Posts Tagged ‘vietnam veteran’

A Tribute to the Kokoda Spirit in a Vietnam Veteran

Forty days before he woke from a landmine that blew his right leg into the Niu Dat minefield, blasted his right arm off, shattered his left arm, ripped his stomach to shreds, and peppered his body with shrapnel, Sapper John ‘Jethro’ Thompson mumbled to me: ‘I’m not getting out of the army mate – they’re gunna have to build a special dozer I can drive’. ‘No worries Jethro’, I said ‘they’ll do that!’

He was a handsome 21 year old regular soldier who had already seen active service in Borneo during confrontation. I was a 21 year old raw nasho. We were on exercise in North Queensland in late ’66 when the call came for volunteers to go to Vietnam. Within 24 hours we were on our way to the jungle warfare school at Canungra and a month later we touched down in Saigon on the 4th January 1967 – a day before my first wedding anniversary!

Jethro was assigned to the minefield at Nui Dat. I was operating bulldozers constructing our logistic base at Vung Tau. The helipad near the US Army field hospital was one of our early tasks.

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Research Shows Veterans Overcoming PTSD

Researchers have published findings indicating that PTSD may be successfully treated in veterans in just six therapy sessions, without drugs, opening the possibility of help for the estimated 300,000 troops returning from Iraq or Afghanistan with traumatic stress disorders.

According to a pilot study published in the latest issue of the peer-reviewed International Journal of Healing and Caring, veterans with high levels of PTSD saw their PTSD levels drop to within normal limits after treatment. They reported that combat memories that had previously haunted them, including graphic details of deaths, mutilations, and firefights, dropped in intensity to the point where they no longer resulted in flashbacks, nightmares, and other symptoms of PTSD. The study involved veterans from Vietnam, as well as more recent conflicts.

One Vietnam veteran in the study had been obsessed by the details of his best friend’s killing for 40 years. When the two of them went on patrol, his friend always walked to his left. On the day of his death, his friend was on his right, and the veteran believed for decades that “my buddy took the sniper’s bullet that was meant for me.” After treatment, his guilt evaporated, and he realized that “my buddy would willingly have died for me.”

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Vietnam Veteran’s America

See our heroes of today, homeless, hungry, in pain, and suffering. Thousands of Veterans are there, their hopes snuffed out by a Veterans Administration that is bogged down, understaffed, untrained, and has a poor attitude towards the job they attempt to perform. This is the Vietnam Veteran’s America, the country they fought for, bled for, and often died for. After Vietnam, veterans are suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress, Agent Orange afflictions, diseases, and have families that do not have enough money to bury them, and then there’s the Veteran’s Administration that does not care.

Believe this is not happening? Believe that this country has not turned it’s back of our Veterans? Then think again. Story after story, day after day, month after month, year after year Veteran’s wait in line, their hopes diminished, the Veteran’s Administration denies their claims, hoping they give up, or die.

Within most large cities is a Veteran’s Administration Regional Office, such as the Regional Office in Phoenix, Arizona. Hundreds of claims are processed there; very few are approved at the initial level. The reason? The Veteran will give up, will not wish to keep up the years of fighting it takes to get their claim approved, or they die before it happens. When a claim is submitted, there is already a problem with the Veteran. He is suffering from Agent Orange Exposure, Post-Traumatic Stress, or even worse. In other words he is dying, fast or slow, but dying. Yet it can take up to eight years for a claim to be approved, eight years. Does anyone actually believe it takes eight years to approve a claim? Generally, it takes over a year just to get to the first level. Then, it takes another year or so to appeal. Finally, the Veteran has to go to court which takes another year or so, sometimes much more. All this time the Veteran has to collect information on his own even though it’s the law the Veterans Administration must help, they rarely do. Further, the Veteran has to pay for medical expenses, over and over, for the Regional Office keeps sending letters, wanting more information, over and over it happens, each and every month.

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