Volume 3, Number 2 4 February 1989 +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | NN NN AAAA MM MM VV VV EEEEEEE TTTTTTTT | | NNN NN AA AA MMM MMM VV VV EE TT | | NN N NN AA AA MM M M MM VV VV EE TT | | NN N NN AA AA MM M MM VV VV EE TT | | NN N NN AAAAAAAA MM MM VV VV EEEEE TT | | NN N NN AA AA MM MM VV VV EE TT | | NN NNN AA AA MM MM V V EE TT | | NN NN AA AA MM MM VVV EEEEEEE TT | | | | The International Newsletter for Vietnam Veterans | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Editor in Chief: Todd Looney Assistant Editor: G. Joseph Peck NAM VET is a special )| electronic newsletter dedicated to _+|__|_ * VIETNAM |--- --| VETERANS * around the ------------------------=========================== world and \_______________________________________________) provided as a ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ service to participants in the International Vietnam Veterans Echo Con- ference (IVVEC) available on many FidoNet (tm) bulletin boards throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, and Canada. _ Not all of the articles appearing in here | are written by participants in the IVVEC, but NAM VET | is very much an electronic newsletter by, -----/_\----- of, and for Vietnam veterans, their -O==============< : >==============O- friends, wives, and lovers. ( ) (...) ( ) If you are a veteran or anyone else wishing to express yourself concerning our Nation's Vietnam or other related experience, you are invited to submit material for publication to the Vietnam Veterans Valhalla (143/27), VETLink #1 (321/203), or to any BBS carrying IVVEC whose sysop can forward your work from there. NAM VET is published | monthly by Vietnam Veterans Valhalla. The views expressed | are not necessarily those of the NAM VET its staff or any of |____====________ its volunteers. The newsletter is ||__________}____)==================|) made up of =============---------------------===_____ articles and items /| | | | |\\from other newsletters \________|__________|_________|_________|/ and a variety of \\(O)___(O)___(O)___(O)___(O)___(O)// other sources We are not responsible for the content of this information nor are any of the above-mentioned parties. ____________ ======= _________________/|_____... | | " === |_______________| |-----::: |._ - " ) |_|___| / / |___| Duplication and/or distribution is /_/ permitted for noncommercial purposes only For other use, please contact Todd Looney at (408) 947-7668. Volume 3, Number 2 4 February 1989 Table of Contents 1. EDITORIAL ................................................ 1 The Treadmill Slowly Turns ............................... 1 "It's only for a little while..." ........................ 2 2. SERVICES ................................................. 5 Stress and Vietnam Veterans .............................. 5 3. MEMORY ................................................... 10 Careful now .............................................. 10 Footprints in the Garden ................................. 11 4. GENERAL .................................................. 12 Affirmative Action: 98-77 ................................ 12 Arts of War .............................................. 25 "Did you know that..." ................................... 26 'Where is my father?' .................................... 27 Thunder Explores World of 'Bush Vet ...................... 32 5. WANTED ................................................... 35 International Vietnam Veterans EchoConference Nodelist .... 35 NamNews 3-02 Page 1 4 Feb 1989 ================================================================= EDITORIALS ================================================================= The Treadmill Slowly Turns By Todd Looney The month of January was exciting for us here at the Vietnam Veterans' Valhalla. Several new projects have been proposed, both by members of the Valhalla as well as from outside. We took stock in the last year's accomplishments and reset goals for this year. We decided the greatest accomplishments during 1988 were both homeless veteran-related. We provided 63 homeless veterans and their families with 129 nights of lodging during the year, and our food drive fed 3,968 homeless and/or hungry veterans and their families during the holiday season at the end of the year. Other significant accomplishments include helping 3 Vietnam veterans out of the mountainous regions of the Sierra-Nevada in Northern California before the snows hit, assisting 16 Vietnam veterans during admissions processing at local and regional VA Hospital facilities, benefits assistance provided to 291 Vietnam veterans and/or their families. The number of calls to the Valhalla since our inception in May of 1986 nearly topped 40,000 just before the start of the new year - over 26,000 of them during 1988 alone. With the often relentless help from supporters we were able to top the 200 mark in the number of BBS systems carrying the International Vietnam Veterans EchoConference (IVVEC), and our newsletter, the NAM VET, was downloaded an estimated 26,000+ times (actually it was a lot more but we have not been able to obtain consistent updates from those distributing the newsletter on their BBS systems). To start of the year we are just now finalizing arrangements with the FidoNet Software Distribution System (SDS) to maintain up-to-date NAM VET Newsletters and distribute it to their regional SDS systems. If we are lucky, and I have no reason to think otherwise, this issue of the NAM VET should be the first to be available on the SDS system(s) in your region. If you are with another network and would like to work something out with your own distribution network, please contact me here at the Valhalla at either of the following node numbers: 1:143/27, or 7:406/27. We are currently working with Michael Sellarolli toward a cooperative plan to roll through the Southern California Regional VA Hospital carting personal computer systems loaded with the latest IVVEC message base so that veterans confined there can have the opportunity to communicate with some of their brothers and sisters. We are still awaiting word from Mr. Sellarolli with regard to a project start date, but are hopeful that it will commence shortly after this issue's release. If all goes well during the Southern California pilot program, there is no reason why such a project couldn't be overwhelmingly successful throughout the country. Plans are underway to include our prison systems as well so keep your eyes and ears pealed for future updates on this exciting venture. NamNews 3-02 Page 2 4 Feb 1989 We are in need of new articles for upcoming issues of the NAM VET. Our once deluged influx of submissions has dwindled to near nothingness so Joe and I had to work extra hard getting enough to make this issue worthwhile to our readers. PLEASE submit an article, story, or poem to our newsletter staff either by electronic mail at any of the following node numbers who will make sure it gets to us in the San Francisco Bay area: 1:143/27 Vietnam Veterans Valhalla, California (2400 Baud) 7:406/27 " " " " " " 1:321/203 VETLink#1 Massachusetts (2400 Baud) 1:18/6 Burnout Board Tennessee (9600 Baud) 7:48/2012 Regional Gateway Tennessee (9600 Baud) 1:14/662 Friends BBS Nebraska (2400 Baud) 1:530/130 Canadian VetNet British Columbia (9600 Baud) This newsletter is only as good as you make it by sending in your contributions. If you need to mail them in, send them to: Vietnam Veterans Valhalla 28 Cecil Avenue, Ste. 179 San Jose, CA. 95128 Attn: NAM VET Editor Thanks for making this a fun and rewarding endeavor on our part, and from the entire staff at both the Valhalla and the NAM VET, "If you take pride in your freedom, thank a vet!" ----------------------------------------------------------------- "It's only for a little while..." Editorial by G. Joseph Peck Sysop - VETLink #1 Fidonet 321/203 Alternet 7:46/203 The thick black of night was losing its ground against the approaching new day when I found him. Monotone shades of gray, dark green, and yellow-brown had made it hard to find his lean-to. It was the smoke that gave him away. Stepping carefully over the trip- wire he'd set up, I entered his camp. "Butch," I softly whispered. "Be cool, man... it's just me. I wanna help. Talk to me, bro'... talk to me..." I'd almost forgotten what it was like to deal with another man's NamNews 3-02 Page 3 4 Feb 1989 anger and hurt and pain. "Get the f*ck outta here. You were never in combat; you never saw your buddies blown to sh*t right in front of your eyes; you were never pinned down when Charlie just kept comin' and comin' and comin', never lettin' up, always gettin' sneakier and sneakier... Get lost, Jack... you have NO IDEA of what I've gone through..." "You're right, Butch. I have no idea of what you've been through - just like you have no idea of what I've been through. I've seen combat on a different front... right here at home. I've pulled dying men and women from crumbled cars on the freeways and turnpikes of our America - and tried to keep 'em alive. Didn't make it though. I can remember feeling so helpless while a skydiving friend fell across the high tension wires. And I won't forget the child I saved when everyone else said it was too late... lying there on the side of a mountain, pickup truck crushing his chest, I did the only thing I could think of to get him breathing again: stuck my finger down his throat - and he cried. 2nd and 3rd degree burns across his upper torso and a shaved head later - and he was alive and healthy. There's a lot of others, Butch - but that's not important just now. YOU are. You see, I'm lookin' at another part of the battle I, like you, enlisted for - is it 20 years ago now??? My battle never stopped - it was just like moving from one area of service to another. I don't think I could have done what you did; don't know how I'd deal with someone actually trying to kill me rather than asking for me to help 'em out of a life-threatening circumstance. Talk to me, Butch... help me understand... I've always been your friend..." "Besides bein' friends, Jack, we've got a LITTLE bit in common. You're right, I'm havin' it tough. I don't want to talk about it 'cause talkin' keeps wakin' the memories back up." Showing me a faded picture of a 19-year old soldier with a chain of human ears around his neck, Butch began to cry. "I can't let it go, man... I can't let it go..." "I TOLD the cherry to let ME do the point gig, let ME do the dirty stuff... Nah! HE had to play John Wayne. He walked right into it... walked right into it. They were waiting. Took out 8 of the 10 of us. Captured Sam - but not before I got back at a few of 'em. See those ears round my neck in the picture?" "Sam never came back, although I often heard that he was still alive. And all my friends, my patrol. Gone! 21 years ago today!" "Talk to me, Butch... It's okay. I can't share the battle with you but I CAN share the same feelings you do... I can listen and be your friend..." Butch stayed on the mountain for nearly three weeks. I went to see him every morning and evening. It was about the third week that the trip-wires and other traps disappeared and his camp became open. I remember the last day I went there... Butch met me half-way up the mountain with a big, peaceful grin on his face. He emanated strength and power - yet he appeared gentle and kind, bedroll under his arm, needing a shave, happiness bouncing in his every step. NamNews 3-02 Page 4 4 Feb 1989 "You know, Jack... my talking and your listening, they helped me. It didn't make things any easier to deal with and it didn't take away the memories, but just talking about 'em helped; helped me to realize that all of Life - with all its good and bad times - why, it's only for a little while compared to all the recorded time in the past, all the time yet to come in the future. And I WAS being a little like that plane you told me about, the one that was trying to take off but gravity wouldn't let it. Just a little more energy, Jack, and I broke free from the memories that were tryin' to hold me earthbound when my goal was to soar in the skies. I was a good soldier in the 'Nam - I can be a good soldier NOW... C'mon, bro'. Let's go to chow..." I learned somethin' from Butch and the many like him I've met since I went into the service; somethin' that's helped carry ME on through some of the toughest, most tryin' times in MY life: Life IS only for a little while and, too often, I, too, - like gravity attempts to hold a plane earthbound - try to hold on to my yesterday's and try to correct their mistakes instead of tryin' to make my TODAY the best possible, to serve wherever I can... "Hey Butch... wherever you are... I remember!!! And Thanx bro... really THANX!!!" 'til next month... Show a brother/sister veteran that YOU care!!! Ci'ao for Ni'ao -Joe- NamNews 3-02 Page 5 4 Feb 1989 ================================================================= VETERAN SERVICES ================================================================= Stress and Vietnam Veterans by Richard P. Skodnek, M.D. Input by VETLink #1 with permission of Dennis F. Hyyti, Chairman Vietnam Veterans Benevolent Association, Inc. P.O. Box 1135 Waltham, MA 02254-1135 > Richard P. Skodnek, M.D., is a Harvard trained psychiatrist in private practice in Newton, Mass. Dr. Skodnek has had his own radio program for several years, which had a weekly feature on stress. He has discussed psychiatric problems on dozens of television shows and has healed Vietnam Veterans and their families. In the 20th century, the Age of Anxiety, 2.6 million Americans experienced an extraordinary stress: the War in Vietnam. Of our soldiers, some were to lose their physical or emotional lives, many were traumatized and scarred, most were permanently changed by their Vietnam experiences. The casualties, the MIAs, the POWs bore the brunt of the war. However, all of the GIs who served in Vietnam were affected personally by their experiences. War is hell, but the war in Vietnam was a particularly bizarre hell for our Veterans. Militarily, this war was America's longest and its first guerrilla action, unlike our previous wartime experiences. Confusion over proper tactics, differentiating friend from foe, and changing military goals were the norm. Our men were exposed to Agent Orange (dioxin), a toxic chemical used as a defoliant which has been linked to a variety of illnesses. Politically, the War in Vietnam was never declared a war. Political conflict tormented our forces in multiple ways: lack of clear-cut goals, lack of full military support, lack of morale and leadership. Socially, American wanted to forget this strange war, and so we tried to forget those who fought it. The Vietnam Veterans were rejected and forgotten. How is a man to recover and pursue his life with such a legacy? What did this war really mean? Combat leads to a series of stresses that accumulate over time, and many were overwhelmed by their experiences. Lacking help and understanding, our Veterans struggled quietly, alone to piece together their lives. Some were fortunate and successful; many were not. Repatriation started the Veteran's personal war: the struggle to rebuild his life. When John returned after a year's experience in combat, he was twenty. While he looked like other American kids, he was different. He had been in Nam. John could not really relate to his civilian buddies from school. He went from job to job and girl to girl. He compared himself to others who spent two years pursuing school or career, to others who had it easy and were getting ahead. John started off traumatized and confused, and he NamNews 3-02 Page 6 4 Feb 1989 became depressed and despairing. He turned to alcohol and then to drugs. John became addicted and nearly died in an auto accident. In the hospital, John began to get psychiatric treatment for his shattered state of mind. With help, he was able to piece together his Vietnam experiences which had been tormenting him. Stress is the bottom line of the war for many Veterans. Ranging from personal stresses of the war, including Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder, to the stresses of rebuilding a life, many Veterans still fight. Stress control is critical to taking charge of one's life, to preventing disease, to having "the good life." To be successful, strong, and relaxed, stress must be fully recognized as well as overcome. Seventy-five percent of medical complaints are stress related; fifty percent of Americans have at least one psychosomatic symptom or illness. Stress aggravates or causes multiple physical problems: high blood pressure, ulcers, stomach and colon disorders, migraine and tension headaches, back pain, and skin diseases are the most common. Stress also causes intense anxiety, depression, and can interfere with the ability to cope with family, work, or other aspects of life. Mental and physical stress are frequently the same stress. When the body is stressed, the fight or flight response is triggered. This is an increase in alertness and physical response stimulated by the release of adrenaline. Ever say - "That's got my juices flowing"? Adrenaline consists of two powerful hormones: epinephrine and norepinephrine. When these hormones are released by stress, the body is set for action: heart rate increases, blood pressure increases, breathing becomes more rapid, muscles are primed for action, etc. This is precisely the physiological response that Veterans experienced so many times in Vietnam. The problem is that in our "civilized society," this physical response must be suppressed. Your boss or wife yells at you, and your adrenaline is released. You cannot be physically active - so what do you do? Yell and scream? Throw something? Or quietly "stew" with this physical stress. This physical stress response can be triggered by more subtle stress - like watching a movie, a powerful dream, seeing or even thinking about something that is upsetting. The bottom line is that we are all vulnerable to experiencing stresses that can lead to physical changes and even more stress. Ultimately, this can be a vicious cycle which can produce illness, nervousness, aggression, etc. Controlling stress is critical to having a good life. The first step of stress control is to evaluate your personal stress level and how it affects you. How to you know if you are under too much stress? The following is a list of questions to ask yourself to evaluate your stress level: 1) Are you really over your Vietnam experiences? Do you think about, dream, have flashbacks or nightmares? Are you withdrawn or detached? Do you feel like you won't have a good future, including job and family? Do you have trouble with your emotions - especially anger or irritability? Do you have trouble with sleep - do you NamNews 3-02 Page 7 4 Feb 1989 grind your teeth? 2) Do you have stress behaviors? Do you drink too much? Eat too much? Take drugs? Take risks too freely (eg gamble)? 3) Do you have stress diseases? High blood pressure? headache? etc. 4) Are you emotionally stressed? Are you frequently nervous? Depressed? 5) Are you mentally stressed? Do you have trouble concentrating? Memory problems? Obsessive thoughts? If you answered yes to one or more of the above, you may be suffering from too much stress, also called distress. Life is a struggle for too many Veterans. They are often unable to be relatively successful at work and love, the two most basic elements. In the late 1980's, both work and family life are becoming more difficult in general -- add to this possibly excessive stress, and they could become almost overwhelming. Since the war in Vietnam ended, Americans have experienced significant changes that often are unrecognized. Do you notice how expensive things are now? How about the price of housing, cars, food, education, and medical treatment? Believe it or not, Americans were wealthiest at the end of the war in the 1970's. Since then, most of us have become poorer, and now a majority cannot afford to buy their American dream, a home. Vietnam Veterans grew up in the post World War II period, when every year most Americans became richer. Next year was usually better than the last. And when you grow up like that, this becomes an expectation. The post Vietnam War reality is just the opposite - every year is a little worse. This economic stress has caused major problems for Veterans and their families. Wives have to work and are often disappointed by their husbands economically. Why isn't my husband as good a provider as my father was? The subtle influence of this economic pressure has undermined many marriages, and made many Veterans feel relatively inadequate. Additionally, during and after the war, the Women's Movement changed the way men and women related. In the past, men were "men." They were the strong providers, the heads of the household. "Every man's home is his castle." Ever hear that any more? Now the traditional sex roles are largely blurred, and men and women have trouble knowing what to expect and how to relate. Not surprisingly, the divorce rate rose to fifty percent in this period. These complications make work and family life much more stressful in the late 1980s. Add to this excessive stress, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, many Vietnam Veterans experience a level of distress that is both unhealthy and unnecessary. The good news is that help and treatment are now widely available. The bad news is that a man must admit to himself "no man is an island" - we all need a little help from time to time. Life is what we make of it, and our Vietnam Veterans deserve to make the most of it. = = = = = = = = = = ASK DR. SKODNEK NamNews 3-02 Page 8 4 Feb 1989 Q. Ever since my Vietnam tour of duty, I have been nervous and jumpy. Is this a sign of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder? A. Quite Possibly. While there are many causes of nervousness, both medical and psychiatric, many Vietnam Veterans experience either generalized nervousness (anxiety) or periods of nervousness. Recent research has shown that Vietnam Veterans with PTSD as compared with similar non-veterans, have higher levels of sympathetic nervous system activity. Basic biologic indicators were in general higher than normal: heart rate, respiration rate, blood pressure, and muscle tension. This means that Veterans with PTSD are much more likely to be biologically as well as psychologically anxious. To really know for sure the cause of your nervousness, and whether this is attributable to PTSD or some other cause, requires a psychiatric evaluation. Q. Is it true that Vietnam Veterans have more health problems than non-veterans? A. Yes. Vietnam Veterans have twice as many health problems as non-veterans, according to the latest study. Congress ordered the Vietnam Experience Study to evaluate the impact of Vietnam military experience on veterans from 1965 through 1971. Over 15,000 veterans from Vietnam and other combat experience were surveyed. Vietnam Veterans reported their health as poor or fair twice as frequently (20%) as other veterans. Reported health problems included illnesses, physical symptoms, limitations in activity, medication use, and hospitalization. Vietnam Veterans reported many more birth defects in their children than did non-Vietnam vets. However, medical examinations and hospital records showed that Vietnam Veterans' health problems and birth defects were not more frequent than other non-Vietnam veteran groups. Vietnam Veterans did however have increased hearing loss and previous hepatitis B infections. This study did not conclusively rule out questions about exposure to Agent Orange (dioxin). Psychiatric problems were significantly more common among Vietnam Veterans as compared to non-Vietnam Veterans. Depression, anxiety disorders, alcohol and substance abuse were all much more frequent. 15% of Vietnam Veterans experienced Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at some time, and 2.2% had PTSD during the prior month before the exam. Overall, it is clear that Vietnam Veterans have suffered more than non-Vietnam veterans, especially psychologically. This is important to help understand any Vietnam Veteran, and the problems he will be facing. If you have any questions for "Ask Dr. Skodnek", please send them to: Incoming c/o Vietnam Veterans Benevolent Association, Inc. Post Office Box 1135 Waltham, MA 02254-1135 NamNews 3-02 Page 9 4 Feb 1989 ================================================================= MEMORIES ================================================================= Careful now... submitted by Canadian Vietnam Veterans Box 11375 Station H, Nepean K2H 7V1 ... and while they talk of God and swaying wheat fields and summer love affairs and of youth I saw a young boy die an open-mouthed, screaming death - and he always told me his mother wouldn't let him play football in high school because he might have hurt himself. ----------------------------------------------------------------- NamNews 3-02 Page 10 4 Feb 1989 Footprints in the Garden - a dedication to Mike Gleason by Tom Jacksine of Marcy, New York submitted by: Canadian Vietnam Veterans - Ottawa FOOTPRINTS IN THE GARDEN A DEDICATION TO MIKE GLEASON The bounty of man will sorely miss One of us who has managed to leave, A legacy that has nurtured a will to grow, The strength to weather the storms. He has planted the seeds in our minds That love and caring extend the warmth, For all the seasons in the life Of the fragile flower that is man. True, he was a hybrid, One of a very few of us, That was sent to be replanted In a garden filled with brambles; Where the sun seldom shone. This breed of man was trampled, Chopped and kicked and sprayed; We were promised the very best of care But it seems were betrayed. This one managed to survive, To come back, to set his roots deep; To sow the seeds and cultivate, To provide care and love and friendship. Springtime has taken him now, It seems unkind and selfish; There shall always remain His footprints in the garden. May 9, 1988 8:30 a.m. (Mike passed away May 7, 1988) NamNews 3-02 Page 11 4 Feb 1989 ================================================================= GENERAL ARTICLES ================================================================= Affirmative Action - Public Law 98-77 foreword by G. Joseph Peck, Sysop VETLink #1 FidoNet 321/203 Alternet 7:46/203 From time to time there's been quite a bit of talk within the International Vietnam Veterans Echo Conference as to whether or not the Vietnam veteran is considered a "minority" and whether or not we, as part of that class, are considered for any of the Affirmative Action hiring programs. We can talk about it all day and night... but I thought the best thing to do is to reproduce Public Law 98-77... one of the first laws which opened many, many employment doors for veterans of the Vietnam era. So, let's do it ... PUBLIC LAW 98 - 77 Public Law 98-77 98th Congress To establish an emergency program of job training assistance for unemployed Korean conflict and Vietnam-era veterans, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS Section 1. This Act may be cited as the "Emergency Veterans' Job Training Act of 1983". TABLE OF CONTENTS Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. Sec. 2. Purpose. Sec. 3. Definitions. Sec. 4. Establishment of program Sec. 5. Eligibility for program; duration of assistance. Sec. 6. Employer job training program. Sec. 7. Approval of employer programs Sec. 8. Payments to employers; overpayments. Sec. 9. Entry into program of job training. Sec. 10. Provision of training through educational institutions. Sec. 11. Discontinuance of approval of participation in certain employer programs. Sec. 12. Inspection of records; investigations. Sec. 13. Coordination with other programs. Sec. 14. Counseling. Sec. 15. Information and outreach; use of agency resources. Sec. 16. Authorization of appropriations. Sec. 17. Termination of program. NamNews 3-02 Page 12 4 Feb 1989 Sec. 18. Expansion of targeted delimiting date extension. Sec. 19. Effective date. PURPOSE Sec. 2. The purpose of this Act is to address the problem of severe and continuing unemployment among veterans by providing, in the form of payments to defray the costs of training, incentives to employers to hire and train certain wartime veterans who have been unemployed for long periods of time for stable and permanent positions that involve significant training. DEFINITIONS Sec. 3. For the purposes of this Act: (1) The term "Administrator" means the Administrator of Veterans Affairs. (2) The term "Secretary" means the Secretary of Labor. (3) The terms "veteran", "Korean conflict", "compensation", "service-connected", "active military, naval, or air service", "State", and "Vietnam era", have the meanings given such terms in paragraphs (2), (9), (13), (16), (20), (24), and (29), respectively, of section 101 of title 38, United States Code. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PROGRAM Sec. 4. (a) The Administrator and, to the extent specifically provided by this Act, the Secretary shall carry out a program in accordance with this Act to assist eligible veterans in obtaining employment through training for employment in stable and permanent positions that involve significant training. The program shall be carried out through payments to employers who employ and train eligible veterans in such jobs in order to assist such employers in defraying the costs of necessary training. (b) The Secretary shall carry out the Secretary's responsibilities under this Act through the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Veterans' Employment established under section 2002A of title 38, United States Code. ELIGIBILITY FOR PROGRAM; DURATION OF ASSISTANCE Sec. 5. (a)(1) To be eligible for participation in a job training program under this Act, a veteran must be a Korean conflict or Vietnam-era veteran who-- (A) is unemployed at the time of applying for participation in a program under this Act; and (B) has been unemployed for at least fifteen of the twenty weeks immediately preceding the date of such veteran's application for participation in a program under this Act. (2) For purposes of paragraph (1), the term "Korean conflict or Vietnam-era veteran" means a veteran- (A) who served in the active military, naval, or air service for a period of more than one hundred and eighty days, any part of which was during the Korean conflict or the Vietnam era; or NamNews 3-02 Page 13 4 Feb 1989 (B) who served in the active military, naval, or air service during the Korean conflict or the Vietnam era and-- (i) was discharged or released therefrom for a service-connected disability; or (ii) is entitled to compensation (or but for the receipt of retirement pay would be entitled to compensation). (3) For purposes of paragraph (1), a veteran shall be considered to be unemployed during any period the veteran is without a job and wants and is available for work. (b)(1) A veteran who desires to participate in a program of job training under this Act shall submit to the Administrator an application for participation in such a program. Such an application-- (A) shall include a certification by the veteran that the veteran is unemployed and meets the other criteria for eligibility prescribed by subsection (a); and (B) shall be in such form and contain such additional information as the Administrator may prescribe. (2)(A) Subject to subparagraph (B), the Administrator shall approve an application by a veteran for participation in a program of job training under this Act unless the Administrator finds that the veteran is not eligible to participate in a program of job training under this Act. (B) The Administrator may withhold approval of an application of a veteran under this Act if the Administrator determines that, because of limited funds available for the purpose of making payments to employers under this Act, it is necessary to limit the number of participants in programs under this Act. (3)(A) The Administrator shall certify as eligible for participation under this Act a veteran whose application is approved under this subsection and shall furnish the veteran with a certificate of that veteran's eligibility for presentation to an employer offering a program of job training under this Act. Any such certificate shall expire 60 days after it is furnished to the veteran. The date on which a certificate is furnished to a veteran under this paragraph shall be stated on the certificate. (B) A certificate furnished under this paragraph may, upon the veteran's application, be renewed in accordance with the terms and conditions of subparagraph (A). (C) The maximum period of training for which assistance may be provided on behalf of a veteran under this Act is -- (1) fifteen months in the case of NamNews 3-02 Page 14 4 Feb 1989 (A) a veteran with a service-connected disability rated at 30 percent or more; or (B) a veteran with a service-connected disability rated at 10 percent or 20 percent who has been determined under section 1506 of title 38, United States Code, to have a serious employment handicap; and (2) nine months in the case of any other veteran. EMPLOYEE JOB TRAINING PROGRAMS Sec 6. (a)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), in order to be approved as a program of job training under this Act, a program of job training of an employer approved under section 7 must provide training for a period of not less than six months in an occupation in a growth industry, in an occupation requiring the use of new technological skills, or in an occupation for which demand for labor exceeds supply. (2) A program of job training providing training for a period of at least three but less than six months may be approved if the Administrator determines (in accordance with standards which the Administrator shall prescribe) that the purpose of this Act would be met through that program. (b) Subject to section 10 and the other provisions of this Act, a veteran who has been approved for participation may enter a program of job training that has been approved under section 7 and that is offered to the veteran by the employer. NamNews 3-02 Page 15 4 Feb 1989 APPROVAL OF EMPLOYER PROGRAMS Sec. 7. (a)(1) An employer may be paid assistance under section 8(a) on behalf of an eligible veteran employed by such employer and participating in a program of job training offered by that employer only if the program is approved under this section and in accordance with such procedures as the Administrator may by regulation prescribe. (2) Except as provided in subsection (b), the Administrator shall approve a proposed program of job training of an employer unless the Administrator determines that the application does not contain a certification and other information meeting the requirements established under this section or that withholding of approval is warranted under subsection (g). (b) The Administrator may not approve a program of job training-- (1) for employment which consists of seasonal, intermittent, or temporary jobs; (2) for employment under which commissions are the primary source of income; (3) for employment which involves political or religious activities; (4) for employment with any department, agency, instrumentality, or branch of the Federal Government (including the United States Postal Service and the Postal Rate Commission); or (5) if the training will not be carried out in a State (c) An employer offering a program of job training that the employer desires to have approved for the purposes of this Act shall submit to the Administrator a written application for such approval. Such application shall be in such form as the Administrator shall prescribe. (d) An application under subsection (c) shall include a certification by the employer of the following: (1) That the employer is planning that, upon a veteran's completion of the program of job training, the employer will employ the veteran in a position for which the veteran has been trained and that the employer expects that such a position will be available on a stable and permanent basis to the veteran at the end of the training period. (2) That the wages and benefits to be paid to a veteran participating in the employer's program of job training will be not less than the wages and benefits normally paid to other employees participating in a comparable program of job training. (3) That the employment of a veteran under the program- (A) will not result in the displacement of currently employed workers (including partial displacement such as a reduction in the hours of nonovertime work, wages or employment NamNews 3-02 Page 16 4 Feb 1989 benefits); and (4) That the employer will not employ in the program of job training a veteran who is already qualified by training and experience for the job for which training is to be provided. (5) That the job which is the objective of the training program is one that involves significant training. (6) That the training content of the program is adequate, in light of the nature of the occupation for which training is to be provided and of comparable training opportunities in such occupation, to accomplish the training objective certified under clause(2) of subsection(e). (7) That each participating veteran will be employed full-time in the program of job training. (8) That the training period under the proposed program is not longer than the training periods that employers in the community customarily require new employees to complete in order to become competent in the occupation or job for which training is to be provided. (9) That there are in the training establishment or place of employment such space, equipment, instructional material, and instructor personnel as needed to accomplish the training objective certified under clause of subsection(e). (10) That the employer will keep records adequate to show the progress made by each veteran participating in the program and otherwise to demonstrate compliance with the requirements established under this Act. (11) That the employer will furnish each participating veteran, before the veteran's entry into training, with a copy of the employer's certification under this subsection and will obtain and retain the veteran's signed acknowledgement of having received such certification. (12) That the program meets such other criteria as the Administrator may determine are essential for the effective implementation of the program established by this Act. (e) A certification under subsection (d) shall include-- (1) a statement indicating (A) the total number of hours of participation in the program of job training to be offered a veteran, (B) the length of the program of job training, and (C) the starting rate of wages to be paid to a participant in the program; and (2) a description of the training content of the program (including any agreement the employer has entered into with an educational institution under section (8) and of the objective of the training. (f) (1) Except as specified in paragraph (2), each matter required to be certified to in paragraphs (1) NamNews 3-02 Page 17 4 Feb 1989 through (11) of subsection (d) shall be considered to be a requirement established under this Act. (2) (A) For the purposes of section 8(c), only matters required to be certified (1) through (10) of subsection (d) shall be so considered. (B) For the purposes of section 11, a matter required to be certified under paragraph (12) of subsection (d) shall also be so considered. (g) In accordance with regulations which the Administrator shall prescribe, the Administrator may withhold approval of an employer's proposed program of job training pending the outcome of an investigation under section 12 and, based on the outcome of such an investigation, may disapprove such program. (h) For the purposes of this section, approval of a program of apprenticeship or other on-job training for the purposes of section 1787 of title 38, United States Code, shall be considered to meet all requirements established under this Act for approval of a program of job training. PAYMENTS TO EMPLOYERS; OVERPAYMENT Sec. 8. (a)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (3) and subsection(b) and subject ot the provisions of section 9, the Administrator shall make quarterly payments to an employer of a veteran participating in an approved program of job training under this Act. Subject to section 5(c) and paragraph (2), the amount paid to an employer on behalf of a veteran for any period of time shall be 50 percent of the product of (A) the starting hourly rate of wages paid to the veteran by the employer (without regard to overtime or premium pay), and (B) the number of hours worked by the veteran during that period. (2) The total amount that may be paid to an employer on behalf of a veteran participating in a program of job training under this Act is $10,000 (3) In order to relieve financial burdens on business enterprises with relatively few numbers of employees, the Administrator may make payments under this Act on a monthly, rather than quarterly, basis to an employer with a number of employees less than a number which shall be specified in regulations which the Administrator shall prescribe for the purposes of this paragraph. (b) Payment may not be made to an employer for a period of training under this Act on behalf of a veteran until the Administrator has received -- (1) from the veteran, a certification that the veteran was employed full-time by the employer in a program of job training during such period; and (2) from the employer, a certification-- (A) that the veteran was employed by the employer during that period and that the veteran's NamNews 3-02 Page 18 4 Feb 1989 performance and progress during such period were satisfactory; and (B) of the number of hours worked by the veteran during that period. With respect to the first such certification by an employer with respect to a veteran, the certification shall indicate the date on which the employment of the veteran began and the starting hourly rate of wages paid to the veteran (without regard to overtime or premium pay) (c)(1)(A) Whenever the Administrator finds that an overpayment under this Act has been made to an employer on behalf of a veteran as a result of certification, or information contained in an application, submitted by an employer which was false in any material respect, the amount of such overpayment shall constitute a liability of the employer to the United States. (B) Whenever the Administrator finds that an employer has failed in any substantial respect to comply for a period of time with a requirement established under this Act (unless the employer's failure is the result of false or incomplete information provided by the veteran), each amount paid to the employer on behalf of a veteran for that period shall be considered to be an overpayment under this Act, and the amount of such overpayment shall constitute a liability of the employer to the United States. (2) Whenever the Administrator finds that an overpayment under this Act has been made to an employer on behalf of a veteran as a result of a certification by the veteran, or as a result of information provided to an employer or contained in an application submitted by the veteran, which was willfully or negligently false in any material respect, the amount of such overpayment shall constitute a liability of the veteran to the United States. (3) Any overpayment referred to in paragraph (1) or (2) may be recovered in the same manner as any other debt due the United States. Any overpayment recovered shall be credited to funds available to make payments under this Act. If there are no such funds, any overpayment recovered shall be deposited into the Treasury. (4) Any overpayment referred to in paragraph (1) or (2) may be waived, in whole or in part, in accordance with the terms and conditions set forth in section 3102 of title 38, United States Code. NamNews 3-02 Page 19 4 Feb 1989 ENTRY INTO PROGRAM OF JOB TRAINING Sec. 9. Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, the Administrator may withhold or deny approval of a veteran's entry into an approved program of job training if the Administrator determines that funds are not available to make payments under this Act on behalf of the veteran to the employer offering that program. Before the entry of a veteran into an approved program of job training of an employer for purposes of assistance under this Act, the employer shall notify the Administrator of the employer's intention to employ that veteran. The veteran may begin such program of job training with the employer two weeks after the notice is transmitted to the Administrator unless within that time the employer has received notice from the Administrator that approval of the veteran's entry into that program of job training must be withheld or denied in accordance with this section. PROVISION OF TRAINING THROUGH EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS Sec. 10. An employer may enter into an agreement with an educational institution that has been approved for the enrollment of veterans under chapter 34 of title 38, United States Code, in order that such institution may provide a program of job training (or a portion of such a program) under this Act. When such an agreement has been entered into, the application of the employer under section 7 shall so state and shall include a description of the training to be provided under the agreement. DISCONTINUANCE OF APPROVAL OF PARTICIPATION IN CERTAIN EMPLOYER PROGRAMS Sec. 11. If the Administrator finds at any time that a program of job training previously approved by the Administrator for the purposes of this Act thereafter fails to meet any of the requirements established under this Act, the Administrator may immediately disapprove further participation by veterans in that program. The Administrator shall provide to the employer concerned, and to each veteran participating in the employer's program, a statement of the reasons for, and an opportunity for a hearing with respect to, such disapproval. The employer and each such veteran shall be notified of such disapproval, the reasons for such disapproval, and the opportunity for a hearing. Notification shall be by a certified or registered letter, and a return receipt shall be secured. INSPECTION OF RECORDS; INVESTIGATIONS Sec. 12. (a) The records and accounts of employers pertaining to veterans on behalf of whom assistance has been paid under this Act, as well as other records that the Administrator determines to be necessary to ascertain compliance with the requirements established under this Act, shall be available at reasonable times for examination by authorized representatives of the Federal Government. (b) The Administrator may monitor employers and veterans participating in programs of job training under this Act to determine compliance with the requirements established under this Act. NamNews 3-02 Page 20 4 Feb 1989 (c) The Administrator may investigate any matter the Administrator considers necessary to determine compliance with the requirements established under this Act. The investigations authorized by this subsection may include examining records (including making certified copies of records), questioning employees, and entering into any premises or onto any side where any part of a program of job training is conducted under this Act, or where any of the records of the employer offering or providing such program are kept. (d) The Administrator may administer functions under subsections (b) and (c) in accordance with an agreement between the Administrator and the Secretary providing for the administration of such subsections (or any portion of such subsections) by the Department of Labor. Under such an agreement, any entity of the Department of Labor specified in the agreement may administer such subsections, notwithstanding section 4(b). COORDINATION WITH OTHER PROGRAMS Sec. 13.(a)(1) Assistance may not be paid under this Act to an employer on behalf of a veteran for any period time described in paragraph (2) and to such veteran under chapter 31, 32, 34, 35, or 36 of title 38, United States Code, for the same period of time. (2) A period of time referred ot in paragraph (1) is the period of time beginning on the date on which the veteran enters into an approved program of job training of an employer for purposes of assistance under this Act and ending on the last date for which such assistance is payable. (b) Assistance may not be paid under this Act to an employer on behalf of an eligible veteran for any period if the employer receives for that period any other form of assistance on account of the training or employment of the veteran, including assistance under the Job Training Partnership Act (29 U.S.C. 1501 et seq.) or a credit under section 44B of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 (26 U.S.C. 44B) (relating to credit for employment of certain new employees). (c) Assistance may not be paid under this Act on behalf of a veteran who has completed a program of job training under this Act. COUNSELING Sec. 14. The Administrator and the Secretary may, upon request, provide employment counseling services to any veteran eligible to participate under this Act in order to assist such veteran in selecting a suitable program of job training under this Act. INFORMATION AND OUTREACH; USE OF AGENCY RESOURCES Sec. 15.(a)(1) The Administrator and the Secretary shall jointly provide for an outreach and public information program-- (A) to inform veterans about the employment and NamNews 3-02 Page 21 4 Feb 1989 training opportunities available under this Act, under chapters 31, 34, 36, 41, and 42 of title 38, United States Code, and under other provisions of law; and (B) to inform private industry and business concerns (including small business concerns), public agencies and organizations, educational institutions, trade associations, and labor unions about the job training opportunities available under, and the advantages of participating in, the program established by this Act. (2) The Secretary, in consultation with the Administrator, shall promote the development of employment and job training opportunities for veterans by encouraging potential employers to make programs of job training under this Act available for eligible veterans, by advising other appropriate Federal departments and agencies of the program established by this Act, and by advising employers of applicable responsibilities under chapters 41 and 42 of title 38, United States Code, with respect to veterans. (b) The Administrator and the Secretary shall coordinate the outreach and public information program under subsection (a)(1), and job development activities under subsection (a)(2), with job counseling, placement, job development, and other services provided for under chapters 41 and 42 of title 38, United States Code, and with other similar services offered by other public agencies and organizations. (c)(1) The Administrator and the Secretary shall make available in regional and local offices of the Veterans' Administration and the Department of Labor such personnel as are necessary to facilitate the effective implementation of this Act. (2) In carrying out the responsibilities of the Secretary under this Act, the Secretary shall make maximum use of the services of State and Assistant State Directors for Veterans' Employment, disabled veterans' outreach program specialists, and employees of local offices appointed pursuant to sections 2003, 2003A, and 2004 of title 38, United States Code. The Secretary shall also use such resources as are available under part C of title IV of the Job Training Partnership Act (29 U.S.C. 1501 et seq.). To the extent that the Administrator withholds approval of veterans' applications under this Act pursuant to section 5(b)(2)(B), the Secretary shall take steps to assist such veterans in taking advantage of opportunities that may be available to them under title III of that Act or under any other program carried out with funds provided by the Secretary. (d) The Secretary shall request and obtain from the Administrator of the Small Business Administration a NamNews 3-02 Page 22 4 Feb 1989 list of small businesses concerns and shall, on a regular basis, update such list. Such list shall be used to identify and promote possible training and employment opportunities for veterans. (e) The Administrator and the Secretary shall assist veterans and employers desiring to participate under this Act in making application and completing necessary certifications. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS Sec. 16. There is authorized to be appropriated to the Veterans' Administration $150,000,000 for each of fiscal years 1984 and 1985 for the purpose of making payments to employers under this Act and for the purpose of section 18 of this Act. Amounts appropriated pursuant to this section shall remain available until September 30, 1986. TERMINATION OF PROGRAM Sec. 17.(a) Except as provided under subsection (b) assistance may not be paid to an employer under this Act -- (1) on behalf of a veteran who applies for a program of job training under this Act after September 30, 1984; or (2) for any such program which begins after December 31, 1984 (b) If funds are not both appropriated under section 16 and made available by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget ot the Veterans' Administration on or before October 1, 1983, for the purpose of making payments to employers under this Act, assistance may be paid to an employer under this Act on behalf of a veteran if the veteran-- (1) applies for a program of job training under this Act within one year after the date on which funds so appropriated are made available to the Veterans' Administration by the Director; and (2) begins participation in such program within fifteen months after such date. EXPANSION OF TARGETED DELIMITING DATE EXTENSION Sec. 18.(a) Subject to the limitation on the availability of funds set forth in subsection (b), an associate degree program which is predominantly vocational in content may be considered by the Administrator, for the purposes of section 1662(a)(3) of title 38, United States Code, to be a course with an approved vocational objective if such degree program meets the requirements established in such title for approval of such program. (b) Funds for the purpose of carrying out subsection (a) shall be derived only from amounts appropriated pursuant to the authorizations of appropriations in section 16. Not more than a total of $25,000,000 of amounts so appropriated for fiscal years 1984 and 1985 shall be available for that purpose. NamNews 3-02 Page 23 4 Feb 1989 EFFECTIVE DATE Sec. 19. This Act shall take effect on October 1, 1983. Approved August 15, 1983. ___________________________________________________________ LEGISLATIVE HISTORY - H.R. 2355 (S.1033): ___________________ HOUSE REPORT No. 98-116 (Comm. on Veterans' Affairs) SENATE REPORT No. 98-132 accompanying S. 1033 (Comm. on Veterans' Affairs) CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, Vol 129 (1983): June 6, 7, considered and passed House. June 15, considered and passed Senate, amended, in lieu of S. 1033 Aug. 3, Senate concurred in House Amendments. NamNews 3-02 Page 24 4 Feb 1989 Arts of War By: Marc Leepson Taken from "The Veteran" Vol. 8 No. 10 The movie version of Bobbie Ann Mason's wonderful, Vietnam- inspired novel, "In County", is now in production. Most of it is being shot on location, in and around Mayfield, Mason's western Kentucky hometown, which in the book is called Hopewell. Emily Lloyd, a 17-year old British actress, plays the lead character, Sam. She is trying to find out about her father who was killed in Vietnam before she was born. Bruce Willis plays her Uncle Emmett, a veteran who's walking the proverbial emotional thin line. Director Norman (Moonstruck, A Soldier's Story, In the Heat of the Night) Jewison is behind the camera. Mason's book centers on Sam's quest and features Vietnam veterans in key roles. We're happy to report that film-makers have sought out Vietnam veterans to help with the movie. Dr. R. Gordon Williams of VVA Chapter 337, in Paducah, Kentucky, for example, is serving as the films unofficial technical advisor. Jim Beaver, a writer and actor who has done scripts for "Tour of Duty", and HBO's "Vietnam War Story", plays a vet. A slew of other Chapter 337 members have small acting parts. The word from the veterans is that Jewison and crew are listening carefully to the ideas of the vets on the set. It appears the film-makers are working hard to try to portray the veterans in the film as realistically as possible without resorting to stereotypes. "When I see some of the clips of what's already been filmed," says Williams, a psychologist who has done a lot of work with veterans, "I see some of the guys up there on the screen, where they might literally be sen by people all over the world. And it's a minor miracle for them to have been willing to do that. It's part of the healing process for them and for the country as a whole. NamNews 3-02 Page 25 4 Feb 1989 "Did you know that..." Submitted by Canadian Vietnam Veterans - Ottawa Input by: Vetlink #1 Did you know that... ... during the Vietnam War the insect repellant issued to military personnel was 25% DDT known as a Carcinogen. DDT has caused allergic contact dermatitis in humans; ... during the Vietnam War the number of -- arms lost in battle was about 800 -- legs lost in battle was about 4,500 -- hands lost in battle was about 170 -- multiple amputations was 1,081 Total number of Disabled Vietnam Era Vets -- 331,611 ... after Jane Fonda's phoney apology on the ABC-TV program "20-20", on checking the story, it was uncovered that Barbara Walters is married to Merve Adelson, the Chief Executive Officer of Lorimar Productions! They distribute millions of dollars "worth" of Jane's Exercise and Instruction Videos every year... No wonder the "interview" by the normally very aggressive Barbara Walters was so easy for Janie!! ... according to the American Legion Magazine, about 43% of Americans - 27.7 million veterans and 78.4 million dependents are potentially eligible for VA services. WHAT A TREMENDOUS VOTING BLOCK!!! ... Wednesday, July 27, 1988 marked the 35th observance of the "Cease Fire" in Korea and forty thousand American Troops continue to maintain a fragile peace. Over five (5) million American men and women served in the war from 1950 to 1953. CASUALTIES: 54,246 died; 103,284 wounded; 8,177 missing in action. WHY??? In October, 1986 President Reagan signed into law a bill authorizing the creation of the Korean War Memorial by public subscription. Long termed a "Police Action", the conflict has been declared a war by this act. In late June, a site on the mall adjacent to the Lincoln Memorial, and in proximity to the Vietnam Memorial, and the proposed Vietnam Nurses' statue, was assigned. Congress also mandated the American Battle Monuments commission to assume responsibility for raising the estimated $6 million needed to complete the project. PLEASE MAKE YOUR TAX DEDUCTIBLE CONTRIBUTIONS TO: THE KOREAN WAR MEMORIAL TRUST FUND/ABMC, 5127 PULASKI BUILDING, 20 MASSACHUSETTS AVE. N.W., WASHINGTON, D.C. 20314 (submitted to the Canadian Veteran by: Gene Yarnell, Mich. Coordinator, Korean War Awareness Project) NamNews 3-02 Page 26 4 Feb 1989 'Where is my father?' Newsweek April 15, 1983 pp54-57 by Melinda Beck with Frank Gibney, Jr. in Bangkok, Shawn Doherty in New York, Holly Morris in Mississippi, Melinda LU in Bataan, Michael Reese in Los Angeles and Monroe Anderson in Minneapolis input by: VETLink #1 'Remember me because I'll come back for you. I love you -- Al' Those words scrawled on the back of a yellowing snapshot are all that Nguyen Minh Tam knows of his American father. The photo of a young GI with his arm around Tam's mother helped him endure the special alienation reserved for a half-breed outcast born into poverty and bigotry in Vietnam. When Tam was 10 he missed a rendezvous with his fleeing mother and spent the next four years living in a one-room apartment in Ho Chi Minh City with his aunt and grandmother. He was expelled from school with no explanation. He went for years without a new toy or new clothes. When Tam arrived in Long Beach, California., last month [Mar '83] - his features hauntingly like those of the lean, unsmiling American in the photo - he submitted to an awkward hug and asked his mother almost immediately: "Where is my father?" Tam is one of the lucky ones. An estimated 8,000 to 15,000 children were sired by American servicemen and civilians during the Vietnam War, and the vast majority remain in Vietnam today, left behind like broken-down jeeps. In a society proud of its ethnic purity, they are ostracized for their black or Caucasian features, unwelcome reminders that Vietnamese women slept with the enemy. Abandoned by their fathers, some have been rejected by their mothers as well and left to scavenge in the streets, where they are called BUI DOI -- dust of life. They are the living legacy of the U.S. presence in Vietnam, and 10 years after the war their fate remains mired in bureaucratic tangles and the fickle relations of two nations that treat their common offspring as little better than political pawns. Vietnam has said it will let every Amerasian leave immediately - if the United States officially accepts responsibility for them. But Washington still resists bilateral negotiations with Hanoi. Instead, since 1982, the Reagan administration has been accepting some Amerasians through a United Nations refugee program designed for Vietnamese boat people. The State Department says the Orderly Departure Program is working. But in fact it is far from orderly, and at the current pace - one flight a month brings Amerasians from Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok - it could take 10 years to bring them all to American shores (The French, by contrast, took 25,000 mixed French-Vietnamese with them when they left Vietnam in 1954 and offered them all French citizenship when they turned 18.). Today, the half-American children are less visible on Vietnamese streets than in the years just after the war. Many have scattered to outlying provinces and some Vietnamese mothers blacken their hair with shoe polish to disguise their appearance. Hanoi denies any official policy of discrimination, but many Amerasians tell of being teased and beaten by their pure Vietnamese peers. Mostly, they have grown up as hardened survivors among the poorest of Vietnam's poor. While few of their mothers were actually NamNews 3-02 Page 27 4 Feb 1989 prostitutes, most were working-class girls. Tran Ngot Guy, 16, dropped out of school to support his family selling cigarettes. He does not know his father's name or his whereabouts, only that his mother worked for the U.S. Army near Da Nang. "How far is America?" he asks a Western visitor. Those who wish to leave must hazard a perilous course through the Vietnamese bureaucracy. Phuong, a 14-year old orphan who didn't know his last name, walked from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City last year when he heard about the refugee program, and he was allow to leave within months. But most apply first at local security offices, then at provincial offices and finally in Ho Chi Minh City -- a Kafkaesque process that can take years and require as many as 30 signatures and multiple fees. (Between unofficial charges and outright bribes, the average escape fee is two to three taels of gold -- about $1,000). "These people live from day to day not knowing what their status is," says one ODP official. "Some of the forms they fill out make tax forms look easy." Dealing with American authorities can be almost as frustrating. Since no U.S. officials can work in Ho Chi Minh City, United Nations staffers interview those who win exit visas and pass information on to U.S. personnel in Bangkok for approval. Often, the U.S. and Vietnamese files don't match. And given Vietnam's lack of computerized records, if the U.S. side wants information on a particular child, "someone is liable to have to look through thousands of pieces of paper to find it," says one resettlement worker. Still, most Amerasians are approved quickly; if birth certificates are missing, U.S. staffers can now accept old letters, photos or even the childs physical appearance as proof of his American ties. But mothers and other relatives who wish to emigrate must prove they are related, and often they lack proper papers. The traditional Vietnamese family register, the Ho Kau, is one form of proof - but many Amerasians were never registered, lest they taint the family name. The scrutiny is necessary, U.S. officials say, because as word of the departure program spreads, so do abuses. Stories abound of some wealthy Vietnamese "buying" Amerasians from desperate mothers and forging documents to send themselves or their children out with them. Yet while some such "piggybacking" families make it to the United States, some real family members must stay behind. Fourteen-year-old Le Thi Thien and her grandmother spent two years filling out application forms so that the family could emigrate; Thien's grandmother sold her house to pay exit fees. In the end, only Thien was allow to come through ODP. "At first I didn't want to go," she said through an interpreter when she arrived in Minneapolis last month. "But my grandmother talked me into it. She told me I would have a better chance here." Those Amerasians who successfully navigate the bureaucratic shoals soon find themselves in an emotional and cultural limbo. The majority do emigrate with relatives and are sent to refugee- processing centers in Indochina for orientation into American ways. In Bataan, the largest of the camps, the training is in practical basics: how to flush a toilet, use a post office, buy food in a supermarket and read help-wanted ads. The emegres learn rudimentary English and experience Western living in a full-scale model home, complete with a vacuum cleaner, a blender and a video- NamNews 3-02 Page 28 4 Feb 1989 cassette recorder playing "Superman" tapes. They are also offered job training. "Don't think you deserve to go on welfare," one American teacher tells students. Once in the United States, however, many families do end up on welfare -- at least temporarily. And because sponsoring community groups are scarce, some are crowded into tiny apartments in big cities. One mother who trekked 250 miles to bring her Amerasian son to America was settled in a New York welfare apartment and now fears for him in a crime-ridden Bronx high school. Another, Nguyen Thi Sen, shared a crowded flat in Rochester, N.Y., with two more refugee mothers and their three Amerasian children. "Who will want me? I am old and have a language problem," she says. Those Amerasians who emigrate alone - "unaccompanied minors" - come directly to the United States and are placed with foster families under the auspices of Catholic and Lutheran agencies. The transition from a hardened street life to a suburban middle- class home can be wrenching. Many arrive in poor health, suffering everything from parasites to malnourishment; almost all need dental care. Their emotional scars take even longer to heal. Some barely understand why they have been sent to America and sense only rejection again. Taken to lunch shortly after he arrived in Jackson, Miss., 15-year-old Dat Quoc Le (not his real name) would say only, "Eat. Very sad. Think my mama." Volunteer workers say some Amerasians invent elaborate fantasies when the first arrive - possibly to cover old wounds. "Dat" told his foster family he had escaped from Vietnam by boat across the shark-infested South China Sea and spent eight months in a refugee camp eating nothing but "rice-chicken soup, bleah!" (Case workers know for a fact he left Vietnam on a 747, spent 10 days in Bangkok and flew on to the United States.) One 14-year-old first said that her Vietnamese adoptive family had hired her out as a servant. Later, she said her grandfather sent her out to work. Noting that her vocabulary is that of a street urchin, volunteers still don't think they've heard the whole story. "I think we're going to hear that her grandfather threw her out of the house and she lives as a street child for two years," says Lou Johnson, director of the refugee-minors program for Mississippi Catholic Charities. Typically, the Amerasians go through pendular mood swings as they adjust to American life-- ranging from fear to frustration to guilt about family left behind. Many suffer from chronic low self-esteem. "They have attitudes like, 'Anybody in the past who's ever meant anything to me has abandoned me, so I'm not going to let you get close to me because you're going to do the same thing'," says psychologist Dennis Hunt, director of the refugee- minors program in northern Virginia. Those with black fathers face special problems - and some exhibit surprisingly strong hatred of their racial heritage. Unsuspecting volunteers placed one Afro-Amerasian girl with a black foster family in Jackson - and her reaction toward her well-meaning foster father was pure rage. Later she said she had promised her mother never to let a black man tough her like her father had touched her mother. The pressure to succeed is enormous - in part because Amerasians often see America as their last chance for acceptance. Many threaten or attempt suicide at some point. For all the adjustment NamNews 3-02 Page 29 4 Feb 1989 problems, however, there are rewards. Adapting quickly to life in East Bethel, Minn., Le Thi Thien asked her foster family to call her "Linda," the name she says her father gave her, and pronounced America "amazing." And, says Hunt, "there's the kid who arrives at the airport and tears come to his eyes - because he's never seen so many people who look like him. In all, 2,408 Amerasians have emigrated through the Orderly Departure Program, and controversy continues over the thousands remaining in Vietnam. U.S. officials say they would accept more if Vietnam would send them. Vietnam contends that America still requires too much proof of their U.S. parentage. In 1982 Congress passed a law that should have eased the situation: it granted all Amerasians born in Southeast Asia since 1950 first visa preference under U.S. immigration law and loosened requirements for proving their American ties. But the State Department has refused to use the bill on the ground that it contained no provisions for family members. "They have thrown every brick possible in the roadway on this matter," fumes Rep. Steward McKinney of Connecticut, the bill's leading sponsor, who has called for House oversight hearings into the issue. Other critics are just as frustrated. "Where there's a will, there's a way, and we have no will," fumes John Shade, former director of the Pearl Buck Foundation. "The U.S. government has never accepted the fact that these are the progeny of our own loins." About 150 Amerasians with welcoming American fathers have emigrated through another route: as U.S. citizens. Human Right Advocates International, a public-interest law firm, contends that all the Amerasians should be recognized as citizens and expedited on that basis. But U.S. officials say that to qualify for citizenship, a child born overseas must have an identifiable American parent who is willing to legitimate him. (In 22 states a father can do so without marrying the mother.) "We don't have fathers with names, let alone fathers who would legitimate the birth," says the State Department's Frank Sieverts. Still, HRAI attorneys say that even where some desperate fathers have taken legitimation steps, they can't seem to satisfy the U.S. and Vietnamese bureaucracies. "Two sovereign nations are playing games at the expense of children," charged HRAI's Charles Printz. Where possible, government staffers make some efforts to contact fathers and determine whether they want to see their offspring. "The vast majority say, 'No way. I have a different life now', says one U.S. official formerly with the program. Some fathers are willing to provide assistance - but only if their Amerasian children do not intrude on their present lives. One former Special Forces officer, now a high-ranking intelligence official in Washington, made such a request when he learned that his Amerasian daughter and her mother were emigrating. Describing himself as a "standard male shit," he told NEWSWEEK's Nicholas M. Horrock he had last seen the girl when she was six months old. He left her mother with a house, a bank account and a sewing machine, and later married another Vietnamese. "I have a family now," he said. "I can't let anything intrude on our happiness." It is not uncommon for such notations to be put into veterans' service records. Their emigrating Amerasian children and their mothers are generally never told. So most children go on dreaming of joyous reunions, cling to crumpled letters and scanning every NamNews 3-02 Page 30 4 Feb 1989 face they see for a resemblance to an old photo. Most will never shake the mixture of hope and hurt and wonder, though some harbor the sad belief that they must travel much further in life to be worthy of a father's love. Ten-year-old Tuan, now living with his mother in Rochester, hopes to become an aircraft mechanic like his father. That way he can "earn a lot of money and find him when he grows older," Tuan says. "Then I will be able to take care of him and he will want me." -- Resettlement agencies need foster families for Amerasians and other children - and volunteers to assist refugee families. If you want to help, write Interaction, 200 Park Avenue South, New York, N.Y. 10003 for information on local programs. [Note from Gjoseph Peck, Sysop, VETLink #1: As past owner/operator of my own TV/Radio repair business and one who TRIED to offer a home to Vietnamese refugees or Amerasian children, I must wholeheartely agree that there is a lot of Red Tape put forth by the State Department. Requirements at the time I tried were such that a person almost had to guarantee total support for a period of at least a year in order to provide a home for ANY Vietnamese refugee before the State Department would even look into anything. Of course, attempting to provide a home for Amerasian children or a Vietnamese refugee did bring its reprisals from some of my then- local Vietnam veterans community.] NamNews 3-02 Page 31 4 Feb 1989 'Thunder Explores World of 'Bush Vet' Hollywood- Director Rick Rosenthal pops a cassette tape into his VCR and on screen appear five men, arms folded, leaning casually against the back of a car. They wear blue jeans and flannel shirts and camouflage jackets under a threatening Pacific Northwest sky. One by one, the men begin to talk about what it means to be a Vietnam veteran still haunted by the past. A voice behind the camera asks about the phenomenon of the "bush vet," and each man takes a turn trying to explain his own intense need to escape society, to seek isolation--often for months at a time--in Washington's rain forests. Even a small town, says on, "is too much to handle". The stories of these five men--along with other troubled vets in Washington state--helped shape the characters and plot line of a fictional account of veterans in Rosenthal's new film, "Distant Thunder." And Rosenthal, by putting actor John Lithgow on the screen in a vivid portrayal of a bush vet trying to re-enter society, has in turn deeply affected the lives of these men. VA DISPUTES CLAIMS "The movie has sure been an aid to my therapy," said Bruce Webster, who counsels these and other troubled vets from his office in Port Angeles, Wash. "Maybe (my patients) weren't as extreme as the characters in the film, but (the film-makers) were certainly in the ball-park." But Veterans Administration officials who attended early screenings of the film in Washington, D.C. were not as pleased. The VA immediately raised objections to a fact sheet passed out at the screening claiming that between 54,000 and 108,000 Vietnam veterans have committed suicide since the war, possibly exceeding the 58,156 Americans who died in combat. The agency also complained to Paramount Pictures about the filmmakers' claim that 35,000 to 45,000 veterans have left their homes and families, retreating to the wilderness and living in isolation as bush vets. At other screeings, those figures were displayed as an epilogue at the end of the film itself. After VA officials contacted Paramount, the studio stopped distributing the fact sheet and dropped plans to show the epilogue at the end of the film when it opens nationwide in January. 'REAL PHENOMENON' John P. Wilson, a Cleveland State University psychologist who has written extensively about veterans' problems, agreed that the suicide figure claimed by the filmmakers for Vietnam vets was high. However, he said, high suicide rates Vietnam vets "is a real phenomenon." He said that he and other vet counselors regularly deal with such cases, but added that no accurate NamNews 3-02 Page 32 4 Feb 1989 numbers exist on the problem. A 1986 study in the New England Journal of Medicine, Wilson said, concluded that Vietnam veterans have up to a 25 percent higher chance of committing suicide than their same-age peers. The rate among those men who were actually in combat, Wilson added, could be much higher. But Wilson disputed the VA's claim that the number of bush vets listed in the Paramount fact sheet was "ludicrous." The 35,000 to 45,000 figure, Wilson said, "is a conservative estimate." In "Distant Thunder", Lithgow plays a bush vet who has left his family behind and retreated to the Washington wilerness. Early in the film, he watches a fellow vet commit suicide. Shaken, Lithgow re-evaluates his life, determining to seek a reconciliation with his 18-year-old son, played by Ralph Macchio. Like other aspects of the film, the suicide episode is based on actual incidents: News reports surfaced several years ago that Vietnam vets in Florida had walked along railroad tracks until they were killed by oncoming trains--tragedies that came to be known as "kissing a train." POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS The lives of bush vets also has been a subject of news accounts, convincing producer Robert Schaffel, a Vietnam Warveteran himself, that their story should be told. "It was devastating to me that guys were living under these conditions," Schaffel said. "It haunted me; I couldn't shake it." "Distant Thunder's" depiction of a man afflicted with a syndrome called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder also is likely to strike close to home for thousands of Vietnam veterans. North Carolina's Research Triangle Institute submitted a congressionally mandated study to the Veterans Administration concluding that 480,000 veterans--15.2 percent of all Vietnam vets and 38 percent of those who experienced "high levels of war-zone stress" in combat--suffer from the disorder. The disorder is characterized by such symptons as intense flashbacks and nightmares, fear of coming into contact with anything that will remind them about the war, and a "hypervigilance" to their environment. These vets might appear anxious and full of anger, unable to concentrate or complete a task, and distrustful of others, including family members, William Schlenger, senior research psychologist at the Research Triangle Institute said. REPLAYS LIFE NamNews 3-02 Page 33 4 Feb 1989 Many of these men retreat to the wilderness, clustering in places like the Pacific Northwest and the Rocky Mountains. While Schlenger said the filmakkers' estimates on the number of bush vets may be high, there is no doubt that many men ar living under these conditions. Inside Rosenthal's office at Universal Studios, the director puts another videocassette into his VCR. This time the image on the screen is actor Denis Arnt, who plays a bush vet who lives his life eerily near the edge of sanity. Arnt is a well-known stage actor in the Pacific Northwest. But he also served as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam for eight years. He made this video because he wanted to make a statement to Rosenthal and the other filmmakers. Arnt looks into the camera, puffing a cigarette with nervous energy. As a helicopter pilot, he says, he dropped off a lot of men into the heart of combat--men like the character portrayed by Lithgow. And he never quite got over it. "This whole year has been an extermely emotional experience," Arnt syas. "I feel like in a way I came back to pick those guys up." "you know history is not really going to talk about the Vietnam War in terms of which men were in power, or what were the tactics and strategies of how the great battles were won or lost. The true story is going to exist in the emotions of a generation who bear the consequences of an ill-conceived enterprise." This was written by: Nina J. Easton and first appeared in the Omaha World Herald Entertainment section of the Sunday newspaper on January 1, l989. NamNews 3-02 Page 34 4 Feb 1989 ================================================================= WANTED ================================================================= NAM VET NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIPTION FORM The Nam Vet Newsletter is a nonprofit publication available free of charge to anyone wishing to have a copy. It can be obtained in electronic computer format by anyone having access to a computer and modem by dialing up any of the IVVEC hosting bulletin board systems listed in this issue of the Nam Vet. It can also be mailed to you in printed format if you are willing to pay the $1.67 cost for postage and the mailing envelope. If you desire to have the Nam Vet mailed to you in printed format, please complete the subscription form below, clip it out, and mail it to: Nam Vet Newsletter Vietnam Veterans Valhalla 28 Cecil Avenue San Jose, California 95128 If you send your payment in check or money order, please make it payable to Todd Looney. NAME_____________________________________________________________ STREET ADDRESS __________________________________________________ CITY/STATE/ZIP __________________________________________________ AMOUNT ENCLOSED ($1.67 per month desired) _______________________ If this subscription is for someone else, to whom shall we credit the gift? ______________________________________ Feb89 NamNews 3-02 Page 35 4Feb 1989 ================================================================== OFFICIAL NODELIST - INTERNATIONAL VIETNAM VETERANS ECHO CONFERENCE ================================================================== 20 January 1989 As of the above date, these are the net/nodes currently receiving the IVVEC Echo. If you have any ADDITIONS, DELETIONS, or CHANGES to report, please Contact Woody Carmack at 1:153/130 (1-604-462-8753 Data) or leave a message in the IVVEC. We will acknowledge receipt of your note. ================================================================= NET/ MAX NODE BBS NAME City/State/Country Phone BAUD ================================================================ 632/350 Yarra Valley BBS Melbourne Austr AU 61-3-848-331 1200 114/113 Corwin's Keep Tempe AZ 1-602-894-1470 2400 114/13 Corwin's Keep Tempe AZ 1-602-894-1470 2400 153/123 DAETECH Burnaby BC 1-604-420-2641 9600 153/130 Vietnam Veterans In Canada 9600 HST 1-604-462-8753 Headquarters, Vietnam Veterans In Canada 153/501 Valley Hub Clearbrook BC 1-604-850-0021 2400 153/508 Ebenezer Christian BBS Mission BC 1-604-826-6607 9600 153/133 Hot Line Data Network Langley BC 1-604-533-0421 2400 220/20 Old Frog's Almanac Nanaimo BC 1-604-758-3072 2400 103/507 Philosopher's Log Anaheim CA 1-714-535-1258 9600 NamNews 3-02 Page 36 4Feb 1989 200/100 The Board Room Belmont Shores CA 1-213-498-6425 2400 161/502 Wildcat Benicia CA 1-707-746-5820 2400 161/66 Generic BBS Citrus Heights CA 1-916-722-3659 2400 203/66 Generic BBS Citrus Heights CA 1-916-722-3659 2400 161/1 Nerd's Nook Concord CA 1-415-672-2504 9600 202/401 jabberWOCky Escondido CA 1-619-743-9935 2400 161/34 Now and Zen OPUS Fair Oaks CA 1-916-962-1952 9600 161/56 Nat'l Family Forum Freemont, CA 1-415-651-4147 2400 161/7 Mover Mouse BBS Fremont, CA 1-415-883-1644 2400 200/200 CSULB Long Beach, CA 1-213-494-8737 1200 161/39 Nightline Mather AFB, CA 1-916-362-1755 2400 161/509 Enterprize Pinole, CA 1-415-758-1650 2400 161/11 The Byte Boutique Sacramento CA 1-916-483-8032 2400 161/5 River City II OPUS Sacramento, CA 1-916-646-9678 9600 161/943 Eagle's Nest Sacramento, CA 1-916-334-2822 9600 10/215 Silver BBS San Diego, CA 1-619-226-4502 2400 125/31 Echo Coord San Francisco CA 1-415-621-5206 9600 143/27 Vietnam Veterans Valhalla San Jose CA 1-408-293-7894 2400 1:14/662 Todd Looney 24Hrs 365Days BinkleyTERM 2.0 CM Headquarters, Vietnam Veterans Valhalla 143/86 Cat's Tail BBS S T O P San Mateo CA 1-415-349-8245 2400 125/78 Living Sober BBS San Mateo, CA 1-415-342-2859 2400 125/12 The Grape Vine Santa Rosa, CA 1-707-546-4938 2400 NamNews 3-02 Page 37 4Feb 1989 125/7 Survival Forum Santa Rosa, CA 1-707-545-0746 9600 HST 103/501 Mount Silverthorn Tustin, CA 1-714-544-3369 2400 104/28 Pinecliff BBS Boulder, CO 1-303-444-7073 2400 128/13 COSUG-Colorado's User Clrdo Spg CO 1-404-548-0726 2400 128/16 Firenet Leader Colorado Spring CO 1-303-591-9600 2400 104/739 The Phoenix Parker, CO 1-303-841-9570 2400 104/51 P2 B2 South Denver, CO 1-303-329-3337 2400 141/488 Alice's Restaurant Branford CT 1-203-488-1115 2400 141/250 Wilton Woods Wilton, CT 1-203=762-8481 9600 135/27 Bitsy's Place Miami Beach FL 1-305-865-0495 1200 135/35 The Way Out BBS Miami, FL 1-305-665-3283 1200 363/9 Wit's End Orlanda, FL 1-305-894-0807 1200 363/10 Midas Touch Orlando, FL 1-305-648-1133 1200 366/38 Jolly Green Giant Shalimar, FL 1-904-651-3875 9600 18/43 Athens Echo Athens, GA 1-404-546-7857 9600 370/10 OnLine OPUS Athens, GA 1-404-548-0726 2400 370/5 Athens Forum Athens, GA 1-404-546-7857 9600 12/7 HPCUA Honolulu HI 1-808-422-8406 9600 12/1 Aura Net Honolulu, HI 1-808-533-0190 2400 115/761 ICS/TRIX 1 OPUS Chicago, IL 1-312-761-7887 2400 115/529 Elk Grove Repeater Elk Grove Vlg IL 1-312-529-1586 2400 115/20 North Shore BBS Evanston, IL 1-312-491-2611 2400 115/429 Chicago Business Evanston, IL 1-312-491-2611 2400 232/4 Runways End OPUS Peoria, IL 1-309-691-5416 9600 HST 11/202 The SouthSide BBS Indianapolis, IN 1-317-882-9330 1200 227/1 Michiana TechLine Mishawaka, IN 1-219-258-0286 9600 NamNews 3-02 Page 38 4Feb 1989 227/150 The SX Project Whiting IN 1-219-659-2711 2400 108/90 DATANET Information Syste Erlanger KY 1-606-727-3638 2400 108/50 The ZOO BBS Independence, KY 1-606-283-2040 2400 321/109 PIONEER VALLEY PCUG #1 Amherst, MA 1-413-256-1037 9600 HST 321/201 Mountain Top Dalton, MA 1-413-684-2886 2400 321/203 VETLink #1 Pittsfield, MA 1-413-443-6313 2400 G.Joseph Peck 109/722 Ronnie's Roadies BBS Camp Springs MD 1-301-736-0135 1200 109/648 Falcon's Rock College Park, MD 1-301-345-7459 2400 13/33 Avi-Technic Lutherville, MD 1-301-252-0717 9600 13/30 The Futurists BBS Perry Hall, MD 1-301-529-0716 9600 261/628 Liberty Hall Reisterstown, MD 1-301-833-8933 2400 261/628.1 Systemhouse Link Reisterstown, MD 1-301-833-8933 2400 109/717 The Tin Badge BBS Silver Spring, MD 1-301-589-2016 1200 1/214 Region 14 Echo Coor Minneapolis, MN 1-612-377-3398 2400 1/314 Software Dist Minneapolis, MN 1-612-377-3469 2400 282/1 Midwest Echo Star Minneapolis, MN 1-612-377-3469 9600 151/20 Metro Link Charlotte, NC 1-704-541-8626 2400 151/60 VMC-BBS Lewisville, NC 1-919-945-4850 2400 151/100 NC Central Raleigh, NC 1-919-851-8460 9600 151/1000 REDCON Raleigh, NC 1-919-859-3353 2400 1:14/662 Friend's BBS Omaha, NE 1-402-896-2669 2400 Joan Renne 132/101 BBS Source Archive Nashua, NH 1-603-888-8179 2400 150/803 Jersey Vertex Moorestown, NJ 1-609-869-0139 2400 1:305/101 NASW New Mexico Las Cruces, NM 1-505-646-2868 2400 381/401 Border Connection Santa Fe NM 1-505-678-1318 2400 107/105 NY Transfer Staten Island, NY 1-718-442-1056 2400 NamNews 3-02 Page 39 4Feb 1989 108/105 Global Time Systems Cincinnati, OH 1-606-341-7910 2400 157/1 Auer Register Cleveland, OH 1-216-883-0578 2400 110/20 EDS Data Dayton, OH 1-513-455-2431 2400 157/501 The PC-Key BBS Girard OH 1-216-545-9205 2400 385/4 Info-Net Lawton, OK 1-405-357-6181 2400 385/6 Bink's Barn Lawton, OK 1-405-357-2473 2400 147/14 Dark Star TBBS Oklahoma City, OK 1-405-691-0863 9600 148/120 Genetic Research Vat Toronto ON 1-416-480-0551 2400 11/700 FCAU IBM Net Toronto, ON 1-416-427-0682 9600 221/156 Waterloo CBCS PUBLIC Waterloo, ON 1-519-746-5020 9600 221/157 Waterloo CBCS Echomail Waterloo, ON Unpublished 9600 105/16 Net 105 EchoMail Hub Portland, OR 1-503-761-3003 2400 105/61 Shotgun OPUS Portland, OR 1-503-760-4521 2400 157/506 Beacon Hill OPUS Transfer, PA 1-412-962-9514 2400 362/1 The Mines of Moria Chattanooga, TN 1-615-344-9601 2400 362/501 Coconut Telegraph Chattanooga, TN 1-615-698-4858 2400 18/7 Flash Port Memphis TN 1-901-525-2710 2400 18/6 POSSM Mail Echogate Memphis, TN 1-901-353-4563 9600 HST Jerry Hindle 24Hrs 365 Days BinkleyTERM v2.0 All NAMVET News Letters online for FReq. MAIL ONLY 130/5 CUSSNET UTA Arlington, TX 1-817-273-3966 2400 136/200 The Chai Way II Austin, TX 1-214-358-3738 2400 1:124/4210 Hardwired Dallas TX 1-214-437-4075 9600 124/4214 *CHRYSALIS* Dallas TX 1-214-895-9054 2400 124/106 CHAI Way II Dallas, TX 1-214-250-3323 9600 124/110 Flying Dutchman Dallas, TX 1-214-642-3436 9600 NamNews 3-02 Page 40 4Feb 1989 124/117 NCC-1701 Node 1 Dallas, TX 1-214-240-8821 2400 124/4117 NCC-1701 Dallas, TX 124/14 Chrysalis Dallas, TX 1-214-985-9054 2400 124/200 Dallas Outbound Dallas, TX 1-214-437-4075 2400 124/201 Hardweird Dallas, TX 1-204-931-2987 2400 19/5 Micro Application El Paso TX 1-915-594-9738 2400 106/386 Information Center Exchan Houston TX 1-713-872-4429 2400 106/108 Stormy Weather I Houston, TX 1-713-644-4345 9600 106/111 Shutterbug's OPUS Houston, TX 1-713-880-4329 2400 106/113 The Opus Network Houston, TX 1-713-780-4153 2400 106/114 The Fireside Houston, TX 1-713-496-6319 2400 106/357 TMBBS Houston, TX 1-713-497-5433 2400 106/666 Anything Goes OPUS Houston, TX 1-713-997-2624 2400 106/132 Fast BBS OPUS Katy, TX 1-713-392-0093 2400 382/1 Crystal Palace Lake Travis, TX 1-512-339-8037 2400 382/14 Corona Del Mar Rockport, TX 1-512-729-7026 9600 381/201 Pro Link San Angelo, TX 1-915-944-2952 2400 387/401 Comp-U-Gen II San Antonio TX 1-512-496-9373 2400 387/601 NCOA International BBS San Antonio TX 1-512-653-0409 2400 387/800 NCOA International BBS San Antonio TX 1-800-365-6262 2400 109/604 ShanErin Alexandria, VA 1-703-941-8291 2400 109/639 The RENEX BBS Woodbridge, VA 1-703-494-8331 2400 343/111 Lessor Puget TB Edmonds, WA 1-206-742-8067 2400 343/9 Everett OPUS Everett, WA 1-206-355-1295 1200 138/4 PTC Net Mount Vernon, WA 1-206-757-5248 2400 1/217 Region 17 Echo Coord Puyallup, WA 1-206-848-5317 2400 NamNews 3-02 Page 41 4Feb 1989 138/101 Story Board Puyallup, WA 1-206-848-5317 9600 138/3 Region 17 ADVISOR EMERITUS Puyallup, WA 1-206-848-9232 2400 138/49 The Cohort Puyallup, WA 1-206-848-2646 9600 138/35 US HDS Human Service Seattle, WA 1-206-442-8127 2400 138/52 Burrell's Ballpark Tacoma, WA 1-206-752-4672 2400 139/640 Fox Valley Tech Appleton, WI 1-414-735-2513 2400 154/200 PC-Express Greenfield, WI 1-414-327-5300 2400 1:261/1004 The PainFrame 1-301-488-7461 UNK 1:343/26 AFMINS BBS 1-206-488-4309 9600 HST 1:387/801 The Commo Bunker Phone number not available. 1:161/208 G.A.D.M. Multi-User Hayward, CA (415) 581-3019 1:139/630 APPLEGATE Appleton, WI 1:261/1007 FINAL FRONTIER (301) 947-4404 1:344/117 LSO QuickBBS, Everett WA (206)334-3088 9600 HST 7:49/0 ALTERNET The Flying Dutchman, Grand Prairie, TX 7:440/1 Lord Frog Of Swamp (715) 362-3895 7:43/15 NITEWING HST Addr Unk AFIMS BBS *WILDCAT* HST PCP (206)488-4309 1:231/70 ISU BBS Terre Haute IN 1:170/203 The GUNNER'S MATE NamNews 3-02 Page 42 4Feb 1989 1:347/2 Computers on line 1:370/11 Classic City Vet's Conference, Athens, GA (404)548-0130 1:204/45 SeaHunt BBS (415) 343-5904 1:14/703 Telen-Quest BBS (417)882-5108 1:154/288 The Inner Circle 1:19/43 McScott's BBS, Blytheville AR, (502)532-6212 9600 HST 1:344/9 tHE pRECEDENT, eVERETT wa (206)355-1295 NamNews 3-02 Page 43 4Feb 1989 O O SOME GAVE ALL ... ! pow mia pow mia - BRING THEM HOME NOW! - pow mia pow mia ! ! O O ! ! ~~~~~ ~ ~ O~ ~~~ ~~ ~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~ O ~~ ~ ~~~~ ~~~ ~~ ! ! ~~~~ ~ ~~ O ~~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~ ~O~~~ ~~~ ~ ~~~~ ~~ ! ! ~ ~~ ~ ~~ ~ O~ ~~ ~~~ ~~~~ ~~~ ~~~ O ~~~ ~~~ ~~~~ ~~~ ~ ! ! ~~~ ~~ ~~ ~ O ~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~~ ~~ O ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~ ~ ! ! ~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~ ~ O ~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~ O ~ ~~~ ~~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~ ! ! ~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~ O ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~ O ~ ~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~ ! ! ~ ~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~ O ~_~_~_~_~_ ~ O ~ ~~~~ ~ ~ ~~~ ~~ ~~ ! ! ~~~ ~ ~ ~~~ ~~ ~ O ) O ~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~~ ! ! ~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ /(O) / O \ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~~ ~ ~ ! ! ~ ~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~ / / O \~~~~ ~~ ~~~~~ ~~~ ~~ ~ ! ! ~~ ~ ~ ~~ ~~ / PRISONER / \~~ ~~ ~~ ~~~ ~ ~~~~~~ ! ! ~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~ / / MISSING \~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~~ ~ ~~ ! ! ~~~ ~ ~~ ~~ / OF /\ \~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~~~ ~ ! ! ~ ~~~~ ~~ ~ / / \ IN \~ ~~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~~ ! ! ~~~ ~~~ ~ / WAR / ~~ \ \ ~~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ! ! ~ ~~ ~~ ~ (_________ / ~ ~~ \ ACTION / ~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~ ! ! ~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~~ \ / ~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ! ! ~~~~~ ~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~ ~~ ~ ~~~ \ / ~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~~ ! ! ~~ ~~ ~~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~~~~~ ! ! ~~~ ~~~ ~~~~ ~~ ~~~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~ ~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~ ~ ! ! ~ ~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~ ~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ! ! ~~ ~~~ ~~~~ ~~~ ~~ ~ ~~~ ~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~ ~ SOME STILL GIVE ! ~ ~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ! ~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~ ~ ~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~ ! ! mia pow mia pow - BRING THEM HOME NOW! - mia pow mia pow !