic in an independent helicopter medivac unit serving III and IVcorp in South Vietnam in 1967 and 1968. I'd gone because I felt it was my duty and I wound up being a Bloody Charon, ferrying broken bodies across the river Styx to God knows what distant shore. Sometimes I held life in and sometimes life ran through my fingers no matter what I did.

Now here was a women of New York telling me I should be ashamed. To her I was invisible except as a symbol she abhorred. Two days before it had been Mister Rogers who welcomed me home.

Through the night I had flown across the ocean and arrived at Travis Air Force Base, walked through a machine like process of papers at different stations in the pre dawn hours, and gotten a shuttle to San Francisco. I was to fly from there to my east coast home a day later.

I arrived at the SF airport in the wee hours of the morning and was awed by the bright lights and cleanliness. I sat down along a long wall of the terminal with my over sized duffels just watched. The people were so clean and well dressed. trying to

comprehend this world I was reentering, dazzled and somehow stunned by it all.

I was in uniform-dress Khakis-with all this stuff at my feet. But I was invisible to those bustling by. I felt like an observer with out presence. At some point in time I must have decided to stay in town till my flight home.. Yes, a top flight super-dupe real American old world luxury hotel. Why not?

I guess I must have called and reserved a room and finally the taxi ride to that gorgeous hotel I had heard of; but I remember little of those events. I believe I stayed in and ate room service food. But I do remember Mr. Rogers and everything about the moment he welcomed me home.

Cross legged on the floor, I sat in my luxurious room on the eleventh floor of the Top of the Mark Hotel in San Francisco and watched Television.. The rug was wooly, white, clean, warm and soft, and Mr Rogers came on and said, "I like you just the way you are." I sat mesmerized for the whole show and watched his gentile; and he assured me again and again that I would be all right-that I was all right.

The flight to New York next day was almost empty. I remember lying down across three seats and napping in between sessions of the watching the country roll by like a flowing geography book, beautiful and vivid.

Through all of this second day that feeling invisibility, passing strangers who neither saw nor heard me. Those old bullet shaped Carey buses they still had going from Kennedy Airport to the Port Authority Bus Terminal on the west side in those days, they had narrow high backed chairs, two abreast. My bags piled in the aisle chair made it a cave from which to watch Queens and finally Manhattan speed by.

I took a cab to Grand Central and looked around for a dry cleaner. 4 o'clock in the afternoon, only hours till I'm home. My uniform was all dusty, crumpled; I wanted to get it pressed so I could arrive looking neat, greet my folks looking sharp, together, not like I'd been through some wringer. I walked into a shop around 4:30 just blocks from the train station. "Hi!

Could you press my uniform while I wait. "Nope, the presses are shut down for the day." I could hear the hissing in the back and the store did not close until 5.

Please I have been away for a long time and I would like to greet my folks looking good. Could you just run them through quickly?"

"Nope. Sorry. We're closing." He did not look at me, just went on making markings in his book. I didn't have time to look for another store and still make my train., so I headed for Grand Central Station. The main station room was even more awe inspiring than the airport. I was impressed anew, as I had always been as a child, by the huge vaulted ceiling, marble walls, the noble wrought iron gates at the head of every ramp down to the tracks, the announcements echoing officially around the chamber, the immense Kodak color picture of a family at play, maybe two stories high and a hundred feet long.

I made my way slowly to the train, 5:05. It was packed by the time I got on. Looking down the aisle for a seat there was only a wall of newspapers, no seats. Commuter guys going home. My father had been one for many years, but tonight he'd be at the other end waiting for me.

The wall of newspapers didn't budge as I stumbled down the aisle dragging my heavy duffels. Finally I found a seat. I was down to 130lbs by then, thin as a rail, and struggled to get the bags in the overhead rack. I remembered a night when I struggled to get a guy in a little up to the top rack in our helicopter. Lew is one side of the chopper., I'm on the other,

and we're trying to get this 290 pound guy into the top rack in the dead of night with mortars shells falling. And I don't think I can press him up those last two inches.

Lew died the next week on a rescue mission when his helicopter flew into the side of Tay Ninh Mountain in bad weather.

I finally got the duffels into the rack. No newspaper budged.

Wouldn't you know it, Dad was at the far end of the platform at the Stamford station from where I got off with all my gear. But I was finally home then. There was Dad looking around for me, standing alone, and then grinning broadly when caught site of me and the pile of canvas. He was big, grinning, and alone at the far end of the platform.

Please share you thoughts on this story and e-mail

them to Jon Saphier at Jonathon1@aol.com

Being new to computers and this net, I am not sure how to get this to the whole Flight. I sure would appreciate it if you could post this for me.

Welcome Home.. And remember there are Vietnam Vet's, and then there are Vietnam vets. And it's not determined by what you saw, more by what you feel about each other.