Veterans: What Priority? by John Bury

Here is the second of two pieces by Blue Water Navy Veteran John Bury:

Military service personnel of all branches of service, be it Army, Navy, Marine Corp, Air Force or Coast Guard. They serve with pride and honor and are sworn to protect our Country’s borders, our Constitution and Bill of Rights. They serve in peace time and war time, all with one common goal, our Country’s Freedom.

We who served and those who now serve, ask only to be cared for by our Government if we have become sick with disease or injured in the line of duty. We are from all walks of life. We represent all religious faiths, all races, all political parties.

A bullet, a disease, does not discriminate who we are or what we are in time of war. A bullet or a disease does not care if we are of any one religious faith, black or white, yellow or red, democrat or republican or independent. We are all equals. Some of us are injured by a bullet or explosive device. Some of us get sick by the use of poisonous herbicides that causes cancer, Hodgkin’s disease, and Ischemic heart disease, just to name a few. Some of us end up with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Yes, some of us even end up with a whole deck full of problems.

Some of our Legislators introduce Bills to the House and Senate to care for us who are in need. We submit claims to Veterans Affairs. Mountains of paperwork is required for us to prove we have disabling problems during our time in service to our Country. It can take months, more likely even years for that paperwork to get through the system. In the mean time those Legislative Bills receive little to no action in a hurry up and wait mode of operation. Some of our Legislators aren’t sitting on their hands, some support us, they are of the minority. A few can not do the job needed, it takes a majority.

What are the priorities of our Legislative Body? Do they tax the very wealthy, millionaires and billionaires or give them tax breaks? To what countries do they give billions of dollars? To what banks do they give assistance? To what giant manufactures do they give assistance? What Pork Barrel projects do they support? Just to name a few top priorities. But our military personnel who are sick and injured, where are they on this priority list? At what point does the almighty dollar stop to help those who served? It seems to me, if the bureaucracy waits long enough and makes VA claims difficult enough, more of us will just die out, then there are fewer of us to be concerned about. Sounds like a rotten death sentence?

What say you, The American People, is this what it has come to? Are those who fought for Freedom to be forsaken? Ask your Congressional Representatives and your Senators, are those who served to be forgotten?

By: John J. Bury, US Navy/retired/war veteran

Bravo Zulu, John, Bravo Zulu.

VNVets

”It is a stain on this nation's honor that the Department of Veterans Affairs has become a deadlier and more difficult adversary to the American veteran than any they have ever faced on a battlefield."-- VNVets

"The concept that Agent Orange, and its effects, stopped dead in its tracks at the shoreline is simply too illogical, and too ludicrous to accept. What does that say about the Obama Administration and his Department of Veterans Affairs?"--VNVets

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." --President Abraham Lincoln

"It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious."--President George Washington

Copyright © 2005-2012: VNVets Blog -- Now in our Eighth Year of Service to Veterans; All Rights Reserved. Reprinting or copying of the contents of this blog without the express permission of the author is unlawful.

Vietnam War Veterans: Burden of proof by John Bury

We are posting a pair of op-ed pieces that have been published in newspapers around the country. You may have seen these, or not. They are written by Vietnam Veteran John Bury of Pennsylvania. They are re-published here with his kind permission:

Vietnam veterans who never had boots-on-ground Vietnam, who are sick from presumptive exposure to agent orange dioxin poisoning are tied up in paperwork. The burden of proof is placed solely upon the veteran. Burden of proof is mainly directed to those service members who never had boots-on-ground. Presumptive exposure for these service members is most difficult of all to provide evidence for.

In nearly all cases, the Veterans Affairs (VA) requires evidence relative to exposure to this deadly herbicide. The mere fact that the service member without boots-on-ground can show proof of military service, and proof of having been awarded the Vietnam Service Medal and medical proof of illness is in nearly all cases, not evidence enough for VA disability. Except for those who had boots-on-ground.

The herbicide was sprayed on the lands of the Republic of Vietnam. Consequently, much of this herbicide found its way miles out into the South China Sea because of run-off. This spraying was authorized by the Department of Defense and our Federal Government. The governing authorities knew the use of this deadly herbicide could be harmful to members of the U.S. Armed Forces engaged in the Vietnam War on land, at sea and in the air. The Institute Of Medicine (IOM) report has proven the toxicity of Agent Orange Dioxin. This was an irresponsible action on the part of our Government to poison we who served. That authority should be held accountable. In 1991, the Congress passed a Bill that authorized the VA to approve all agent orange exposure claims for disability. In 2002, The Bush administration took away authorized disability claims from those service members who did not have boots-on-ground Vietnam.

Ask why do we who served and fought in this war need insurmountable evidence of proof? Evidence other then the above evidence provided by the veteran? Is the afore mentioned evidence not enough that we were there? No matter if we were on land, at sea or in the air? Is this just another way our Government has authorized the VA to make disability claims impossible to get, by creating unnecessary paperwork placed upon the service member? The reality is, we were there and we were poisoned.

If more evidence is required by the VA, then that burden of proof should be on the VA, other then evidence the veteran has submitted for disability health care claim for dioxin poisoning, to include due compensation. Our Legislators must be urged to do what is right and correct the errors made in times past. The Senate and Congress Veterans Affairs Committees need to approve Senate Bill S-1629 and House Bill HR-3612. These Bills then need to be sent to the Floor of both Houses and swiftly passed.

By: John J. Bury, US Navy/retired, Vietnam Veteran
Media, Pa.

Thanks John! Well said.

VNVets

”It is a stain on this nation's honor that the Department of Veterans Affairs has become a deadlier and more difficult adversary to the American veteran than any they have ever faced on a battlefield."-- VNVets

"The concept that Agent Orange, and its effects, stopped dead in its tracks at the shoreline is simply too illogical, and too ludicrous to accept. What does that say about the Obama Administration and his Department of Veterans Affairs?"--VNVets

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." --President Abraham Lincoln

"It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious."--President George Washington

Copyright © 2005-2012: VNVets Blog -- Now in our Eighth Year of Service to Veterans; All Rights Reserved. Reprinting or copying of the contents of this blog without the express permission of the author is unlawful.

House Campaign over. Congressional Visits starting!

The full membership of The Veterans Association of Sailors of the Vietnam War [VASVW] has completed the mailing campaign in the US House of Representatives. Membership will begin the second Senate Campaign late this month, which will be followed by a second campaign in the US House.

Additionally, the VASVW Legislative Advocates are now starting their appointments on behalf of members by visiting Members of Congress in DC. Members are being recruited over the next two weeks, to serve as Legislative Advocates, and will receive on the job training from our experienced Senior Legislative Advocates.

It is never too late to join VASVW. Join us and have a hand in your future, while being a part of a well respected and honorable organization. Click here to join VASVW today!

VNVets

”It is a stain on this nation's honor that the Department of Veterans Affairs has become a deadlier and more difficult adversary to the American veteran than any they have ever faced on a battlefield."-- VNVets

"The concept that Agent Orange, and its effects, stopped dead in its tracks at the shoreline is simply too illogical, and too ludicrous to accept. What does that say about the Obama Administration and his Department of Veterans Affairs?"--VNVets

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." --President Abraham Lincoln

"It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious."--President George Washington

Copyright © 2005-2012: VNVets Blog -- Now in our Eighth Year of Service to Veterans; All Rights Reserved. Reprinting or copying of the contents of this blog without the express permission of the author is unlawful.

VASVW set to start House of Reps Campaign

The Veterans Association of Sailors of the Vietnam War [VASVW] is set to begin its member mailing campaign to members of Congress.

Each member gets a personalized letter to their specific Representative, on VASVW stationery to print, fax and then mail to his or her US Representative. The letter is asking the Representative to support HR 3612, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2011.  Included in the email is contact information including mailing address, and DC fax number of that member's Representative. The member is then asked to fax the letter to his or her Representative, and then physically mail it.

Members are also urged to contact their Representative's local office to arrange a meeting with their Representative, and/or to have one of VASVW's Legislative Advocates meet with the Representative and staff at their DC office.

Upon completion of the campaign in the House of Representatives, we will begin another campaign in the Senate that works the same way.

There is strength in numbers. Why not join the 400 members of VASVW today, and add your voice to the member's messages to Congress?

Click here to register to join today. 

Welcome home and Welcome Aboard! 

VNVets

”It is a stain on this nation's honor that the Department of Veterans Affairs has become a deadlier and more difficult adversary to the American veteran than any they have ever faced on a battlefield."-- VNVets

"The concept that Agent Orange, and its effects, stopped dead in its tracks at the shoreline is simply too illogical, and too ludicrous to accept. What does that say about the Obama Administration and his Department of Veterans Affairs?"--VNVets

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." --President Abraham Lincoln

"It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious."--President George Washington

Copyright © 2005-2012: VNVets Blog -- Now in our Eighth Year of Service to Veterans; All Rights Reserved. Reprinting or copying of the contents of this blog without the express permission of the author is unlawful.

New AO Ship List out!

A new list adding 47 new ships to the list is now posted on the DVA website at this site: Ship List

VNVets

”It is a stain on this nation's honor that the Department of Veterans Affairs has become a deadlier and more difficult adversary to the American veteran than any they have ever faced on a battlefield."-- VNVets

"The concept that Agent Orange, and its effects, stopped dead in its tracks at the shoreline is simply too illogical, and too ludicrous to accept. What does that say about the Obama Administration and his Department of Veterans Affairs?"--VNVets

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." --President Abraham Lincoln

"It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious."--President George Washington

Copyright © 2005-2012: VNVets Blog -- Now in our Seventh Year of Service to Veterans; All Rights Reserved. Reprinting or copying of the contents of this blog without the express permission of the author is unlawful.

The Exception to the Rule

We have provided information that according to a paper presented by Dr. Jeanne Stellman of Columbia University before The Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans and Agent Orange Exposure in September of 2010 no US Navy commissioned ships carried Tactical Herbicides to or from Vietnam. We were in attendance at that presentation.

Very clearly, Dr. Stellman, who made an impressive and incredibly deep study of Operation Ranch Hand Missions, made the statement that no herbicides were carried on US Navy commissioned ships.

We have no reason to doubt Dr. Stellman’s report.

We have been presented with an exception. A Blue Water Navy Veteran provided us with a photograph of what is apparently many barrels of Agent White on the deck of the USS Ponchatoula AO 148, a US Navy Fleet Oiler, in either 1966 or 1967.

As promised, here is the best rendition of the photograph in our possession.

Here is an expanded view:

According to the Veteran who supplied these images, and two others that were close-ups of the same barrels, the herbicides were loaded in Pearl Harbor, and off loaded to a barge at sea, off the coast of Vietnam.

Here is our take on this photo, which we believe to be a valid photograph of Tactical Herbicides onboard a US Navy Commissioned Vessel during the Vietnam War:

We believe these barrels were not a part of the US Air Force’s Operation Ranch Hand, but instead were destined for use as part of the US Army’s on-the-ground spray program on base perimeters, or, depending on which part of the coast of Vietnam it was off-loaded, it could have been destined to some of the remote bases along the Thai-Vietnamese Border, or the Thai-Cambodian Border, or the Thai-Laotian Border. They also could have conceivably gone to Brown Water use along the waterways that our Naval Riverine forces frequented. We do not believe these barrels would have been a part of the Air Force Ranch Hand Operation. This was likely a small supply for use on an ad hoc basis, such as for preparation of a watercourse for Naval Riverine Ops, or small outpost preparation in Thailand.

Accordingly, we believe this photo is likely the exception that proves the rule. At this point, after 6 or 7 months of having asked for proof such as this, this is the only proof to come forward. Undoubtedly there is other proof out there, but not much.


VNVets

”It is a stain on this nation's honor that the Department of Veterans Affairs has become a deadlier and more difficult adversary to the American veteran than any they have ever faced on a battlefield."-- VNVets

"The concept that Agent Orange, and its effects, stopped dead in its tracks at the shoreline is simply too illogical, and too ludicrous to accept. What does that say about the Obama Administration and his Department of Veterans Affairs?"--VNVets

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." --President Abraham Lincoln

"It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious."--President George Washington

Copyright © 2005-2012: VNVets Blog -- Now in our Seventh Year of Service to Veterans; All Rights Reserved. Reprinting or copying of the contents of this blog without the express permission of the author is unlawful.

AO on Navy Ships? [Updated and reposted]

 Warning: The following will contain a lot of information that will upset many of you who read it. Be advised. We have researched this quite extensively.

We periodically get claims and queries from folks who served in the Blue Water Navy off Vietnam during the Vietnam War. They claim exposure to tactical herbicides in several ways, the most frequent of which are from leaking barrels stored on a hangar deck, or in some space the crew regularly accessed, and the other route was in cleaning aircraft returned from low level missions over South Vietnam.

These folks actually believe this, and in some cases that belief is driven by a desperation forced upon them by Congressional inaction and DVA anti-Veteran policies. We don’t believe that any one of the folks making these claims are knowingly lying, but instead believe them to be seriously mistaken.

Here are some facts. All herbicides were shipped to Vietnam and turned over to the government of the Republic of Vietnam. The barrels were black and have bands painted around them near their middle or top, that were color coded to match the various rainbow herbicides. They got their common names from those bands. Barrels that were all orange did NOT contain Agent Orange. Black barrels with an orange band painted around the barrel did. Black barrels with a white band painted around them contained Agent White, and so on.

The barrels were shipped on merchant ships under short term contract to the Department of Defense, or on board USNS [US Naval Ships], which are merchant type vessels, usually for one type of cargo or another, contracted long term to the US Navy and some of their crew were Navy personnel. [USNS ships provide a much closer supporting role today than they did during the Vietnam War. Back then all they basically did was haul stuff, usually for the Navy, but sometimes for the Department of Defense, or if it was a smaller vessel it was used for research or spying.] USNS Ships were NOT commissioned Naval Vessels, as the Fleet vessels were. Hence the difference between USS [commissioned] and USNS [not commissioned].

On arrival in Vietnam, the barrels were turned over to the government of the Republic of Vietnam [RVN].

Each spray mission required approval from the RVN government, and requests for such missions went up the military chain of command, across DC to the State Department, back to the US Embassy in Saigon, to the Government of RVN and then back the same path. Approvals sometimes took many months to get back to where they originated. When they did, a requisition had to be made to the RVN government storage facility to get the appropriate barrels of tactical herbicides.

Think about it this way: What would the end use for these barrels be on smaller US Navy vessels? What were the Destroyers and Destroyer Escorts, and Mine Sweepers going to do with barrels of herbicides?

Ask yourself this question: How did Navy ships with herbicides on board take part in the spray process? What was their role?

The answers should be apparent. There was no Navy role in this.

Were there exceptions? It is possible. Anything is possible. But to claim they were carried on Aircraft Carriers and Cruisers and Destroyers, etc. just defies logic. Were there leaking barrels on those ships? Certainly, in all likelihood there were. Were they leaking tactical herbicides? No. Most likely it was light machine oil, dry cleaning fluid, or a chemical like Silvex that was used to clean the intake ports for the water desalinization system, or any of a myriad of other chemicals used in the day-to-day maintenance of US Navy warships. [Silvex is a nasty agent, almost as dirty as the tactical herbicides. But that is a story for another day.] The odds of contamination from barrels on board US Navy ships were astronomically higher for almost anything shipped in a barrel than they were for it to be tactical herbicides.

Let’s talk aircraft contamination. Our brave pilots, and they were extremely brave, would often risk their aircraft and themselves in performing their missions as precisely as possible. Delivering a weapon to the ground from an aircraft flying four or five hundred miles an hour requires a high degree of skill. Sometimes, when flying missions over dense jungle canopy, the pilots would fly so low their planes would come back with green stains on their bellies. That is really close air support. We are sure the grunts on the ground appreciated their efforts.

We have had folks tell us their aircraft came back with orange stains, apparent proof that their aircraft was contaminated by Agent Orange.

The tactical herbicides were colorless for the most part, and were mixed with oil to help the chemicals stick to the vegetation. We don’t know what caused the orange stains on their aircraft, but it wasn’t a tactical herbicide.

First, missions did not go where spraying was being done. There was no desire to draw attention to the spray missions and therefore draw fire from the ground. Enough ground fire occurred that several of the C-123’s were lost to enemy fire. Certainly, if a plane came under fire they would call for help from any available air assets nearby, and unless otherwise engaged, those air assets would respond, and would show up long after the spray aircraft beat a hasty retreat.

If a maintenance crewmember of an aircraft wants to tell us his aircraft came back to the Carrier with green stains on it, we have no problem with that. Orange stains are a different story. Perhaps the plane went too low over an orange grove. Perhaps any number of things happened. But coming back contaminated by tactical herbicides was not one of them. It might have been coolant, or hydraulic fluid, or any number of things -- but not Agent Orange.

In the Brown Water Navy, sometimes the small river vessels would spray directly from a barrel of herbicide on the deck of the patrol boat. There are photos of such on the Internet. But we are talking about Blue Water Navy here, not Brown Water Navy. Army personnel sprayed from helicopters, and from armored personnel carriers, and from trucks and jeeps. So did Naval personnel at the Naval Bases on both sides of the South China Sea. But such spraying was not conducted by fleet elements.

People send us photos of stacks of barrels on board Navy ships. The barrels are not the right color to contain tactical herbicides, nor are they marked correctly for that. Nevertheless, they insist the barrels contained Agent Orange. And they are wrong. We are sorry that we must be the bearer of bad tidings, but in our estimation, presenting a claim based on any of the above scenarios to the DVA would be ludicrous.

If someone has photographs, good quality photographs of barrels of tactical herbicides on board US Navy commissioned Blue Water vessels, send them to us using the “email me” link found near the top of the left column. We will gladly publish them here, and print a correction.

The best plan of action is to keep alive a general claim based on drinking water contamination via runoff as the Australians proved to happen. And join us [VASVW] in advocating for S.1629, the Senate version of the Agent Orange Equity Act, and its House version HR 3612. It is the best chance to gain benefits for Blue Water Sailors that exists today. Those two bills are far superior to the bill in the house, HR 812, which is the same bloated bill Bob Filner ran out two years ago, got plenty of support for, and then refused to take it out of the subcommittee where it was buried.

With bipartisan sponsors, both S.1629 and HR 3612 have a very good chance of passing and are far less expensive than the current House bill HR 812.

S.1629 and HR 3612 call for presumptive eligibility to be applied to crews on ships that were within the 12 mile limit to Vietnamese Territorial Waters. We believe that 90% or more of the ships in the Combat Zone approached the shore close enough to qualify at some point or another on their deployments.

So, join us at the Veterans Association of Sailors of the Vietnam War [VASVW] today and help us with our grassroots campaign to move the Senate Bill forward. Click the word “Join”.

VNVets

”It is a stain on this nation's honor that the Department of Veterans Affairs has become a deadlier and more difficult adversary to the American veteran than any they have ever faced on a battlefield."-- VNVets

"The concept that Agent Orange, and its effects, stopped dead in its tracks at the shoreline is simply too illogical, and too ludicrous to accept. What does that say about the Obama Administration and his Department of Veterans Affairs?"--VNVets

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." --President Abraham Lincoln

"It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious."--President George Washington

Copyright © 2005-2011: VNVets Blog -- Now in our Seventh Year of Service to Veterans; All Rights Reserved. Reprinting or copying of the contents of this blog without the express permission of the author is unlawful.

HR 3612 Introduced in House!

We are pleased to announce that HR 3612, a companion to S.1629, the Agent Orange Equity Act of 2011, Introduced by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, has been introduced in the US House of Representatives by Congressman Chris Gibson of New York. Like Senator Gillibrand's bill, HR 3612 was introduced with bipartisan cosponsors.

Folks, these two bills, along with the fact that the DVA has requested the National Archives and Records Administration to post on the internet the Deck Logs of US ships that were deployed to Vietnam during the war, lead us to the hope that the time has finally arrived for the restoration of presumptive exposure to the Blue Water Navy Veterans of the Vietnam War.

The bipartisan support for both bills is icing on the cake.

We have added a tracker for HR 3612 at the top right of the page.

We at VASVW have just concluded our grass roots campaign where every member got two personalized letters to each of their Senators, to sign and fax and then mail. We will be conducting our campaign in the House on behalf of HR 3612 in early January!

Join us at VASVW [ Register ]. Numbers do help. Congress knows us from last year and that helps.

Folks, this is the best shot yet at getting the benefits restored. Pray, cross your fingers and toes, and keep pushing your Congressional delegation to sign on, support and fund, and pass these bills!

VNVets

”It is a stain on this nation's honor that the Department of Veterans Affairs has become a deadlier and more difficult adversary to the American veteran than any they have ever faced on a battlefield."-- VNVets

"The concept that Agent Orange, and its effects, stopped dead in its tracks at the shoreline is simply too illogical, and too ludicrous to accept. What does that say about the Obama Administration and his Department of Veterans Affairs?"--VNVets

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." --President Abraham Lincoln

"It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious."--President George Washington

Copyright © 2005-2012: VNVets Blog -- Now in our Seventh Year of Service to Veterans; All Rights Reserved. Reprinting or copying of the contents of this blog without the express permission of the author is unlawful.

"Air Raid Pearl Harbor, This is no Drill!"

"Air Raid Pearl Harbor, this is no drill!"

The radio message flashed out in the clear from Pearl Harbor. 
 
Seventy years ago, Japanese aircraft slashed through the morning skies over Pearl Harbor Naval Station, Ford Island Naval Air Station, Hickam Field Army Air Corps Station, and Wheeler Field and the Schofield Barracks Army Station on the northwest side of Oahu.

Alerted by the thump of bombs falling from high above, and from the rattle of machine gun fire from low flying Japanese A6M-2 Zero-Sen Fighters on strafing runs, the ships of the United States Pacific Fleet were slow to react. Slowly, battle stations were manned, and ammunition broken out from magazines was finding its way to US Navy gunners. It was far too little and far too late. Japanese Val dive bombers and Kate torpedo planes began streaking in on their runs, delivering telling blows to the big ships.

In human lives, the attack on Pearl Harbor was horrific. 2,403 were dead, and 1,178 wounded.

188 planes were destroyed, the vast majority on the ground, as only a few Army Air Corps fighters managed to get airborne. A further 159 aircraft were significantly damaged, leaving only 43 planes operational at attack’s end.

It was the toll in ships that was staggering, however.

“Battleships
· Arizona blown up with a loss of 1,177 men.
· Oklahoma capsized with a small part of her hull above water.
· California “sank gradually for about three or four days: and came to rest rather solidly on a mud bottom, with her mainmasts and the upper parts of her main batteries above water. “The quarterdeck [was] under about twelve feet of water...”
· Nevada, which had got under way, beached in the narrow channel opposite Hospital Point in a wrecked condition.
· West Virginia sunk at her berth.
· Maryland moderately damaged but not needing to go into drydock.
· Tennessee, seriously damaged aft in the officers’ quarters from fire and otherwise moderately damaged.
· Pennsylvania, in drydock, with considerable damages, “but not of vital nature.”
· Utah, then used as a target ship, capsized, having been at the Saratoga’s regular berth.
Light Cruisers
· Raleigh, Helena, and Honolulu moderately damaged.
Destroyers
· Cassin and Downes, in Drydock No. 1, severely damaged.
· Shaw’s bow blown off while in floating drydock, severely damaged.
Others
· Vestal (repair ship) was along side the Arizona when the raid commenced and was beached at Aeia to prevent further sinkage.
· Curtiss (seaplane tender) was badly damaged by a crashing plane and one 500-lb. bomb.
· Oglala (minelayer) capsized.”*

For the Japanese, the cost was minimal.

“Twenty-nine planes did not return: fifteen dive bombers and high-level bombers, five torpedo planes, and nine fighter escorts. The midget submarines inflicted no damage, and none returned to their mother ships; four were sunk, and one was wrecked on a reef, its captain captured. One I-class submarine was also sunk.”*

[*Dull, Paul S., A Battle History of the Imperial Japanese Navy (1941-1945). United States Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 1978.]

In spite of the overwhelming destruction inflicted on the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, the Japanese were foiled by a number of things that did not go according to plan, or were missed by the planners. The attack called for strikes particularly on the US Aircraft Carriers, however, they were at sea at the time of the attack and were missed. Additionally, millions of barrels of oil were stored in large tank farms behind the US Submarine base at Pearl Harbor, and also between there and another tank farm near Hickam Field. The Japanese left them totally unscathed. They also failed to attack the submarine section of the sprawling naval base. With the exception of a number of Cruisers and Destroyers based elsewhere throughout the Pacific, the surface fighting arm of the Pacific Fleet was on the bottom at Pearl Harbor, but the Aircraft Carriers, their pilots and planes were intact, as were the submarines, and their facilities at Pearl Harbor. The remains of the Pacific Fleet would not suffer for the want of oil to patrol the waters of the Pacific either.

The Japanese sneak attack catapulted the isolationist American nation to a Declaration of War, made by Congress the following day, at the request of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in his stirring “Day of Infamy” speech.

The rest of the story…Arizona was the ship that suffered the most damage. Devastated when a bomb ripped through the main deck and exploded in the forward magazine. Arizona has come to symbolize the events of December 7th at Pearl Harbor. Some of her dead lie still entombed within her, the rest buried in the cemetery at the “Punch Bowl”. The USS Arizona remains in commission as a U.S. Navy ship.

The former battleship Utah was converted to an auxiliary vessel in 1931 and used as a radio controlled target ship. Later, she was converted back to a gunnery training ship. Moored on the opposite side of Ford Island from Battleship Row on December 7th the Utah was in the spot where the aircraft carrier Saratoga usually was to be found. Utah received the attention of dozens of Japanese planes; struck repeatedly by bombs and torpedoes, she rolled over and sank. Later the hulk was raised and moved closer to Ford Island where she remains today.

Horribly mangled by bombs and torpedoes, the Nevada, the only battleship to get under way, was intentionally beached to prevent her sinking. Repaired and returned to service by 1943, she took part in a raid on the Aleutian Islands and eventually made her way to the Atlantic where she provided shore bombardment at Normandy on D-Day in 1944.

Capsized, the Oklahoma was eventually partially raised but never repaired. A frantic rescue effort went on for days after the attack trying desperately to free men trapped inside the overturned hull.

Flagship of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Pennsylvania was in drydock at the time of the attack, sharing the drydock with the destroyers Cassin and Downes. Pennsylvania’s damage was minimal, thanks in no small part to the sturdiness of the drydock caissons. Japanese aircraft tried repeatedly to torpedo the Pennsylvania, but the drydock walls absorbed the hits. Not so lucky were the two destroyers in with the Pennsylvania, USS Cassin DD 372 and USS Downes DD 375. The Downes and Cassin were both salvaged with much equipment taken off their ruined hulls and installed on new hulls in the U.S. Re-launched, these “new” vessels went on to fight in many of the western Pacific Campaigns from 1943 on. The Pennsylvania was quickly repaired and returned to service. In 1944 she participated in the bombardment of Guam prior to the invasion there, and later saw action at the Battle of Surigao Straits.

The Tennessee was moored inboard of the USS West Virginia, and was thus protected from torpedo attack. She was scorched by the flaming oil from the Arizona, and received two bomb hits on her main gun turrets. After a period of repair and modernization in California, the Tennessee resumed duty, participating in all the major offensives of the Western Pacific from early 1943 on. Tennessee took part in the Battle of Surigao Straits and later had a hand in the sinking of the IJN super battleship Yamato.

Severely damaged by torpedoes and bombs, and sunk at her berth, California was a major salvage undertaking and was not completed until January of 1944. She took part in the major Pacific campaigns of 1944 and 1945, and fought in the surface action against Japanese Battleships at the Battle of Surigao Straits.

Perhaps the least damaged of all the battleships at Pearl Harbor, Maryland turned out to be the unluckiest. After a brief overhaul stateside in 1942, Maryland returned to combat status. While supporting Marine amphibious operations at Saipan in 1944 she was torpedoed by a Japanese plane. After another repair period, Maryland returned to the firing line at the Palaus Islands, and operated with the fleet during the Leyte invasion in October 1944. A month later she was struck in Leyte Gulf by a Japanese Kamikaze aircraft, requiring still another overhaul. She returned to the line just in time for the end of the war in the Pacific.

Next to the Arizona, the West Virginia took the worst beating at Pearl Harbor. Several bomb hits and at least seven torpedo hits all on one side. Excellent damage control kept her from rolling over, and thus allowed many of her crew to escape. She was re-floated and repaired, and back in action by July of 1944, in time to participate in the closing months of the war in the Pacific.

USS Helena CL 50. Helena was a brand new light cruiser. At Pearl Harbor she was struck in an engine room by a single torpedo, and was repaired to fight in the southwest Pacific campaigns of 1942 by July of that year.

USS Raleigh CL 7. Unlike the Helena, Raleigh was a much older vessel, built in 1924. Like the Helena, she was lightly damaged at Pearl Harbor, receiving one torpedo hit and a near miss by a bomb. She was repaired and back in the fight by summer of 1942.

USS Honolulu CL 48. Another relatively new cruiser, the Honolulu received only moderate damage to its hull and by mid January was repaired and escorting a convoy to San Francisco.

USS Shaw DD 373. The destroyer Shaw was in a floating drydock and received serious damage from a bomb. Her bow section was completely blown off. Repaired and restored for duty, Shaw went back in action in the summer of 1942.

USS Helm DD 388. The Helm, a relatively new destroyer, was slightly damaged by two near-miss bombs. She remained in service.

USS Curtiss AV 4. The Curtiss was brand new seaplane tender. A bomb hit her and a Japanese plane crashed into her upper works. She was repaired on the west coast of the United States and back at Pearl Harbor by February, 1942.

USS Vestal AR 4. The Vestal, a repair ship, was moored alongside the USS Arizona on December 7th. Struck by two bombs and further damaged by the explosion in the forward magazine of the Arizona, Vestal was moved to another part of the harbor where she was grounded to avoid sinking. Vestal was repaired and by August of 1942 she was busy repairing ships involved in the Guadalcanal campaign.

USS Oglala CM 4. Oglala was the fleet minelayer for the Pacific Fleet. An old ship, she was damaged during the attack by nearby torpedo and bomb explosions. She rolled onto her side and sank. Raised and repaired, she was returned to action as a repair ship for internal combustion engines in 1944.

Amazingly, of the twenty ships mentioned above, which indeed are the ones that received any damage of a nature greater than superficial, only Arizona, Utah, and Oklahoma were not raised, repaired and returned to wartime service. And Utah was little more than a hulk to begin with. Ultimately, one of the real stories about Pearl Harbor is this superb salvage effort to get the ships repaired well enough for a voyage to a West Coast shipyard, where they were repaired and in many cases overhauled and modernized, often returning to service in much finer condition than prior to the attack. The men and women who performed these tasks at Pearl Harbor are as big a set of heroes as any crew who sailed their ships against the Japanese in the Pacific.

All the ships served with distinction later in the war, and it was a fitting event at the Battle of Surigao Strait when Admiral Jesse Oldendorf led six U.S. Battleships, among them Pearl Harbor veterans California, West Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee and Pennsylvania in a classic “Crossing the T” maneuver, just as Togo had done at Tsushima Strait in 1905, and sank most of Vice Admiral Nishimura’s striking force of battleships and cruisers.

The salvage work done at Pearl Harbor in the aftermath of the December 7th attack was finely managed and heroically carried out. Icing to the cake was added barely six months after the Japanese attack when the Naval Shipyard located at Pearl completed what would normally have taken several months to repair: the battle damage to the USS Yorktown from the Battle of Coral Sea, in 48 hours, allowing her and her aircrews to participate in the first major naval victory against the Japanese at the Battle of Midway. Aircraft from the three US aircraft carriers, the Hornet, Enterprise, and Yorktown, the ones that were missed at Pearl, sank four of the Japanese aircraft carriers that participated in the December 7th attack on Pearl Harbor, the Hiryu, Soryu, Kaga and Akagi.



Oldendorf’s victory at Surigao Strait is a testament to that magnificent salvage effort as well.  

Remember Pearl Harbor…70 years ago December 7th.

VNVets

”It is a stain on this nation's honor that the Department of Veterans Affairs has become a deadlier and more difficult adversary to the American veteran than any they have ever faced on a battlefield."-- VNVets

"The concept that Agent Orange, and its effects, stopped dead in its tracks at the shoreline is simply too illogical, and too ludicrous to accept. What does that say about the Bush Administration and his Department of Veterans Affairs?"--VNVets

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." --President Abraham Lincoln

"It follows than as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious."--President George Washington

Copyright © 2005-2012: VNVets Blog; All Rights Reserved.

FRA: URGENT! Take Action on Amendments on Senate Defense Bill

John R. Davis of the Fleet Reserve Association sent out this alert:

Take Action on Amendments to Senate NDAA

Senate consideration of the Senate version of the FY 2012 Defense Authorization bill (S. 1867) has begun and consideration of floor amendments are scheduled to occur next week. Please use the Action Center to ask your Senators to oppose Senator John McCain’s (Ariz.) amendment that would eliminate the percentage cap on future TRICARE Prime increases to the percentage increase in a retiree’s annual COLA increase. The McCain amendment would allow future TRICARE Prime increases to be based on a DoD index that would measure health care inflation.

Also ask your Senators to support several key FRA-supported amendments that include:

Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid’s (NV) two amendments to expand concurrent receipt for disabled retirees;

Senator Bill Nelson’s (Fla.) amendment to stop the deduction of VA death benefits (DIC) from SBP survivor benefits;

Senator Frank Lautenberg’s (N.J.) amendment that codifies into law that military retirees have at least in-part earned their TRICARE coverage with twenty or more years of arduous military service;

Senator Mark Pryor’s (Ark.) amendment that would authorize “veteran’s status” for service members who served twenty or more years in the Reserve Component;

Senator Carl Levin’s (Mich.) amendment to allow early retirement to reduce inequities during the expected reduction in end strength; and

Barbara Boxer’s amendment that urges DoD to provide service members with flexible spending accounts to pay out-of-pocket health and dependent care expenses with pre-tax dollars.

Please use this Action Center to contact your Senators on these important amendments.

Many thanks to the ever vigilant and action oriented Fleet Reserve Association.

VNVets

”It is a stain on this nation's honor that the Department of Veterans Affairs has become a deadlier and more difficult adversary to the American veteran than any they have ever faced on a battlefield."-- VNVets

"The concept that Agent Orange, and its effects, stopped dead in its tracks at the shoreline is simply too illogical, and too ludicrous to accept. What does that say about the Obama Administration and his Department of Veterans Affairs?"--VNVets

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." --President Abraham Lincoln

"It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious."--President George Washington

Copyright © 2005-2012: VNVets Blog -- Now in our Seventh Year of Service to Veterans; All Rights Reserved. Reprinting or copying of the contents of this blog without the express permission of the author is unlawful.

Alert: Benefits threatened after Supercommittee fails

This is just in from the VFW:

M E M O R A N D U M

To: National Officers, National Council of Administration,
Department Commanders, Department Adjutants, Past Commander-in-Chiefs, National Legislative Committee, Action Corps, VFW Ladies Auxiliary and VFW Management Team

From: Bob Wallace, Executive Director VFW Washington Office

Date: November 22, 2011

Re: What does Super Committee’s Failure mean to VFW?

The congressional Super Committee has thrown in the towel and admitted they cannot reach a bipartisan agreement to cut a minimum of $1.2 trillion from the federal budget over the next decade. Under the law passed this summer, mandatory cuts will now take place across all federal departments and agencies beginning January 2013.

Where and how much, however, is still to be determined.

Each cabinet secretary will decide where the cuts will be made after the White House Office of Management and Budget identifies which, if any, programs are exempt. Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare have been mentioned as being exempt, as have veterans programs, but no one has yet identified which veterans programs.

The VFW believes that veterans’ healthcare programs and benefits will be exempt from any cuts. Questions remain, however, about increased co-payments for visits and prescriptions, as well as charging VA category 7 and 8 veterans an annual enrollment fee. We will continue to monitor and report any new developments as they occur.

Over at the Defense Department are recommendations to change the pay and benefits of those currently serving and military retirees. The threats include changing the military retirement system for future enlistees, limiting retiree healthcare program enrollment, and imposing or increasing healthcare fees on all TRICARE programs, regardless of age. These proposals are in addition to possible reductions in force and cuts to other quality of life programs. The budget crisis has also forced defense hawks to choose between supporting people programs and new weapon systems development. Sadly, some have forgotten that it still takes people to occupy territory and to operate their shiny new aircraft, ships and tanks.

Our nation hollowed out its force after Vietnam and again after the first Gulf War. If the past 10 years have proven anything, it is that the All Volunteer Force works, but it comes with a price and a promise to maintain the quality of life programs for those few who serve. Since 9/11, many of the less than 1 percent of the population who volunteered to serve their nation have been deployed into the fight numerous times. The service-connected disabilities thousands have already received will require a strong and viable military healthcare system to return them to duty, and a strong and viable VA healthcare system to meet their lifetime care needs.

Traumatic Brain Injury, Post-Traumatic Stress, amputations, and the risk of suicide are predominate issues of a military force at war. The preservation of military and veteran benefits, improved quality and accessible healthcare, and continued medical research into alternative treatments is how our nation can properly repay those who go into harm's way.

Over the next year, many in Congress as well as thousands of registered lobbyists will be working hard to protect their special interests and programs. We must all work hard to protect the Department of Veterans Affairs health, benefits and cemetery administrations, as well as all military quality of life programs for the troops, their families and military retirees.

I ask each of you to contact your respective members of the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate to demand that these programs be protected. State Commanders and members of the National Legislative Committee must arrange individual face-to-face meetings with every member of their Congressional Delegation to alert them to our concerns. These meetings should be in addition to your visits to your Congressional delegations during the March 2012 Legislative Conference. I also ask that you report the responses you receive back to the VFW Action Corps at vfwac@vfw.org.

These meetings will be in addition to a massive outreach campaign to the entire U.S. Congress that I ask National Legislative Committee members to spearhead in each state and department. We need Congress to be flooded with letters and phone calls to protect veterans' programs and military quality of life programs from any cuts. This is an obligation of every member of the VFW and their families to keep the faith with our comrades who need us to be their collective voice in Washington. Please refer to the VFW website for constant updates and the "10 for 10" issues we have raised, along with sample letters for your use.

The VFW needs you to make your voice heard now, because the most powerful message Congress can receive is from the folks who employ them — their voting constituents.

Thank you for your continued support of America’s heroes.

ROBERT E. WALLACE
Executive Director
VFW Washington Office

Contact your Senators and your Representative immediately and get on them to prevent Veterans and Social Security Benefits from being cut.

VNVets

”It is a stain on this nation's honor that the Department of Veterans Affairs has become a deadlier and more difficult adversary to the American veteran than any they have ever faced on a battlefield."-- VNVets

"The concept that Agent Orange, and its effects, stopped dead in its tracks at the shoreline is simply too illogical, and too ludicrous to accept. What does that say about the Obama Administration and his Department of Veterans Affairs?"--VNVets

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." --President Abraham Lincoln

"It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious."--President George Washington

Copyright © 2005-2012: VNVets Blog -- Now in our Seventh Year of Service to Veterans; All Rights Reserved. Reprinting or copying of the contents of this blog without the express permission of the author is unlawful.

Thanksgiving: Sarah Hale and Abraham Lincoln

In 1621 the settlers of the Plymouth Colony in what is now Massachusetts, gathered to celebrate a harvest of food they had no cause to even dream of when they landed. Thanks to the local Native Americans, the Wampanoag Tribe, who taught the colonists how to fish and gave them seeds to plant, the 102 colonists not only had sufficient food for the winter, they had enough to have a celebration of their bounty. [Claims for the first Thanksgiving rest in two other places, one a half-century earlier in 1565 at the Spanish Colony of St. Augustine, Florida, and the other in Virginia at the Jamestown Colony in 1607. The 1619 charter that founded the Charles City County village of Berkley Hundred included in its code an annual day of Thanksgiving.] Nevertheless, it remains Plymouth that we celebrate, in large part because of the symbolic rescue from death by starvation carried out by the generosity of the Wampanoag people.

Sarah Josepha Buell Hale spent 91 years on this earth, from 1788 to 1879. And during those 91 years she produced an incredible record into the history of this nation. And she goes pretty much unrecognized today. Sarah Buell was born, raised and married in Newport, New Hampshire. She married David Hale, a local attorney in 1813 and bore him five children. Sarah became a widow in 1822 and remained in mourning the rest of her life. Nothing out of the ordinary at this point for those times. But Sarah was different. Very intelligent -- much of her education was self attained -- and she wrote poetry. She published a collection of her poetry in 1823, followed soon after by a novel, Northwood: Life North and South. Northwood carried a message that slavery was not only bad for the slave it was bad for the masters, too, dehumanizing both.

In 1828 Sarah accepted a position in Boston as ‘editress’ of Reverend John Blake’s Ladies’ Magazine. In 1830 she published her second collection of poetry, Poems for Children, which included the now famous Mary’s Lamb, which we know as ”Mary Had A Little Lamb”. In 1837 she began editing the widely popular Godey’s Ladies Book, after Philadelphian Louis Godey bought the Ladies Magazine. There Sarah remained working for the next forty years.

Sarah was a thinker, and a powerful one. She went beyond many of the social thinkers of the day and did so with a quiet logic. In her capacity as editress of Godey’s, she was a major influence on women authors of the nineteenth century and on some men as well: Hawthorne, Holmes, Irving to name a few.

The year she retired, Thomas Edison spoke the first words to be recorded, on a device he invented. Those words were the first lines of Mary’s Lamb.]

Sarah is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia. For a span of forty years during her life, she wrote to Congress asking for a national Thanksgiving Holiday. Her prayers were answered, but not by Congress.

Abraham Lincoln is well known for many of his speeches and historic documents: his two Inaugural Addresses, his Cooper Union Speech, his Gettysburg Address, the Emancipation Proclamation, among others. Here is one he seldom gets much credit for making.

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

And so, Sarah Hale’s forty year effort to have Thanksgiving made into a national Holiday came to an end in 1863 at the hands of President Abraham Lincoln.

Times have been rough of late. The twenty-first century has offered little to further the cause of mankind. There is more conflict throughout the world than the world has seen for seventy years. Yet, every day, the sun rises and sets, crops grow and are harvested. We think too much and too often of what we do not have, and we forget what we do have. Thanksgiving is a reminder that we should do this, for “…They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

Happy Thanksgiving!

VNVets

”It is a stain on this nation's honor that the Department of Veterans Affairs has become a deadlier and more difficult adversary to the American veteran than any they have ever faced on a battlefield."-- VNVets

"The concept that Agent Orange, and its effects, stopped dead in its tracks at the shoreline is simply too illogical, and too ludicrous to accept. What does that say about the Obama Administration and his Department of Veterans Affairs?"--VNVets

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." --President Abraham Lincoln

"It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious."--President George Washington

Copyright © 2005-2012: VNVets Blog -- Now in our Seventh Year of Service to Veterans; All Rights Reserved. Reprinting or copying of the contents of this blog without the express permission of the author is unlawful.

Veterans Day

In 1918, on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, at the eleventh hour, a pre-arranged cease fire ended the hostilities between the Allies [The United Kingdom, France, The Russian Empire, the Japanese Empire, Italy, Belgium, Montenegro, Greece, Serbia, and the United States] and the Central Powers [the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, The Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria]. Thus ended "The Great War"..."The War to end all wars".

A year later, President Woodrow Wilson declared that date to be a holiday set aside for the solemn remembrance of the many dead from World War I. It was to be known as Armistice Day, to note the date that Germany signed the Armistice that ended the war.

Thanks to a small grass-roots movement centered in Emporia, Kansas in 1953, Congress passed a law establishing the date with a new name, Veterans Day, to honor all of America's Veterans from all eras. President Eisenhower signed it into law and it became law on June 1, 1954. With the exception of a few years in the 1970s, Veterans Day has been and always will be observed on November 11th, every year.

This year, as in so many other years, we are saddened by still another war ongoing, keeping our brave warriors far from their homes and hearths, in constant danger so that we may live in Freedom, Liberty, and Peace at home.

We ask that you pray for them, and for all Veterans, living and dead, who did their duty.

One of the more familiar pieces about Veterans was written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, a Canadian physician serving in France during the War, after witnessing the death of his friend, 22 year old Lieutenant Alexis Helmer. Written in 1915, and published four years later as a small collection of his poems, In Flanders Fields is one of the most poignant remembrances of the price of war, and is applicable to all wars.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.


We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.


Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Remember our Veterans today, Veterans Day 2011. If you see some, thank them for their service.


VNVets

”It is a stain on this nation's honor that the Department of Veterans Affairs has become a deadlier and more difficult adversary to the American veteran than any they have ever faced on a battlefield."-- VNVets

"The concept that Agent Orange, and its effects, stopped dead in its tracks at the shoreline is simply too illogical, and too ludicrous to accept. What does that say about the Obama Administration and his Department of Veterans Affairs?"--VNVets

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." --President Abraham Lincoln

"It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious."--President George Washington

Copyright © 2005-2011: VNVets Blog -- Now in our Seventh Year of Service to Veterans; All Rights Reserved. Reprinting or copying of the contents of this blog without the express permission of the author is unlawful.

Veterans Compensation COLA Signed!

Senator Patty Murray’s Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2011 [S.894] was signed into law yesterday by President Obama. Veterans receiving Compensation or Pension from the DVA will receive a 3.6% increase starting in January [benefits paid on December 30 for January 2012].

This is in line with the COLA passed earlier for Social Security Retirement and Social Security Disability Insurance.

Many thanks to one of the best friends the American Veteran has in Congress, Senator Patty Murray from Washington State.

VNVets

”It is a stain on this nation's honor that the Department of Veterans Affairs has become a deadlier and more difficult adversary to the American veteran than any they have ever faced on a battlefield."-- VNVets

"The concept that Agent Orange, and its effects, stopped dead in its tracks at the shoreline is simply too illogical, and too ludicrous to accept. What does that say about the Obama Administration and his Department of Veterans Affairs?"--VNVets

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations." --President Abraham Lincoln

"It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious."--President George Washington

Copyright © 2005-2011: VNVets Blog -- Now in our Seventh Year of Service to Veterans; All Rights Reserved. Reprinting or copying of the contents of this blog without the express permission of the author is unlawful.