Here are just a FEW things about how the Vietnam Veteran was treated when HE came back from fighting for YOUR freedom and YOUR rights !!!!!!
Spit on ,literally spit on !!!!!!
Kept from and out of colleges and Universities because it might make waves to have him in the school since it is a LIBERAL institution and it might upset the wimpy coward students that were attending!!!!!
Kept from jobs, even jobs promised because having a Vietnam vet at work might upset the co -workers!!!!
Mothers telling their sons they did NOT want to hear about it!!!!!
Wives that did NOT wait for their man, and then he found out when he got home
Children asking their father returning..... why did you fight in an unpopular war Daddy???!!!!!!
Fathers telling their sons they were an embarassment to them because they fought in the Vietnam War!!!!!
The media calling them names and I am NOT going to put their lies here.......LIES everyone of them LIES !!!
Then lets add to this, Agent Orange shall we....I mean our government sure as heck did!!!!! Sores, blisters, celulitis, headaches, heart desease,Lupus,bone deteroration,infertility,cancer, high blood pressure....you name it ALL from Agent Orange a poison that has killed off MANY of our Vietnam Veterans!!!!
And you know what....when they were 'IN Country' nand thirsty.....after spraying with Agent Orange all over the place ....OUR men were told to SUCK and chew on the leaves for moisture to drink if they were out of water and could not move from their positions!!!!!!!
Add to this Jane Hanoi Fonda the Traitor and LBJ making tons off the lives of OUR men!!!
M-16's that did not work !!!!
LBJ selling our guns to Russia and Russia turning around and selling the ones that worked to the Viet Cong !!!
OK now take a look at the Vietnam veteran going to the VA hospital....OK.... some are good ones BUT many are bad!!! The vet makes an appt. and has to weeks in advance, then he gets there and has been known to have to sit there waiting for 5 hours or more for a doc that is LATE seeing him ,because he is at a conference and isn't even there.... BUT no one told the Vet sitting there. So they send him home to wait another few weeks or months!!!!!
Then they give them the wrong RX's and Vietnam veterans have had to learn as much as doctors so they are sure they were given the right medicine for their many ailments ,or like some thay did NOT study up about their ailments at libraries or online......and many of those VET's are DEAD, because of the wrong Rx!!!!!!
A frustrated vet from the Vietnam war drove his pickup through the front glass doors at a VA in Florida....and NO one could blame him.....it was out of total frustration at the treatment they were giving him.
No parades , no welcome home, NOTHING but spit on their faces!!!!!!
No memorial, no parties, no "My life can begin darling you are finally home"...For MOST of them.
But he went, he served , he did not RUN, he did not dodge the draft and MOST enlisted!!!
Vietnam vets were the smartest that fought in any war. They showed the most ability in any test in their schools or work places.
YOU, me , every American should go up to every Vietnam vet we see and say thank you and Welcome Home.I could care less if you do it in a Beverly Hills jewelry store or to a homelss Veteran crouched on a bench. THEY paid the price!!!!! They paid not only with their lives and with blood, they paid with self esteem and a courage that only men of Honor know about.They paid it and they paid it in FULL!!!!!
Thank God for the Vietnam Veteran!!!!
Amen.
He was sent down to Wadsworth in West Los Angeles because of a blood infection which had attacked his heart valve for the 3rd time. He was airlifted to Palo Alto and was very lucky to have a world class surgeon (finally) perform a replacement of his valve and a massive re-section of his heart which had been eaten away by infection. I need to mention that the facilities in Palo Alto are wonderful! I was very impressed. The rooms were like normal hospital rooms, not at all like the old dreary facilities in Los Angeles or Long Beach.
This surgery, although it was done by a better doctor in a better facility, was not like the others inasmuch as my brother was not coming around and seemed to be deteriorating. We would try to talk to him and could barely hear him. Days after the surgery he was unable to get up and had to be on oxygen. But the surgeons were talking about sending him home. I had flashbacks of my uncle who was sent home 10 days after open heart surgery in spite of the fact that he had pneumonia and no one at home to help him. Sure enough, 10 days lapsed and Palo Alto loaded my brother onto a commercial plane and sent him back to Wadsworth (w/o oxygen) to be released to home from there.
I was worried sick because there was no way my brother was well. I called Wadsworth to make sure he had arrived ok and was told they had no record of him. I was frantic and called and worked my way from one department to another until someone finally went out and found my brother in a wheelchair in the hallway! he had been there for hours! He was then transferred into intensive care where they discovered a massive infection that had been overlooked before his release from Palo Alto. He was once again loaded on a plane (this time a private jet with a nurse to accompany him) and sent back to Palo Alto. This was done at the request of the surgeon in Palo Alto who had apparently done the surgery and then more or less turned my brother's care over to the interns.
My brother was given top notch priority care when he returned to Palo Alto and he began to respond and do well after that. But the fact is it took a major screw up on their part before they were willing to give him the time his illness required. I think the VA tries to go by the same B.S. guidelines that the HMO's are using. If you don't fit the scenario established by the book, forget it.
My brother has always been able to be his own advocate but it often took every ounce of energy that he had to do it. He has alot of medical/chemistry knowledge. Most people are not armed with adequate knowledge to be their own advocate, and if they do not have another intelligent person who can keep up with the doctors, they can very often be at a severe disadvantage. This is unfortunately true with HMO care that many of us are forced to have as well. It is pathetic! A disabled vet or a person who works their entire life and pays for medical insurance should be secure in the knowledge that they will be well cared for. It simply doesn't happen that way, and especially not in California!
Amen!