The FReeper Foxhole - One Vietnam Vets Battle with the VA

So I went for a interview with a V.A. Ph.D. at 11000 Wilshire, in West Los Angeles, California. This idiot advised me to work in construction for a while, as he had. I pointed out that I had a serious heart problem. Then he could not come up with another idea. I said I would like to be trained to be a Disabled American Veterans Service Office. He said "Absolutely Not!" I was taken aback somewhat by his abruptness and asked what was wrong with that? His statement was basically that they just trick the government into wasting money. I asked for more information. He then said that they help the blacks get 100% disability, and then the blacks go out and marry some woman with 10 children, and the V.A. has to pay for them. And then the V.A. pays the wife for helping the Veteran around the house. Then he blew up and said that some of them get paid more then he does. He also said "Well the U.S. can not afford to pay for all of the damages done to the Veteran's".

This absolute ASSHOLE. There is some poor Veteran that had bite the bullet hard, needs help, and wants a family. Was lying there unable to do much anymore. I know that this ASSHOLE was not going to make housecalls, when that Veteran felt like killing himself. If the U.S. can not afford to pay the disabled Veterans for their injuries, how can the Disabled Veteran afford to not be paid. And the best advise that this absolute Jerk could give a heart patient was "Work in construction!" What a idiot! Those Veterans whether they are black, white , brown or green deserved 10 times what he was paid. And they did not have a choice if the military would screw them up or not. They had to live with the cards that the military and the V.A. dealt them 24 hours a day. Come rain or shine they were still disabled, they will never get a vacation from it. And he complains that they are given too much. The U.S. can not afford to pay idiots like him to spread their Bull-shit. I know that HELL waits with a especially hot corner for S.O.B.s like Dr. M. To be truthful I hope that he lives a very long and lonely life, because I want to damn him from my death bed. Also I hope the last 50 years of his life is spent in some V.A. hell hole that is hidden away, being cared for by people with a similar additude to what he showed. But if he should die before me, and I ever find out where he is buried, "What I leave on his grave will not be mistaken for roses!" Just maybe he had a very bad day or week, but many of us have had a fairly bad life since we returned.

In 1974 I had my first open heart surgery, in which my Aortic valve was replaced with metal one. The V.A. did not give the Social Security my medical papers for 8 months so it took the Social Security 9 months to get me money. It took the V.A. 1 year to find that I was 100% disabled for 4 months, and 60% for the rest of the year. This started when I entered the hospital for open heart surgery. I had entered it 1 month earlier in heart failure (could not breath, and was swelled up like a pig), was hospitalized for 2 weeks and sent home to wait for surgery. But the ^&%#^ at the V.A. "Could find no evidence that I was disabled during this time." After that year the V.A. could find "NO evidence of continued disability, more than 30%". And 30% is the lowest that the V.A. could find me to be after having had my heart valve replaced.

By the way when in the hospital in heart failure, my classmates graduated from Cal State L.A. I should have but was too tired to complete my classes. And some would not be given for another year.

In 1975 I graduated with a B.S. in Medical Technology. I had started to work on a Masters Degree in Criminalistics (Police Scientist - Chemist). In 1976 I had tried to become a Criminalist with L.A.P.D. After my Disabled Veteran's points were given I was #1. But I failed the physical examination (a friend who was high up in one of the L.A. City Personnel Departments, told me that they DO NOT hire people with heart problems or back problems). The County of L.A. would hire me temporary, but I was not healthy enough to do the work permanently. In April, 1978 close to completion of my Masters I started work in a Sheriff's Crime Lab. To be hired I had to sign a waiver stating that I would not be eligible to retire due to heart condition. In the spring of 1982, I caught strep throat again, and that gave me endocarditis again. It took out my aortic valve again. So I was hospitalized again. This time for about 2 months. As I was finally beginning to leave the hospital one of the Doctors told me that he did not know the exact odds for me, but in general the odds of surviving endocarditis, when one already has a artificial valve is 30%. NOT TOO GOOD, but I made it.

In the summer of 1982 I went into heart failure again, and needed to have my aortic valve replaced again. This time it only took the V.A. about 3 months to find me 100% disabled for 1 year. This is because the rules changed. And then those worthless bastards "Could find no evidence of my continued disability above 30%". As a added benefit from the surgery, 30 days after it on the day that I was released from the hospital I spiked a 102+ degree fever. So I went back in for another 30 days. Later it was thought that I had caught mono-nucleosis from the blood transfusion (considering that this was 1982 in Los Angeles I was lucky that I did not cache AIDS.

After that I never really felt right. But it would take almost 10 more years for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome to become a in thing. And longer for the average Doctor to recognize it. So after returning from work I would eat diner and go to sleep around 7:30 in the evening, and wake up around 7:30 in the morning. Every other Wednesday when I had built up sick leave or vacation time I would stay home and rest. Every Saturday I would rest. But then Sunday was mine, and Monday back to work.

In 1987 I was tired of the politics at work, and quit. It took 1 ½ years for me to calm down enough to do a fairly good job interview. It was with Orange County, California. They wanted me and I wanted them, but then the physical, and they found me physically unfit to be a chemist. So then it was more arguing with the V.A. they kept coming to the conclusion that I could work. But they would have to be total idiots to not know that nobody is going to willingly hire someone after 2 open heart surgeries. And to top that I had been having very serious arryhmias for several years. By 1990 I was having frequent tachycardia = everyday and it sometimes lasted for minutes, and one time 3 hours. That 3 hour time I had to go into a emergency room to have my heart jump (cardio version) started out of it. Also while being tested by EMS, I have had to be jump started 2 more times.

This brings up more assinine stupidity. On Saturday November 12th. 1988 I noticed a series of tachycardia at about 4 in the afternoon. Then about 6 P.M. I noted a long string of ventricular tachycardia (they went on for 3 hours). I started to sweat and felt very tired and uncomfortable. At about 7:30 P.M. I was admitted into the Emergency Room at Goleta Valley Hospital. At that time my heart rate stayed between 180 and 185 beats per minute. The staff was gravely concerned over my condition since they knew that my heart could only keep it up so long and then would stop completely. My condition did not respond to the normal drug treatment. At that time a Cardiologist was called in and he performed cardioversion (electrically shocking the heart).

On Monday November 14th. 1988 I went to the VA Outpatient Clinic in Santa Barbara, and told My Doctor what happened. He sent me for admission at the VA Hospital in West Los Angeles. I was monitored on radiotelemetry until Friday November 18th. 1988. I had been put on Procainamide again although I mentioned that I had serious side effects from it before. The reason being that Procainamide worked and it was only to be for a very short time until I could receive further testing. I was then sent home for the holidays.

I soon became tired as well as sore. I was having a reaction to Procainamide but I continued to take it, since I had been told that it would only be a short time before I would be called back for testing. On Monday December 5th. 1988 I again went to the VA Outpatient Clinic in Santa Barbara. The Cardiology Department at the VA Hospital in West Los Angeles was contacted and I was told that there was a opening the next week. I was also told that if I could not stay on the Procainamide I would have to be hospitalized and put back on a heart monitor. On Wednesday December 7th. 1988 I could stand the pain no longer. At that time I was taking in excess of 5,000 milligrams of Ibuprofen (Motrin) per day and I still could not move without extreme pain. When I awoke in the morning I had to work my fingers until they moved, and for the most part I did not get out of bed. I only worked 2 hours in all of December due to this problem.

After discontinuing the Procainamide it took until Friday December 9th. until the pain was reduced enough (by again taking too much Motrin) so I could go back to the VA Outpatient Clinic. At that time my Doctor sent me back down to the VA Hospital in West Los Angeles. I went directly to the Cardiology Ward since I felt they would best know what was happening (I was there about 6:30 P.M. on December the 9th). Unfortunately there were no heart monitor beds available at the VA Hospital in West Los Angeles. This put me in another bad situation. As I mentioned earlier, I am relatively happy with most of my medical treatment by the V.A. One major exception was Long Beach Veterans Hospital.

I was sent by ambulance to the VA Hospital in Long Beach, where I arrived about 12:30 A.M. on Saturday December 10th. While waiting for admission in the emergency room, the nurse gave me some papers to sign. I had some time so I read them, and signed all except one. I pointed out to the nurse that it said that I was never in Viet Nam and the condition for admission was not service connected. I told her that I could not sign that because my condition was directly related to what happened to me in Viet Nam. About 5 minutes later a clerk (?) came up to me and told me that I would have to sign the remaining paper. I told him that it was wrong, so I could not. He said I had to. I said that I would only sign it if I could cross out the parts saying I had never been in Viet Nam, and this was not service connected. He said I could not. I asked him what the paper was for, and he said "Do not worry about it since he would straighten it all out anyway". I again refused to sign this paper. At the time I was lying in a hospital gurney, attached to a heart monitor, but push was coming to shove, and I was getting ready to come unglued. The nurse had gone to a very far corner of the room, and pretended not to see, but she kept glancing over. This clerk was also upset because I would not do what he said. He was so mad that he was shaking, and I was about the same. Finally this little twirp, marked the form that I was unable to sign. His last gouge was replacing my V.A. card that said I was a service connected Veteran, with one that said I was not. I am sorry that I did not file charges on that bastard, which I really shoud have done for the Veterans that met him after me.

I was immediately placed in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit, and on a heart monitor. It was found that I had developed Pneumonia due to the immobility and water retention cause by the Procainamide. I was again tested by insertion of electrical probes into my heart to induce arrhythmia. A therapy of another anti-arrhythmic was tried. Due to problems treating the Pneumonia, and regulating the level of my blood thinners (required by the type of heart valve that had been inserted), I was still being hospitalized and on a heart monitor through Christmas 1988. Later the Long Beach V.A. Hospital was forbidden to do this proceedure. It turns out that they where suspose to have a surgery team in the Hospital while it was done in case of problems. But they did not. They felt that there would be one in a hospital down the street if needed.

Long Beach V.A. Hospital had some major problems. Everything that they did somebody would drop the ball. Nothing was done very well. For instance the day after admission I started to complain about chest pains. My Doctor said do not worry. On Wednesday I spiked a temperature. And then the Doctor figured out that I might be in trouble. So on Thursday they had a set of chest x-rays done. Friday they could not find these x-rays. So they had more done. These were not read until the following Monday. And these proved that I had pneumonia. By that time they had found the Thursday x-rays and they showed the same. Another thing that they would do is when they had me on radio-telemetry, they would send me by myself around the hospital. What kind of joke was this treatment? Radio-telemetry is so if I went into V-tach again they could see it early and rush to save me. Hell they would not even have a idea what floor I was on until somebody saw me go down.

One of the final straws was that the Cardiology ward was fairly empty. But they put all of the patients in 5 man rooms, because we would be easier to watch. Well in hospitals more than 2 persons to a room, really makes it hard to sleep. The nurses are always doing something to someone. 5 man rooms makes sleep damn near impossible. So I would have to go out in the hall and sleep in a chair. So I requested transfer back to the VA Hospital in West Los Angeles. I was transferred to West Los Angeles on December 28th. 1988. There it was felt that I required further testing and diagnosis. I was taken off the anti-arrhythmic that the Cardiologists at Long Beach had prescribed since it has some harsh long term side effects. I was placed on other medicinel to lower my blood pressure and help regulate my heart beat. Late on Tuesday January 10th. 1989 I was taken off the heart monitor for the first sustained time in almost 5 weeks. On January 11th. 1989 I was released from the hospital AFTER A 34 DAY STAY.

Near the end of 1994, the V.A. decided to re-evaluate me. Why? Who knows, probably simply because they are breaucrats.. Anybody that has any idea of what happened to me knows that I will never get better, only worst. So they had me go in for 2 medical examinations. In April I received a letter from the V.A. the 1st page read;

"Dear Mr. K,

We have denied your claim for an increased evaluation on the bais (sp) of individual unemployability."

"You have the right to appeal this decision."

On the 3rd page there was a more information. Half way down the page was;

"DECISION

Continued entitlement of unemployability is established."

Now that is what I knew would have to happen, sooner or later, so I was not worried. But this letter came to my sisters house, she called me, and I had her open and read it. She only got to the 1st page. Needless to say she was outraged. I thought that I was just going to have to teach these bastards a lesson. So I went over to her house, and read the letter myself, and figured out the trick. 10 years earlier I would not have been knowledgable enough to do that. When I think of all of the Disabled Veterans every year that go through the same sadistic treatment, well I am not surprised by things like the Okahoma City Federal Building bombing. The only thing that surprised me was that there was not a larger V.A. office there. I can not help but think that in every V.A. office there should be a sign that says "Treat every Veteran's Case as you would want yours to be treated. Remember the life you save maybe your own." After I had to go to the emergency room off the street to have my heart re-started in November of 1988, I realized that nobody would ever hire me again. So I started to fight the V.A. in earnest. And I figured out some of their games. I will here list some of them:

1. DO NOT expect the V.A. to handle your claim well. They apparently have the attitude that if they screw it up on the 1st submission then another V.A. employee will get credit for the next contact. This is saying that if they do it right the 1st time, it is over. But if they do it wrong they get paid just as much to do it again. Bureaucracy is alive and well at the V.A.

2. If / When the V.A. says that they can find NO evidence of your claim or your continued disability, DO NOT believe them. They lie! What they really mean is that they choose not to look at the evidence that you have. They will only look at a letter from a Doctor, a hospital discharge, or their physical evaluation. I can not help but think that the testing of the V.A. service officers for this position, must be something like not being able to find their own butt with both hands, if that suits their supervisors.

Let's face it the only way that you are going to get a letter is to pay a outside Doctor. The V.A. Doctors do not want to rock the boat, and jeopardize their jobs.
The hospital discharge; be serious. No Doctor is going to be discharging you and stating that they can do nothing for you, you are probably going to die, or become worst. When they discharge you they say that they cured you, and you are expected to do fine. They want the World to think them Gods, and to avoid the lawsuits as well.
The V.A. physical evaluation. If you are disabled, and got to this point you have a chance. But the V.A. Doctors do not know just what to say to help you, or hurt you. They are not told the 'Magic Words' that will turn the ratings boards opinion.

3. DO buy a copy of the Bureau of Veteran's Affairs part of Federal Register. All of the laws and rules that the Federal Government is suppose to be ran by are someplace in the Federal Register. The V.A. books have a listing of disabilities, and their percentages. This is what the V.A. Rating Board must follow. And if they do not you can nail them. So buy a copy, read it, and honestly evaluate your condition. If you do that do not settle for less than what the Federal Register says your condition is worth.

4. DO go to the Disabled American Veterans and Only Them . They are the only ones that really know what the hell is happening with the Disabled Veterans. Also your case will go back 1 year from the time you filed. If you drop in at one of the other Veteran Groups because you have some friends there, or somebody said they were better. And If they file a new claim, You will lose time from the previous filing. This happened to me several times. The other Veterans groups were nice and trying to be helpful, but I was the one who lost several years of disability pay.

Just as a bit of an afternote in the fall of the year 2000 I was informed that I had caught hepatitis C from the blood transfusion I received during my 1982 open heart surgery. I had complained to the VA doctors about chronic fatigue in the late 1980s and was told that I was just getting old.

'To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and orphan.'

--Abraham Lincoln -
The VA motto since 1959 and inscribed on a pair of metal plaques flanking the entrance to the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the Department of Veterans Affairs

"This is from me to those that have not written yet, please write, use it,
tell about your family, your hobbies, how the weather is, what are you planning for the holidays.
Tell a funny thing that happened, send a joke anything. Tell about your pets and kids.
We miss home and it means a lot to hear from everyone."

From a US Marine's e-mail

Online Petition to Reform the Veterans Administration System!
We ask that The Congress enact legislation to restore the Rights and Dignity to those
who served and to protect those rights from the constant erosion that has taken place.

Thanks for the link, Tonk.

Aging veterans tell their war stories for posterity

ROCKVILLE, Md. — Under the gentle prodding of an adult son, Bill Pendergast's wartime memories spilled out like faded snapshots a half-century old.

"For the record, this is an interview of William Pendergast," his son Patrick, 36, said at the start, an audiotape spinning on the table. "First, Dad, can you give me your branch of service and where you served?"

Settled into a dining room chair, comforted by the eagerness of his listener, Pendergast, 71, began sharing Korean War recollections: the ice-cold Coca-Cola someone handed him when the Army first lobbied him to join its Counterintelligence Corps; the battle-scarred South Korea cityscape with not "two panes of glass still in one piece" in the city of Seoul; and the prisoners he was required to interrogate.

"Most of the interrogations were of young Chinese or North Korean men just as scared as I was," Pendergast said. Hostilities ended the year he was there,

1953. His recorded words have been shipped to the Library of Congress, making the Pendergasts participants in one of the broadest national efforts to preserve eyewitness accounts of Americans serving in war. It seeks the stories of those who served in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf.

And unlike many academic efforts, in which historians or trained researchers conduct the interviews, the Library of Congress enlists sons, daughters, friends and students to do the work.

The material being assembled, preserved and catalogued will serve scholars and writers, visitors to the library and the institution's Web site. And the material will serve as a reservoir for future library exhibits.

The Library of Congress project is one of many efforts underway across the country to capture and save first-hand accounts from war veterans — whether diaries, memoirs or recorded interviews — before the material is lost or the veterans pass away.

"People don't think about history until it's about to be gone," says Sarah Rouse, a senior program officer with the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.

And time is running out. Jim Parkel, president of the 35 million-member AARP, says that although an estimated 19 million men and women who are veterans of American wars are alive today, they are dying at the rate of 1,600 a day. With their passing, he says, "you are losing a history that is very important."

No one shed greater light on the treasure within these histories — the stories of how ordinary people did extraordinary things — than did the late Stephen Ambrose.

The author began interviewing World War II veterans decades ago, using them as the basis of his best-selling war history books and most recently fodder for an acclaimed HBO miniseries, Band of Brothers.

In 1983, he founded the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans, which has about 2,800 oral histories, including the largest collection from veterans of D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge.

Like the growing number of oral histories held by the Library of Congress, the Eisenhower Center accounts are popular with academicians and accessible to the public. They help the center serve as the research arm for the National D-Day Museum next door.

"It's the best way to relive what really happened," says historian Doug Brinkley, the current Eisenhower Center director. "(Ambrose's) concept was: Wouldn't it have been great ... to have tape-recorded and heard the voices of the veterans of Shiloh and Gettysburg and Antietam?"

People interested in reviewing oral history transcripts or audio tapes at the Eisenhower Center can do so by appointment. At the Library of Congress, researchers can visit the American Folklife Center Reading Room in the Thomas Jefferson Building in Washington, D.C., where audio and video tapes are accessible.

The preservation of first-person American wartime accounts is nothing new. According to U.S. Senate historian Donald Ritchie, author of Doing Oral History, the Army sent interviewers into battlefield areas during World War II to record after-action reports from soldiers on wire recorders. As far back as the 1890s, the federal government dispatched researchers to capture the songs of Native Americans on wax cylinders.

But now there is an even greater determination to capture historical accounts that might otherwise be lost. Other programs, old and new, focus on military experiences and include oral histories collected by the following institutions:

The Marine Corps Historical Center in Washington, D.C., began assembling its roughly 12,000 oral histories in 1965, stressing gathering of contemporaneous accounts while Marines were still deployed in battle zones. Already, about 400 Marines who have served in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom have told their stories.

The U.S. Army Military History Institute in Carlisle, Pa., has gathered about 1,500 interviews since the program began in 1971, focusing primarily on the leadership technique of key officers. The program also has addressed specific topics such as the history of blacks in the armed forces. In addition to collecting oral histories, the institute has distributed 30,000 questionnaires to veterans going back to the Spanish-American War.

The U.S. Latinos and Latinas World War II Oral History Project at the University of Texas-Austin has gathered about 400 oral histories focusing exclusively on World War II experiences.

The Oral History Program at Women in Military Service for America Memorial Foundation in Arlington, Va., has gathered first-hand accounts from 265 women serving in the American military and with the American Red Cross. It also has an extensive questionnaire project.

Khe Sanh vets sought

The Eisenhower Center is extending its reach to the next generation of aging veterans. It is collecting oral histories from those who served in Vietnam, including 125 former combatants who saw action during the 77-day siege of Khe Sanh in 1968. A program also is underway to interview former prisoners of war.

The Library of Congress program, barely two years old, may be the most ambitious effort both in scope — covering every major American war of the 20th century — and in method, appealing to the public for broad participation. It also carries the imprimatur of a government project within the nation's largest and most prestigious library.

Partially financed by a $3 million AARP grant and supported and promoted by chapters in that organization and service groups like Veterans of Foreign Wars, the program focuses on gathering oral histories as well as photographs, letters and war diaries.

A Web site (www.loc.gov/folklife/vets/) offers start-up kits with sample questions and guidelines: "Find a quiet, well-lit room to use for the interview. Avoid rooms with fluorescent lights, chiming clocks, or heating and cooling systems that are noisy. ... Try to keep your questions short. Avoid complicated, multipart questions."

And officials at the Library of Congress say there is no limit on how many oral histories they can accept.

The hope is not just to preserve history but to promote a kind of national education experience and cross-generational discussion, says Ellen McCulloch-Lovell, director of the project.

"There is something wonderfully compelling about asking the questions and hearing the person say in his or her own words, how did they come to serve, where and what did it mean to them, what were some of the experiences that shaped their lives," says McCulloch-Lovell, who has done a dozen interviews herself.

"Anybody who does this is not going to forget that."

So far, the project has amassed audio and video interviews, written accounts and other memorabilia from nearly 3,500 people and has had tens of thousands request the interview kit. The result has been a kind of communal effort to piece together these personal wartime experiences.

At WBKC-AM, the radio station in Painesville, Ohio, program producer Tom Swope has become so immersed in obtaining oral histories from veterans that he created Legacies, a radio program broadcast every Sunday at 10 a.m.

"I let the guys tell their stories as much as possible and play a couple of songs from the World War II era," Swope says. He has sent about 75 oral histories to the Library of Congress over the past year and a half.

Teachers have adopted the program as a way of exposing students to eyewitness accounts of dramatic events. At Shaker High School in Latham, N.Y., Tom Venezio, occupational education director, has tapped students to be interviewers and tape transcribers, and they have prepared and sent 57 oral histories.

'Getting on in years'

"There is a sense of urgency," Venezio says. "These guys are now getting on in years. And I think each of us can think about either family members, friends or (other) relatives we've known who have seen combat in World War II and are gone now. And those stories are lost forever."

In the Pendergast home here, the opportunity to have a father tell his war story from beginning to end — and have his narrative voice preserved — achieved something that had been put off for too long.

"I was always kind of curious about what the details were," Patrick Pendergast says.

The same is true with other families.

"It's one thing to hear these stories (over time)," says Cory Neil, 22, a senior at Auburn University in Alabama who interviewed his father, Richard, about his experiences as an Army helicopter pilot in Vietnam. "And such another thing to sit there and watch him as he tells the stories and hear the emotion in his voice.

"It was a good experience for the both of us."

Jerome Duff, 76, a retired lawyer from St. Louis and a former Marine who fought on the islands of Saipan and Okinawa in World War II and also served in occupied Japan, was reticent for years about sharing his experiences with his two children.

"They knew that their dad just didn't want to talk about it, and they were curious," he says.

That changed last summer, when his daughter, Christine Duff Muldoon, 51, of Phoenix used the Library of Congress interviewing kit to persuade him to tell his story.

He found it cathartic. She found it mesmerizing.

"I don't think anybody ever sees their dad in situations where they have to make decisions about life and death," she says. "But here he was telling me about how his best friend was killed beside him, how he actually had to kill people in battle and how he was among the first Marines in Nagasaki after the (atomic) bombing of the city.

"It was an unbelievable experience."

Contributing: Mary Cadden

-- Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY

Drop on in to the FReeper Foxhole!

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It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Be sure and
Click the Pics
J

Click Here for Christmas Graphics J

Good morning Fiddlestix. Thanks for our daily Christmas cheer.

Click the logo for more information.

The Veterans History Project is a unique opportunity for Americans of all ages and backgrounds to play an important role in the preservation of our national collective memory and to learn important lessons from the rich historical resource we have in our military veterans and civilians who served in support of the war effort.

Support Our Troops This Christmas
With the holidays approaching, thousands of Americans are again asking what they can do to show their support for servicemembers, especially those serving overseas in this time of war. Several organizations are sponsoring programs for members of the Armed Forces overseas. Click the holly below to find different ways you can express your support to US troops this Christmas season.

Good Morning to you
You're welcome J

Welcome Home to all Vietnam Veterans

<==== Click
"Welcome Home"

Bump for the Foxhole

Each Christmas, I remember the Jingle Bells version from Vietnam.

Jingle bells, mortar shells, VC in the grass
Take your Merry Christmas and shove it up your XXX

Nothing irreverent was intended, but our troops really earn extra thanks and respect during the holidays, away from their families and loved ones.

I just checked out your Christmas graphics thread you linked to in your post. It's fantastic! Thanks so much for your daily delivery of holiday cheer to the FReeper Foxhole.

Good morning faithful bumping buddy!

I haven't read this veteran's whole story, but so far -- WOW! I thought I'd had trouble with the VA. Thank God he got assistance from the DAV. Going for coffee, then to finish the story.

Thanks Sam for all your great work for the Foxhole!

Good morning. Thanks for dropping in to the Foxhole. Coffee's ready and it's extra GI strong today!