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......as veterans, war veterans, and disabled war veterans; we are not just about military service and warring conflicts. We are real people too! Most of us when able, find something fun and entertaining to do with ourlives during peacetime. Finding peace in the outdoors and collecting rocks is some of the things I do. Hoping that maybe some of my more troubled brothers and sisters may find some sort of peace here.....
1/16/12...Howdy pardners. Yesterday my wife Ally and younger brother Dana and I, went on a short daytrip to Crystal Peak CA thru Verdi NV, and on out Dog Valley Road 27 miles. It is a nice drive without being too far, and a chance to see a portion of the lovely eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains pretty much right on the CA-NV state boundaries......
......Verdi(census 2010 pop.1415) is a quaint little town in NV right near the state borders, and right on HWY I-80 as you exit the highway. Sadly the current state of global recession has everything messed up, so I was sad to see so many of the few businesses in Verdi closed here and there. Bigger businesses there that are handling this recession fairly well like the Chevron Gas-MiniMart, and the big Cabelas Hunting and Fishing Outfitters, and 2 casino-restarant-RVparks Gold Ranch and Boomtown are in Verdi too. Though the population has fallen to less then half of the 2000 census, Verdi still looks like a nice place to live I think......
.....Anyway, to get to Crystal Peak, you need to get off of HWY I-80 right there at Verdi, and take Dog Valley Road 27 miles up to the Crystal Mine site on Crystal Peak. The road begins in Verdi as a paved road, but at the outskirts of Verdi it turns into a maintained dirt road clear up to Crystal Peak and the two or three nice campgrounds just below it. Along the way there are several forks to other dirt tracks going places into the forested mountain. You will see plenty of big and smaller trees in the forest of Ponderosa Pines, Black Pines, Grand and Noble Firs, and asundry other trees including a few Cedars and Junipers; while the ground is mostly covered with Manzanita bushes and some Service Berry, Salal, and a bit of Deer Brush and Creosote Bush. Anyway it is a delightful place to go and view some of our nature and forested areas. As the snow had just fallen leaving a few inches(6 to 12 maybe), any sign of wildlife was scant. I think I only noticed a mountain bluebird once. Soon we were passing the campground near Crystal Peak, and then came to the fairly rough dirt road going up to the mine site. Putting the HUMMRR into 4x4, we rolled right up the mountain passing a small parked passenger vehicle that counldn't deal with the snow. We were soon up the mountain at the site......
.......The new fallen snow from the night before was relatively undisturbed, as I pulled into the parking area that USFS officials made available right at the crystal collection site, so our older bodies didn't have to hike so far. It was almost hard to differentiate the very white quartz from the snow on the ground. We all piled out of the HUMMRR grabbing our bags, packs and rock hammers to fill with geological treasures. and donning coats and gloves we all headed up the gently sloping trails that pretty much converged to the peak. The evidence or many earlier crystal hunters was present in the many "glory holes" half filled with snow here and there. But since it is a mountain peak, there is plenty of it all left for many others to come. The prevalent minerals present on this peak are of course some of the purest white and translucent quartz I have ever seen, and relative amounts granitic rock and monzonite, with lots of silvery shiny and slick disintegrating felspar; and there was also the presence some pale green copper minerals that I thought looked mostly like malachite and maybe some chrysocolla and turquoise too. Hard to say though, without better testing. We all hiked around the peak finding our own little niche to explore, and begin to gather samples. Though the sun was shining nice and warm upon us in some spots, it was only a little while of an hour or so before we all began to take a chill, and were ready to jump back into the warmer HUMMRR with our individual bounties of cold and pretty stones....
.....Starting our drive back down the mountain with warm snacks and drinks, we were soon passing thru the forested dirt roads back to more developed civilization at Verdi, and on to the highway. The whole trip from Reno to the Crystal Peak site and back was only about 3-4 hours and 60-70 miles, making for a very nice but short daytrip enjoying the nature of the grand Sierra Nevada mountains.....
......Hope you all enjoyed this short little outing that was fun and simple and cheap. Happy trails to all our friends until we meet again. Peace out. Erik and Ally......

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Is the VA done with us? I surely hope not but some benefits are out of reach. Time has passed us by as sick as we might be. Can we do away with time limits?
Can something be done? The US census has revealed that 850,000 Vietnam vets are still alive in the US. Scary but 2.8 million did their 1 year in 'Nam.
Is it time vets and the general public and especially CONGRESS review the betrayal.

ARTICLE is long but an important read:

Date: Tuesday, January 4, 2011, 2:24 PM



VICTIMS OF 4 DECADES OF BETRAYAL

VIETNAM VETERANS DEMAND REPARATIONS FROM AN UNGRATEFUL NATIONBy Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER
The new Obama GI bill just kicked in. New vets can get massive funding for college, enough to live like rich fratboys, yes, that much. They can give their benefits to family members or use them to, not only go to school but live, eat, buy text books, drive a car, all things denied Vietnam veterans.
What did Vietnam vets get? They got $173 a month. What was that to pay for? Living expenses, books, tuition, supplies, fees, in fact everything. What did it pay for? It paid rent on a shared bedroom in an old house and bus tokens.
Who paid the rest? Vietnam vets worked, most full time, often having to miss classes because of jobs. They borrowed thousands and left college in debt. Books? They were checked out from the library or never bought at all. Food? Whatever you could buy for a buck a day, usually canned hash or Beefaroni.
No counseling, no disability checks, to PTSD or TBI treatment, just poverty, overwork and the struggle to find jobs while being banned from most companies and denied employment preference. The price? Devastation. Banned from mainstream service organizations because of our "undeclared war" we stood alone. Now few of us can stand at all.
40 years ago the big news was Woodstock. A half million Americans were fighting one of the most brutal wars in our history under the worst conditions of any war we had fought and nobody cared. There was still a draft, designed to protect rich kids, the kind whose families could get them into National Guard or Reserve slots that poor kids weren't allowed in. Sometimes it was connections, sometimes cash payments.
Remember the "National Guard wig?" Guard members would push their pony tails up under skinhead wigs to attend drill. How many of these folks are in Congress now? Dozens.
As with other wars, most Vietnam vets didn't make it to college. Medical care from the VA was almost non existent, though not tens but hundreds of thousands of sick and wounded came home. The worst of them died of hospItial infections or neglect. I saw amputees stored in hallways and basements in VA hospitals in unbelievable filth. I will remember this all my life.
I still get sick walking into a VA clinic or hospital. They wonder why PTSD vets don't continue treatment? The VA made our PTSD worse, much worse and for many is as much a part of the nightmares as the war itself.
Most who started college didn't finish. Fighting untreated PTSD, working, many supporting families and paying for an education with insultingly little GI Bill support made it impossible for most. As many vets made it to prison as college. Others lived under bridges and were in and out of jail. Alcohol, drugs and suicide, in numbers well beyond our current national scandal, was the norm, not the exception.
Why should the government have helped? The debt was owed. Wounded troops, and PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injuries are wounds, are supposed to be cared for. Even those with physical wounds were warehoused and as many killed off as possible. For the others, treatment was often barbaric.
Our GI bill for Vietnam was a gutted version of the one WW2 vets had. Those vets controlled the service organizations that denied Vietnam veterans membership and advised the Veterans Administration on policy.
Policy. Ignore Vietnam vets. Pay them nothing. Disrespect their service and sacrifice. Block their funds. Push them aside. This is what happened.
As more and more Vietnam veterans died, tens of thousands of them, even early on, nothing was done. There were no studies, no votes on a new GI bill nor any investigations. All we got were movies like Rambo with vets shown as cartoon morons, criminals or dangerous psychopaths. Vet bashing was an industry in America.
Veterans, real combat veterans, continued to make up the population of prisons, homeless shelters, county jails and to take up the lowest paying jobs. Military retirees, most with NO combat experience in Vietnam as the war was fought on a daily basis by only the lowest ranks, got the post office jobs and other federal employment. We call them "double dippers."
Combat vets from Vietnam suffered malnutrition on a massive scale. Not even aging C-Rations were available and troops often lived on less than 500 calories a day for weeks at a time. There were no hot meals, no fresh foods of any kind, no fruit, no vegetables, no milk, nothing. Vets returned with their teeth falling out and generally deteriorated health.
Agent Orange. Huge numbers of vets came home with a skin condition now called chloracne. This was followed by migraine headaches and neurological symptoms that sometimes resembled Parkinsons Disease. Then came the diabetes and cancers. Vets began dying as though victims of a plague.
Our answer? America looked away. We ignored it as we did with Gulf War Illness. Half the Agent Orange diseases may still be unrecognized for treatment today and the ones on the list weren't admitted to until so many died it no longer mattered.
How were AO vets with cancer treated? Most weren't diagnosed and when they were, the VA used the cheapest and worst treatments available. Friends of mine that survived sold their homes to pay for cancer treatment or had advanced treatments because of jobs with health insurance. How many had cancer? We will never be told. My first "fatal" cancer diagnosis was 1995.
Money. The average E2-3 combat soldier in Vietnam made between $7 and $8 a day, less than 10% of the pay of current troops. Out of this money, they had to buy uniforms, toiletries and often food. Troops returned from war totally broke.
Today's veterans are sometimes having disabilty claims held up a year. Vets are now on PTSD disability at 20 years old. Many Vietnam veterans are only being diagnosed now. My best guess is that the average PTSD disability finding for a Vietnam veteran happens at 58 years old, not 20. If anyone can prove me wrong, please do. The average time from onset to treatment has been over 20 years and from treatment to disability compensation, over 10 years and for some 20 or more.
Families. PTSD vets seldom have families or can seldom keep them. PTSD vets are unemployable with some holding dozens of jobs over the years with long periods of unemployment. This tears families apart and crushes children.
What was the government supposed to do? These vets needed treatment and the disability compensation current vets are now fighting, successfully, to get, for life, the day they leave service. This would have given the families a living income, health insurance, excellent college assistance for children and much more.
Instead, it caused a generation of suffering, not only from undiagnosed PTSD but from tens of thousands with undiagnosed Agent Orange illnesses and the related birth defects, only some of which are even admitted to decades later. Who would die first, the vet or his child?
How do we find and help the combat vets of Vietnam who were screwed over? Biggest place to look is easy. Buy a shovel.
Next best tool, a lie detector. Chances are most of the Rambo types you have been running into all your lives are total liars or were in the Alabama National Guard or, even if in Vietnam, working in an office. All veterans that served "in country" have issues, with Agent Orange and other problems crossing lines through every MOS. (military occupational specialty)
Combat vets. These were the "stepchildren" of the military. They were brought in to be used up and discarded. Enlistees who opted for 4 years or more were able to negotiate non-combat options and most did. Thus, a 4 year enlistee with a 5th grade education could work in "intelligence" and a college grad, engineer, teacher or pre-law, with a 2 year enlistment would be a "grunt."
If this doesn't explain exactly how the military got the way it is and how it works, I don't know what does.
Getting food to combat units was never a priority. Getting uniforms, weapons and ammunition wasn't either.
Boots and body armor were picked up off the ground, discarded by rotating, wounded or the dead. "Here's a good pair of pants, only a few holes. See if you can get the blood out of them."
This was good training for going to college on GI bill.
Is there responsibility for fixing the lives of grown children, raised in poverty, denied insurance, educational benefits or a stable family? Is it a problem. Yes, of course. Should it be done? Yes, today is decades late, but not too late.
Veterans Service Oranizations. It was all about hair. Vets came back from Vietnam and grew hair, beards and did anything to be accepted by their peers. Acceptance by the older generation was hopeless. Old always resent young. Add hundreds of movies, TV shows and the endless stories of "baby killer vets" and the old lived in terror of Vietnam veterans. African Americans must have felt some relief about this.
VSO's were all about old people. To Vietnam veterans, guys in their 50s were old. These were the people who ran the VSO's and they were jealous, resentful and afraid. Being young in 1969 meant you were having sex, the "kegger orgies" seen in every movie. Veteran and outlaw biker meant the same to them. Funny thing, veterans now have taken on the garb of the outlaw bikers as their own.
Veterans also competed for funding. With hundreds of thousands of undiagnosed WW2 and Korean War PTSD victims suffering from years of cigarettes and booze, and all the related illnesses, the VA was built around serving a clientele that was half rural uninsured and half "skidrow bum."
VSO's worked hard to see that NO effort was made to make room for tens of thousands of seriously wounded veterans who had been sujected to years of brutal combat. A third, much lower priority of veteran was established behind the "skidrow bum." This was the wounded vet, many multiple amputees or nearly unrecognizable from burns.
Dont' see many of these folks around anymore? Surprise, surprise. How long could someone in this condition survive in a hospital that belonged in Albania or Somalia? Were they this bad? Yes, they were. Those who know them well will never forget.
What is unique about the abuse of the Vietnam veteran is that it has gone on so long. Rather than things getting better, the current war is making them worse. Our "volunteer army," less and less volunteer and more and more "economic refugee," eats up funds.
Throwing money at war, done for profit, not support of the troops, is America's biggest racket. Troops are fed, overfed and have military marvels helping them that many, even now, can't imagine. We also find our new troops, unemployed, dead of suicide, homeless or serving in combat, afraid of losing the only job available, while wounded or driven to mental instability.
Is this a reason to crush the remaining Vietnam vets who have suffered so long? Is buying an army for our crazy adventures in the land of oil and opium an excuse for more murder and betrayal? Yes, it seems so, because that is exactly what is being done.
Are current troops responsible? Of course not. If I had been offered food, I would have eaten. If we could have had helicopters or moderately good body armor, I might have worn it, maybe not. Play station and internet? Yes, in a damned minute along with any airconditioning I could find.
Blame? Not the troops. Blame. Not even the government. Blame Americans willing to live as though nothing can touch them while others suffer in their name. Christ wasn't the only one. Blasphemy, maybe, but more than Christ has been crucified to cover the sins of the many.
Do we owe just the Vietnam vets? We owe them, mostly, but will never be able to pay enough or undo the horrors wrought. We pay $4500 for a junk car and hundreds of billions to crooked banks and health insurance companies whose management live like Arab shieks, on taxpayer welfare.
What would I do if the government sent me a million bucks reparation, part of what they owe? Could I buy back one day of suffering, my own illnesses, watching my friends die or seeing families do without?
There are things we can do. We can pass on real GI bill benefits to our children, even those over 30 who now still have to go back to school to survive in the economic nightmare America has come. All we ever cared about was them anyway.
Should grandchildren be helped? Of course. Vietnam has caused generations of poverty and suffering, all directly due to the criminal misconduct of our government, the disdain of our people and the greed of our military/industrial complex.
Is this a debt really owed? No debt is owed more and no group more deserving, not current troops, not people wanting new pickup trucks, not wealthy bankers worried about keeping the pool at their summer home in top condition with bailout money.
We took a generation and murdered them. It was a holocaust. Vets fought for education, jobs and to have a decent life for themselves and their families.
How did we help them? Doing nothing at all would have been an improvement. No medical care is better than sytematic euthenasia thinly veiled as criminal neglect.
Decades of insults, lies, deceit and every cheap administrative ploy and dodge possible has not gone unnoticed. We all know it, we all see it and we are not forgetting any of it. None of us are robbing banks our running around the the woods playing militia. The scandal sheets love talking about it but it simply isn't true.
We are going to continue trying to look after each other, our families and even the current troops and new vets. It is all we know and we are too old to become anything different. We were brave and loyal then and aren't likely to change.
Many of us are broken, sick, wracked with pain and many dying, not just us but our brothers from the gulf war and the newer generaton who are kids to us, not just kids but our kids.
Anger and neglect have not made us less American and more "Wall Steet" or " Country Club." Check your history, this is how we spent 40 years. Ghandi could use some of us as examples.
Some of us joined the VSO's, some to change them, some because posts chose to stick by them and some because there was no where else to go. Thus far, the VSO's are still dumb, sometimes harmful and blind. That may change but most of us won't live long enough to see it.
Government? We have lost hope here. The heroes of the past have been replaced by the most deceitful and spineless Congress in our history. There are lions there. Decent people serve but the real power lies outside the halls and in the back rooms where packets of money move in and honor is placed aside.
Reparations? Why pay debts easily forgotten to people who are dying anyway?
Is honor worth it? Is the lesson worth paying for? Is the real reason to save families, not only families but the most deserving families in America?
Victims. These are victims of, not a natural disaster or attack but of hate, fear, neglect and dishonor, not by a few but by all, every one of us.
Nobody is innocent. Everyone should pay.
Gordon Duff is a Marine combat veteran and regular contributor on political and social issues.

5/30/11...It has been forty plus years since I lived through this story. I thought it appropriate to share it with all of you again on this memorial day, that we should remember the sacrifices and lives lost of our armed forces that serve to protect our freedoms and our democratic way of life that we so can enjoy in comfort and relative safety here at home. Thank you........

...THE PURPLE HEART: WIA: 29 OCT 1969...

...............It is a beautiful medal. It's shape a golden heart with a smaller purple one atop that, and General George Washington's golden bust atop that, held by a gold ring to the purple ribbon that has a narrow white stripe running down each side. On the back of the medal it says "FOR MILITARY MERIT" just above my engraved name. I know that I gave all.............
..............I was 20 years old on the day I was wounded in Cambodia. The government said we were never there, but we were. It was our job to ferret out the enemy, or any enemy activites up and down the Ho Chi Minh trail that had many branches along the Vietnam-Cambodian border...........
..............The trails came down south from the north and Hanoi where they started, running mostly on the west side of the central highlands in Laos and Cambodia, and then east into III CORP of Vietnam undulating into several strategic branches all around and near Saigon. The enemy was wise in his use of the jungle, and knew his land, after all it was his country..........
..............We were the invaders butting our heads into their business. We would have been smarter to have told the French to get out in 1946, but we didn't. Later in 1956 at Dien Bien Phu, the French Foreign Legion was almost wiped out to the man by a most primitive Viet Minh Army led by a simple former school teacher, General Giap. But look at who's not laughing now.
...............We the USA were soon involved by some political trickery. If any leaders had had foresight, we would never of been there as enemies, but rather allies I think. The Vietnamese, and the North Vietnamese Army, and the Viet Cong guerillas were formidable fighters everywhere we engaged them. There were no pussys here, except that they fought like cats with dogs, and we were "the dogs of war"............
..............As post-WWII children, most of us who served by choice or the draft, were beliving the information we were fed from birth and childhood to our early manhood, that the Red Communist octopus was trying to spread its arms and tentacles around the world and to take over and oppress all under the socialist yoke..........
..............In retrospect, we seemed as primitive or lacking intuition as anybody, because we all know now that governments and political models come and goe with all regularity through history of civilization and mankind. Religions have been far more responcible for major global conflicts, and death and destruction, then singular political aspirations.............
..............Like pretty much all american soldiers, I was certain that I would rather serve the cause of freedom and die, then to be nobody and do nothing. To be a hero was more important then life itself............
..............We had tracked the enemy for days as part of a six week long mission, and no end was in sight. We believed we would find and kill all enemies, until we would meet our own deaths. A pretty simple idea, with a simple and heroic end. To die in that 'Blaze of Glory". What boys we really were still, following orders to die and kill...............
..............I remember looking at my watch the moment we heard voices. It was 1505 hours. We thought for sure we had them now, and quietly made sign to each others of our strategy. We practiced whenever possible fire superiority, and so rushed the enemy with guns ablazing, only to find we had only been tracking scouts to a much larger enemy element............
..............We were badly outnumbered about 6 to 1, us six to 36 of the enemy, and they were all dressed in the khaki uniforms of the NVA including 5 or 6 with red on their epaulets indicating the officers, this was a tried and true element of the 322nd NVA Division, and most of them averaged 35 years old, probably even having fought against the French at Dien Bien Phu............
.............We were all 19-20-21, and much younger. But we fought tenaciously to win. The odds were very much against us, but the element of surprise gave us important advantage, and we took down several enemy in the first seconds of engagement. Soon however we were out flanked on our left, and the NVA had set up their machine gun, and now had us pinned down, as they began to surround us better to take us all down, killing us.........
..............I made the decision to rush the machine gun to eliminate it, while my comrades kept up massive fire into the enemy at our flanks..........
............As I crouched, and then charged into the middle taking out the machine gunner, I was hit and knocked down on my back. I knew I was hit, but there was no time to be dead, I shook free the empty magazine from my M-16 weapon and attempted to reload, but my left arm I could not feel. I quickly saw the bullet hole through my shirt just above my heart. I recognized I was feeling warm and dizzy, and quickly getting weak..........
...........As my buddies continued to fight back at the enemy, I tried to assess my situation. It was hopeless. I had taken a bullet through my left shoulder, and it had severed the artery. I knew I was going to bleed out and die right there, and decided I would not cry out or humiliate myself in death. It was more neccessary to die a quiet hero..........
.........ADDENDUM: I thought that I should give thanks to all whom saved me on that day:
......Den, the 18 year old Cambodian montagnard scout-interpreter who guided my American comrades back into Vietnam for medivac rescue, and of course my comrades.....
......the 11th ACR chopper pilot and door-gunner of the Huey that braved enemy fire to rescue and medivac me....
......and the doctors-surgeons and nurses whom saved me and cared for me at the 12th EVAC HOSP in Cu-Chi.....
.......to them all I owe my life and the life I have experienced. Thank you....

4/7/11........after forty-one years since I served in Vietnam and Cambodia, it looks like fate has finally caught up with me, as I was diagnosed with Agent Orange caused cancers last week. Well, the fight ain't over yet. "Never give up, never surrender"........

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7/3/11...Howdy pardners. After our little wedding at the Fernley Pizza Shack on June 18th, Ally and I went ahead with plans to go to SC for our honeymoon, and to meet her family there. Primarily to meet her only child, her daughter Candace, and Candace's two sons Christopher and Shane. Since school was out for the summer, Christopher had taken adventage of the opportunity to spend the summer with his father in the NE, so we missed him. But we got the chance to interact with the younger son Shane which we did. Also there were some other family members whom had by chance gone on vacation, so we missed them. I was sorry about that...
.........Anyway, after a long flight with several long stop-overs, we made it to Aiken SC....
.......It had been so long since I had been to the SE states when I was stationed there in 68-69, that I had forgotten how green and almost tropical it seems there. It does remind me of western OR where I was born. Ally had fun showing me all around where she had lived in the Aiken area for most of the last twenty years of her life, and also pursued and completed her career as a an eigth grade geology teacher. It was a bit amusing at how she was soon trying to avoid running into former students and co-working teachers that all wanted to know how she was doing since making such a big change to her life and moving out west and getting married to this bad boy......
......She showed me lots of local historical places of great interest, and we also pursued finding a few interesting geological sites too. Some local Aiken area Kaolin primary clay deposits interested me, and I collected a sample to bring back home with me, while Ally collected up some rock samples too. She showed me a few of the "Carolina Bays" that intrigue me, and how their orogenisis is still somewhat of a mystery apperantly. Anyway it was a fun trip that allowed us some real time together, and a chance to meet part of my new and extended family members. I guess like all trips and travel adventures, at first we are so eager to get into it, before enough time passes that we wished to return home, to make sure home is safe and to relax again........
.......Best of all I was glad to be with my new bride. She is a wonderful gal, and I love dancing with her where ever we seem to be.....
.......Happy trails our friends, and happy fourth too. Until we meet again, Erik and Ally...
.......PS: photos are in a group album....

For those of you too young to remember Hanoi Jane is a bad person and did some terrible things during the Vietnam war. Things that can not be forgiven!!!!

And now OBAMA wants to honor her......!!!!

In Memory of LT. C. Thomsen Wieland who spent 100 days at the Hanoi Hilton

IF YOU NEVER FORWARDED ANYTHING IN YOUR LIFE FORWARD THIS SO THAT EVERYONE WILL KNOW!!!!!!

She really is a traitor.
A TRAITOR IS ABOUT TO BE HONORED KEEP THIS MOVING ACROSS AMERICA

This is for all the kids born in the 70's and after who do not remember, and didn't have to bear the burden that our fathers, mothers and older brothers and sisters had to bear.

Jane Fonda is being honored as one of the '100 Women of the Century.'
BY BARBRA WALTERS WRITES:
Unfortunately, many have forgotten and still countless others have never known how Ms. Fonda betrayed not only the idea of our country, but specific men who served and sacrificed during Vietnam
The first part of this is from an F-4E pilot. The pilot's name is Jerry Driscoll, a River Rat.

In 1968, the former Commandant of the USAF Survival School was a POW in Ho Lo Prison the ' Hanoi Hilton.'
Dragged from a stinking cesspit of a cell, cleaned, fed, and dressed in clean PJ's, he was ordered to describe for a visiting American 'Peace Activist' the 'lenient and humane treatment' he'd received.
He spat at Ms. Fonda, was clubbed, and was dragged away. During the subsequent beating, he fell forward on to the camp Commandant's feet, which sent that officer berserk.

In 1978, the Air Force Colonel still suffered from double vision (which permanently ended his flying career) from the Commandant's frenzied application of a wooden baton.

From 1963-65, Col. Larry Carrigan was in the 47FW/DO (F-4E's). He spent 6 years in the 'Hanoi Hilton',,, the first three of which his family only knew he was 'missing in action'. His wife lived on faith that he was still alive. His group, too, got the cleaned-up, fed and clothed routine in preparation for a 'peace delegation' visit.

They, however, had time and devised a plan to get word to the world that they were alive and still survived. Each man secreted a tiny piece of paper, with his Social Security Number on it, in the palm of his hand.
When paraded before Ms. Fonda and a cameraman, she walked the line, shaking each man's hand and asking little encouraging snippets like: 'Aren't you sorry you bombed babies?' and 'Are you grateful for the humane treatment from your benevolent captors?' Believing this HAD to be an act, they each palmed her their sliver of paper.
She took them all without missing a beat.. At the end of the line and once the camera stopped rolling, to the shocked disbelief of the POWs, she turned to the officer in charge and handed him all the little pieces of paper.
Three men died from the subsequent beatings. Colonel Carrigan was almost number four but he survived, which is the only reason we know of her actions that day.
I was a civilian economic development advisor in Vietnam, and was captured by the North Vietnamese communists in South Vietnam in 1968, and held prisoner for over 5 years.
I spent 27 months in solitary confinement; one year in a cage in Cambodia ; and one year in a 'black box' in Hanoi My North Vietnamese captors deliberately poisoned and murdered a female missionary, a nurse in a leprosarium in Ban me Thuot , South Vietnam , whom I buried in the jungle near the Cambodian border. At one time, I weighed only about 90 lbs. (My normal weight is 170 lbs.)
We were Jane Fonda's 'war criminals....'
When Jane Fonda was in Hanoi, I was asked by the camp communist political officer if I would be willing to meet with her.
I said yes, for I wanted to tell her about the real treatment we POWs received; and how different it was from the treatment purported by the North Vietnamese, and parroted by her as 'humane and lenient.'
Because of this, I spent three days on a rocky floor on my knees, with my arms outstretched with large steel weights placed on my hands, and beaten with a bamboo cane.
I had the opportunity to meet with Jane Fonda soon after I was released. I asked her if she would be willing to debate me on TV. She never did answer me.
These first-hand experiences do not exemplify someone who should be honored as part of '100 Years of Great Women.' Lest we forget....' 100 Years of Great Women' should never include a traitor whose hands are covered with the blood of so many patriots.
There are few things I have strong visceral reactions to, but Hanoi Jane's participation in blatant treason, is one of them. Please take the time to forward to as many people as you possibly can. It will eventually end up on her computer and she needs to know that we will never forget.

RONALD D. SAMPSON, CMSgt, USAF 716 Maintenance Squadron, Chief of Maintenance DSN: 875-6431 COMM: 883-6343
PLEASE HELP BY SENDING THIS TO EVERYONE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK. IF ENOUGH PEOPLE SEE THIS MAYBE HER STATUS WILL CHANGE. Reply Reply to all Forward

5/1/2011......for life or love or friendship? I lost my wife to a automobile accident almost five years ago. I still feel the guilt that if I hadn't encouraged her to travel to the annual family reunion every July 4th week so soon after a major surgery of replacing her artificial right hip, that she may still be here......
.........After about fifteen months of her passing, I began to feel that I wanted to meet someone new, and at the advise of my therapist I began a journey of learning to socialize and meet some women with the hope I may be lucky in love again, and meet someone whom would like to share the rest of our lives together until death do us part........
........So began an adventure in meeting ladies at clubs or campus, or where ever we may run into and meet anybody. This included at some point learning to meet people via the internet, and several cyber social/dating sites. This has proved to be an adventure too.......
........I found it was easy to be interested in talking with people at first, and more especially women. It seemed there were so many that were beautiful with character and education and skills. But eventually when we became more familiar to each others and started talking romance, it either seemed to go very well or not at all, and I surely felt I still had it in me to be romantic (and full of maybe too much desire). That part was probably the reason so many women shied away from me at first, or because I at first mentioned maybe too much of my late wife to which I was sensitive about in ways. I stayed in therapy to help me deal with myself, and eventually my new dreams into the future.......
.......After awhile it seemed a kinda new me was developing, as I began to be more glib of tongue and capable of engaging all types of people and women in conversation without pissing them off or scaring them away. With interest in meeting a gal, I started to analyze the different aspects of the women I met or talked with, trying to decide what was worth pursuing or not. I found I continued to use the model of my late wife's attributes as the basis of the least I wanted in a new love. Character. Intelligence. Skills. And lots of desire. Pretty soon I found that there were all kinds of pretty and smart and sexy ladies, and as I went forward I began to sort out what I did't like or care for. That is not easy. And as I went along, I found I got my heart broke or made it hurt; or there were those that I hurt when I decided they were too much trouble and would cut them off. There were along the way also women/people that I perceived as reasonable and good people to remain friends with if possible, to which I felt was nice. A well rounded person has many friends, right? At some point I began to want to remain close and even caring with some new friends. I loved to use the "love" word. I guess I just wanted some(a lot?). And it was feeling as if lots of hugging lady friends was a lot better then no girlfriend at all.......
........But pretty soon I met someone that seemed to want all the things I wanted, and didn't seem too complicated. I really wanted her after a while, and we met and enjoyed what we had to offer the other. I was pretty sure she was the one, but life is not so simple. There are all kinds of complications, and most started with me and the long distance relationship that I had never experienced before. I thought I could and would do anything for her love including wait for things to allow me to join her. But after awhile I began to want more now it seems in reflection, and somehow I met someone who was ready to be with me now. I am very sorry that I have hurt the girl far away whom loved me, but I also am sure I want something in my arms now just in case there are no more tomorrows. Please forgive me, you whom I have hurt.......

To all vets out there, the VA has facilities all around the country that are devoted to helping vets with PTSD. I just returned from a 7 week program in Waco Tx. and it helped me to learn ways to cope with my PTSD.