Free Republic

Echoes of the past are heard as vets gather in D.C. to back the troops, oppose war protesters. Chris Hill visits the Wall every Veterans Day. He follows the path to Panel 4W, Line 36, and stops at the name Curtis R. Smoot. It's the same name on the POW-MIA bracelet Hill has worn for 22 years. Hill picked up the bracelet at an ROTC recruitment table in high school. He didn't know Smoot, but the bracelet was a poignant reminder of service and sacrifice during Hill's years with the Seventh Infantry Division in the late 1980s. At Panel 4W,...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - On Saturday, Drexel Hill resident Bob Spano woke up at 3:30 a.m. and donned his bright red Marine Corp League jacket and hat. Braving the ice, slush and snow left from Friday's storm, Spano joined 80 other Delaware County veterans early Saturday on a bus heading to bitterly cold Washington, D.C. On the Mall in the Capitol that day, anti-war protesters planned to have a rally coinciding with the fourth anniversary of the conflict in Iraq. But Spano and his colleagues were heading to the Mall for a different purpose: for what they called a "Gathering of...

The fierce determination of the eagle shown through in our nation’s capitol. They came from near and far, some as far away as Canada to answer the calling to defend our sacred memorials on March 17, 2007 from anti-war protesters who have been known to get out of control in recent marches. Ordinary Americans supporting the troops, and proud Vets from past and present wars, met up in Washington D.C. under the banner of the Gathering of Eagles. Approximately 30,000 Eagles came together to show that the voice of the silent majority, those who support the troops and their mission,...

Well, it’s over now, the assembly areas for the Gathering of Eagles is an empty hillside of churned mud, the antiwar protest field is less muddy but just as empty. It was a long day, but a good one. It started for me last night, when I went to visit one of the principal motels for the GOE movement, a Holiday Inn in Ballston, just outside DC. A friend and I walked in the door and were struck immediately with the sight of a couple dozen men in various kinds of clothing and insignia that marked them as Viet Nam...

Anti-war sentiment is moving dangerously close to a place America must never go — putting our anger on the soldiers that have been fighting the four-year Iraq war. Some of this takes the form of minimizing what happened the last time American GIs returned from an unpopular war — Vietnam. Liberal commentators, such as MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, are diminishing the hostile treatment Vietnam veterans garnered when they returned from Vietnam. On the air on Thursday, Mr. Olbermann disparaged the old report of Vietnam veterans being spit upon when they came home: "And, oh, by the way, there is not one...

"...Although Nexis overflows with references to protesters gobbing on Vietnam vets, and Bob Greene's 1989 book Homecoming: When the Soldiers Returned From Vietnam counts 63 examples of protester spitting, Jerry Lembcke argues that the story is bunk in his 1998 book The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam" ... Lembcke, a professor of sociology at Holy Cross and a Vietnam vet, investigated hundreds of news accounts of antiwar activists spitting on vets. But every time he pushed for more evidence or corroboration from a witness, the story collapsed--the actual person who was spat on turned out to...

WASHINGTON -- As head of the Veteran's Administration under President Jimmy Carter, Vietnam veteran Max Cleland was involved in setting up VA Vet centers to help soldiers returning from war get counseling and readjust to life back home. Now Cleland has revealted that he's suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and getting help from those same counseling programs he helped create. Cleland, who lost three limbs in the war, said he didn't get much help for his own psychological wounds when he returned from battle. The former U.S. Senator from Georgia described his symptoms to Channel 2 Action News reporter...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for Veteran Claims has announced a landmark decision in the case of Haas v. Nicholson. This ruling could directly affect thousands of disabled Vietnam-era Navy veterans. The Court's ruling states that Veterans Affairs requirement for “boots on the ground” as the definition of “service in the Republic of Vietnam” is unreasonable, and does not align with Congress's intent. In addition the law does not limit application of the presumption of service connection for herbicide exposure to those who set foot on the soil of the Republic of Vietnam. The Court cited that the law defines...

Far fewer Vietnam veterans suffered from post-traumatic stress as a result of their wartime service than previously thought, researchers are reporting today, in a finding that could have lasting consequences for the understanding of combat stress, as well as for the estimates of the mental health fallout from the Iraq war. The report, published in the journal Science and viewed by experts as authoritative, found that 18.7 percent of Vietnam veterans developed a diagnosable stress disorder that could be linked to a war event at some point in their lives, well under the previous benchmark number of 30.9 percent. And...

A LARGE contingent of Vietnam veterans, some cheery, some gruff, some wary, many by turns all three, and all grieving to a degree, has returned today to mark the 40th anniversary of the battle of Long Tan, where 18 men of the 6th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment died in defeating a much larger Vietnamese force. This is the event that, like Gallipoli and Kokoda, has become the symbol, the emotional touchstone, of a wretchedly long war. Singer John Schumann, who wrote his song, I was only 19 - the unofficial anthem for veterans, who are mostly aged about...

FP: James Rothrock, welcome to Frontpage Interview. Rothrock: It’s an honor to be here. FP: So tell us a bit about what inspired you to write this book. Rothrock: I served in Vietnam and lived through the tumultuous antiwar years. I have always been troubled by those in the antiwar movement who undermined their own country, subverted the nation’s war effort, and tarnished the image of the American servicemen who served their country, many of whom gave their all. I still remember the day I returned from Vietnam and was told to change into civilian clothes before proceeding off base....

Far fewer Vietnam veterans suffered from post-traumatic stress as a result of their wartime service than previously thought, researchers are reporting, in a finding that could have lasting consequences for the understanding of combat stress, as well as for the estimates of the mental health fallout from the Iraq war. snip The nightmares, flashbacks, and hair-trigger irritability that characterize post-traumatic reactions usually fade with time, the study found, but in 9.1 percent of the veterans — roughly a quarter million — the symptoms became chronic and disabling. Politicians have clashed over the Department of Veterans Affairs’ budget, including its $3...

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is James Rothrock, a former career officer in the U.S. Air Force, with special assignments in Athens, Paris, Saigon, Tokyo and Stuttgart. As a former adjunct professor at Troy University, he taught world, regional and political geography. In Vietnam he experienced firsthand the Tet Offensive of 1968, where he saw a major allied victory turned into a disastrous defeat by the antiwar critics back home. He is the author of the new book Divided We Fall, which makes the case that disunity, incited and fueled by the antiwar movement, led to America’s defeat in Vietnam. FP:...

Three Vietnam War veterans who sued over a documentary about Sen. John Kerry's anti-war activities have dropped their lawsuits, leaving just one court fight pending over the 2004 film. Filmmaker Carlton Sherwood says the withdrawal of the lawsuits shows they were frivolous complaints filed by Kerry operatives to try to block the film's release in the final weeks of the presidential race. "We've always believed that Kerry controlled these lawsuits," Sherwood said Monday. The 42-minute film, "Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," charges that Kerry's actions as an anti-war activist after his tour in Vietnam harmed American POWs. It also...

In 1966, when he was barely 20 years old, Rubin Binder joined the first four-man crew of a boat assigned to patrol the Mekong River Delta in Vietnam. During 161 patrols and 59 firefights with North Vietnamese soldiers, Binder sat in a tight hatch at the forward end of the boat where he operated two machine guns from the most vulnerable spot onboard. Embrace Zoom Karen Ducey / P-I From left, Rubin Binder's daughter, Melissa Binder; his wife, Kris Binder; and son, Karl Koester, embrace after a service in Seattle on Sunday. In many ways, Binder's yearlong service on PBR...

Jerry Coffee, retired Navy captain and prisoner of war in North Vietnam, will run for the U.S. Senate as a Republican. Coffee, who was encouraged to run for the state House in 2004 by Gov. Linda Lingle, was supported during yesterday's announcement by Lingle, Lt. Gov. James "Duke" Aiona and a group of local GOP leaders. "I am a big supporter of Jerry Coffee. I think he is a terrific candidate and will make it a very exciting race," Lingle said. "It is really in the public's interest to have at least one person in Washington who is from the...

At least four Vietnam veterans who served together in the early days of US involvement in that conflict will reunite at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport this afternoon.One of the men used the internet to locate the others, and has related tearfully how pleased he was to find his old comrades, all Marines of 2/3* who served in and around Phu Bai (sp?) in the 1964-66 timeframe.While they do not seek publicity for its own sake, they have thought that it would make a good human interest story (my words: they said something like "people might like to hear about it")...

The puff piece starts out: “John Kerry starts by showing the entry in a log he kept from 1969: “Feb 12: 0800 run to Cambodia.” Right off the bat, this is the first piece where the Swift Boat Vets were 100% correct. At the time, John Kerry stated that his trip took place on Christmas Eve in 1968. The SBV were right at the time, he was NOT iN Cambodia on Christmas Eve of 1968. Kerry had said that this moment was “seared” into him. After the Vets came out, Kerry had his personal biographer come out and it changed...

JOHN McCAIN IS, without a doubt, heroic.Disagree with his politics, mistrust his shifting political alliances, but no one who's benefited from the tortured sacrifices he made at the Hanoi Hilton should question his integrity. How can we, whole in body and strangers to the hell he experienced, challenge this patriot? To do so indicates a fundamental inhumanity.That aptly describes the young woman who stood up last week and ridiculed the senator from Arizona. Jean Sara Rohe, a graduating senior at the New School in New York, introduced McCain before he delivered his commencement address.Ms. Rohe took the opportunity to attack...

My daughter's history teacher made this claim in class last week: "I don't believe Viet Nam veterans were mistreated when they came back from the war. I don' know any who were." Would any and all Viet Nam vets please tell us how you were treated when you came back from Nam? I'll print out this thread and give it to the teacher.