The FReeper Foxhole Profiles The VVA (Vietnam Veterans of America) - Feb. 8th, 2003

http://www.vva.org/ ^

[SAMWolf]

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VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA

WHO ARE THE VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA?

Founded in 1978, Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc. is the only national Vietnam veterans organization congressionally chartered and exclusively dedicated to Vietnam-era veterans and their families. VVA is organized as a not-for-profit corporation and is tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(19)of the Internal Revenue Service Code.



VVA'S FOUNDING PRINCIPLE

"Never again shall one generation of veterans abandon another."

GOALS

VVA's goals are to promote and support the full range of issues important to Vietnam veterans, to create a new identity for this generation of veterans, and to change public perception of Vietnam veterans.

OUR FIRST PRINCIPLE

VVA holds as its first principle that the organization is measured by deeds and openness as evidence of the core values of justice, integrity, and meaningful achievement.

ORGANIZATION

• Over 50,000 individual members.
• 43 state councils.
• 525 local chapters.
• national board of directors

SPECIAL PROGRAMS

• Government Relations Advocacy on the range of veterans issues.
• National Task Force for Homeless Veterans.
• Health care for veterans, including disabled veterans.
• Issues pertaining to women and minority veterans.
• National scholarship fund.
• Program providing assistance to veterans seeking benefits/services from the government.

FUNDING

Vietnam Veterans of America relies totally on private contributions for its revenue. VVA does not receive any funding from federal, state, or local governments.



ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Vietnam Veterans of America, the nation's largest and most successful Vietnam veterans organization, and the only Vietnam veterans organization chartered by Congress, is proud of what it has accomplished over the last twenty years. Those accomplishments are many and varied.
They include:

• Rebuilding the camaraderie of Vietnam-era veterans and providing a sense of self-worth and pride in service.
• Holding biennial National Leadership Conferences and National Conventions, which provide a forum for veterans and their families to interact with community leaders and their counterparts from across the country.
• Creating and maintaining our Vietnam Veterans Assistance Fund (VVAF), a philanthropic effort that provides financial assistance to VVA, its state councils, and its chapters.
• Taking the lead in working with homeless veterans, including sponsorships of national and local symposiums and stand-downs. Among many other milestones in this area, VVA worked with congressman Lane Evans to hold the first-ever hearing on homeless veterans in the House of Veterans Affairs committee in September of 1986.
• Developing a unique program as a national advocate for Vietnam veterans who were subsequently incarcerated, helping them gain access to VA benefits and services to which they are entitled.
• Leading the fight for full accounting of POW/MIAs for twenty years. We hold as a profound trust and obligation the responsibility to account for those American service members who remain unrepatriated, missing, or otherwise unaccounted for as a result of their service to our country during the Vietnam War.
• Initiating the successful Veterans Initiative program, a veteran-to-veteran effort that, since 1991, has promoted the direct exchange of information on unaccounted-for American servicemen and Vietnamese war casualties between American and Vietnamese veterans. The Veterans Initiative has produced measurable results towards full accounting on both sides.
• Taking the lead on women veterans' issues, including ensuring recognition of service access to benefits and appropriate medical treatment of women veterans in VA facilities.
• With "never again will one generation of veterans abandon another" as its founding principle, VVA has reached out to veterans of other conflicts, including providing office space and significant tangible support to the National Gulf War Resource Center.
• Single-handedly leading the fight for judicial review of disabled veterans' claims for benefits. The result: In 1988, Congress passed a law creating the U.S. Court of Veterans appeals. This allowed veterans to appeal VA benefits denials to a court and required VA to obey the rule of law.
• Spearheading a long and successful lobbying effort to establish and maintain the Vet Center program.
• Providing unwavering advocacy for congressional passage of laws supporting increased job training and job-placement assistance for unemployed and underemployed Vietnam-era veterans.
• Taking the lead on minority veterans' issues, including early and staunch support for the creation of the Center of Minority Veterans and the Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans Affairs.
• VVA has been the major force on the issue of Agent Orange for the past two decades. Our Nehmer v. Veterans Administration lawsuit, filed in 1986, forced the VA to begin compensating veterans with diseases linked to Agent Orange. VVA convinced Congress to pass the Agent Orange Act of 1991, which required the National Academy of Sciences to report on what diseases were related to Agent Orange. As a result, VA now pays compensation for nine such diseases.
• Being responsible for a 1996 law that, for the first time in our nation's history, provides medical care and compensation to the children of veterans whose parents suffer genetic damage from their military service-in this case Vietnam veterans' children with the birth defect spina bifida, which has been linked to their parents' exposure to Agent Orange.
• Running the Veterans Benefits Program, which provides education to veterans about government benefits to which they are entitled and trains individuals to represent veterans in their claims to secure benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Appeals.
• Consistently winning a higher percentage of cases at the VA's Board of Veteran's Appeals than any other veterans organization. VVA also has increased the number of cases they handle at the BVA, to an all-time high in FY 1998.

Click on the Logo to visit the VVA Site

[SAMWolf]

Morning Bentfeather

[SAMWolf]

"What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens."The story of my life reduced to one sentence.

[SAMWolf]

BLUSH!!

The last thing I expected to see on the thread this morning.

I'm speechless. Thanks so much Cote, but I didn't do anything special.

[SAMWolf]

Cute graphic today, GailA

[SAMWolf]

We have them come by every other month. Nothing could be easier.

Tell them you want a pick up, they give you the date and all you do is leave the stuff in front of your door in the morning when you leave for work.

[SAMWolf]

You can sign their petition by clicking on the link in Post # 4.

[PsyOp]

"Never again must this country ask a young man to fight and die unless it is for something we believe in so much that we tell him at the same time we're going to turn our full energies behind you to get it over with and to win it." - Governor Ronald Reagan, Students, April 26, 1973.

"Our reason for being here today is to dedicate a memorial to the 6,000 Californians who gave their lives in the defense of freedom in South-east Asia.
    "There are those who say that Vietnam was a war without heroes, because the conflict became a controversy that divided our people for so long. I do not accept that. They were all heroes, expecially those we are honoring here today." - Governor Ronald Reagan, Speech, Feb. 11, 1974.

"There is a lesson in the Vietnam war for all of us. If military power must be exerted to preserve our freedom or that of our allies, the purpose must be clearly spelled out for the people... Before the first troops go ashore." - Governor Ronald Reagan, Speech, Sept. 9, 1974.

"Their patriotism is quiet but deep. Their values sustain our national life." - Ronald Reagan, First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981.

"Those who fought in Vietnam are part of us, part of our history. They reflected the best in us. No number of wreaths, no amount of music and memorializing will ever do them justice but it is good for us that we honor them and their sacrifice. And it's good that we do it in the reflected glow of the enduring symbols of our Republic." - President Ronald Reagand, Remarks at Dedication Ceremonies for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Statue, November 11, 1984.

"The men of Vietnam answered the call of their country. Some of them died in the arms of many of you here today, asking you to look after a newly born child or care for a loved one. They died uncomplaining. The tears staining their mud-caked faces were not for self-pity but for the sorrow they knew the news of their death would cause their families and friends.
    "As you knelt alongside his litter and held him one last time, you heard his silent message -- he asked you not to forget." - President Ronald Reagand, Remarks at Dedication Ceremonies for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Statue, November 11, 1984.

"I do not know if perfect healing ever occurs, but I know that sometimes when a bone is broken, if it's knit together well, it will in the end be stronger than if it had not been broken. I believe that in the decade since Vietnam the healing has begun, and I hope that before my days as Commander in Chief are over the process will be completed." - President Ronald Reagand, Remarks at Dedication Ceremonies for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Statue, November 11, 1984.

"There were great moral and philosophical disagreements about the rightness of the war, and we cannot forget them because there is no wisdom to be gained in forgetting." - President Ronald Reagand, Remarks at Dedication Ceremonies for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Statue, November 11, 1984.

"And let me say to the Vietnam veterans gathered here today: When you returned home, you brought solace to the loved ones of those who fell, but little solace was given to you. Some of your countrymen were unable to distinguish between our native distaste for war and the stainless patriotism of those who suffered its scars." - President Ronald Reagand, Remarks at Dedication Ceremonies for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Statue, November 11, 1984.

Click Here For More Reagan Quotes

[SAMWolf]

Thanks for the great Reagan quotes, PsyOp.

[PsyOp]

You're welcome. I added a few to this post that were not in the larger collection. My hat's off to your service in Vietnam.

[Soaring Feather]

Ode to Sam Wolf
I'm very honored to call you friend
you gave to our country your all
sucked up your young gut
with thousands of others
went where duty called

Thanks be you came home
older and scared
confused, I don't know Sam...
I would never had the chance to
meet you had it not been for some
unusual circumstances...
beyond our control

It matters not Sam the whys
and wherefores...
What matters is now...

Thanks for spoiling me
being here now
doing all you can
once again
way beyond your call
it's the kind of guy you are Sam

feather

[SAMWolf]

BLUSH!!

This isn't supposed to be a make me blush thread.

Thanks, Feather, I'm honored and flattered that you'd take the time to write this ode, but I'm no one special. There are so many more who did so much more.

[Soaring Feather]

Sam

Be like Trikebuilder
accept the thanks
it's okay, ya know!!

:-)
:-)
:-)
;-)

hehehe

[Aura Of The Blade]

Hey SAM. I remember the feature on you and it was a good one. A salute to you

[SAMWolf]

Thanks Aura. The Canteen did a good job with it's Freeper Fridays, I was just one of the many Vets it profiled.

[larryjohnson]

I have a 3'X5' VVA flag and a desk size crossed with American Flag. I buy all my flags from a friend in CA.

http://www.anyflag.com/military/

[SAMWolf]

I did my job and managed to return to civilian life. A lot of guys before me and after me didn't get that chance. they're the ones who deserve the credit.

[SAMWolf]

Nice selection of flags at that site.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Good post, Sam.

[SAMWolf]

Nice graphic of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.