Posted on 09/07/2001 12:51:59 AM PDT by Snow Bunny
Thank you for your post and thoughts about it. Let's hope it will all come together and be the important film it should be to honor those men and those that wrote the book. Thanks again.
Thank you so much for your post.
I thank you so much for your post.
Thank you for your post and Welcome Home.
Can't wait to see the movie.
ALOHA RONNIE!!!!!
redrock
I am going to answer my mail after I answer the pings on here. This is only my second thread and it took me about 11 hours to gather all this together to post. LOL
I am not a pro computer person yet. ha ha ha
Stolen Valor: Shattering the Myths of Vietnam ; Exclusive to NewsMax.com! Excerpts from: Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of its Heroes and its History by B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley.
Will the Real Vietnam Vet Please Stand Up-
Myth: The war in Vietnam was fought by teenagers barely old enough to shave, while World War II was fought by men.
Reality: The average age of men killed in Vietnam was 22.8 years, or almost 23 years old. While the average age of those killed was 22.8....More 52-year-olds (22) died in Vietnam than youths of 17 (12).
Myth: The war was fought predominantly by draftees.
Reality: About one-third of Vietnam-era veterans entered the military through the draft, far lower than the 67 percent drafted in World War II. And once drafted, many men volunteered for the Marines, the Airborne, Special Forces, or other duty likely to send them to Vietnam.
Myth: It was a class war, with the poor and lower middle class those who suffered the brunt of it. The best and the brightest didn't go.
Reality: The force that fought in Vietnam was America's best educated and most egalitarian in the country's history....In World War II, only 45 percent of the troops had a high school diploma.... Proportionately three times as many college graduates served in Vietnam than in World War II.... 30 percent of the KIAs came from the lowest third of the income range; but 26 percent of the combat deaths came from families earning in the highest third. This result was startling -- and far from the expectation that wealthier Americans were sheltered from the war.
Myth: The war took the highest toll on minorities.
Reality: About 5 percent of those who died were Hispanic and 12.5 percent were black -- making both minorities slightly under-represented in relation to their proportion of draft-age males in the national population.
Myth: The soldier in Vietnam smoked pot and shot up with heroin to dull the horrors of combat.
Reality: In 1967, the drug use rate of .25 per 1,000 troops in Vietnam was lower than the Army-wide rate of .30 per 1,000 troops. Except for the last couple of years of the war, drug usage among American troops in Vietnam was lower than for American troops stationed anywhere else in the world, including the United States. Even when the drug use started to rise in 1971 and 1972, almost 90 percent of the men who had ever served in Vietnam had already come and gone. America had virtually thrown in the towel; idleness and the declining troop morale led to escalating drug use that reached crisis proportions.
A study after the war by the VA showed drug usage of veterans and non-veterans of the Vietnam age group was about the same. Another study, the "Vietnam-Era Research Project," concluded that drug use was more common among non-veterans than Vietnam-era veterans.
Myth: American soldiers deserted rather than fight the "immoral" war.
Reality: In World War II, the Army's overall desertion rate during that war was 55 percent higher than during Vietnam. Of those troops who deserted during the Vietnam era, only five percent did so while attached to units in Vietnam. Only 24 deserters attributed their action to the desire to "avoid hazardous duty." Of AWOLs, only 10 percent were related to opposition to the war.
Myth: Vietnam vets have high rates of incarceration.
Reality: A 1981 VA study concluded that 25 percent of those in combat during the war had ended up in prison. In the mid-1980s VietNow, one of the first Vietnam veterans' organizations to receive a VA grant for delayed stress counseling, put out a pamphlet claiming that over 70,000 Vietnam vets were behind bars, while over 200,000 were on probation, parole, or out on bail. The more mainstream Vietnam Veterans of America has claimed that 5 to 12 percent of the prison population at any given time are Vietnam vets, with up to 300,000 in the criminal justice system.
All this information is based on self-reporting by prisoners. But in every major study of Vietnam veterans where the military records were pulled from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis and the veterans then located for interviews, an insignificant number have been found in prisons.
Myth: Substantial numbers of Vietnam veterans are unemployed.
Reality: In every category for which I could find statistics, Vietnam veterans were as successful or more successful than men their age who did not go to Vietnam. .... A Vietnam veteran was more likely to have gone to college than a man of his age not in the service; nearly 30 percent of Vietnam vets had some college education, versus 24 percent of the U.S. population. ..... In 1985 ...Seventy-eight percent were homeowners, paying mortgages on traditional, single-family homes -- and more likely to own a home than their peers who did not go to Vietnam. Eight of every 10 surveyed were married and 90 percent had children.
Strikingly, the Washington Post survey indicated that, despite the negative attitudes of the public, Vietnam veterans had positive feelings about their experience:
- Seventy-four percent said they "enjoyed their time in service."
- Eighty percent disagreed with the statement "the United States took unfair advantage of me."
- Fifty-six percent of Vietnam veterans said they benefited in the long run by going to Vietnam. Only 29 percent said they were set back.
- Ninety-one percent of those who served in Vietnam were "glad they served their country."
I truly hope this movie will be right on target and show the bravery of these fine men.The Book was the best .
Thank you for responding.
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