Posted on 11/12/2014 3:52:21 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Memories of his own service in Vietnam and the destructive nature of combat are never far from the mind of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, the first former enlisted man to lead the Pentagon.
"Every Vietnam veteran understands," Hagel told CNN's Barbara Starr during an interview outside his office in the Pentagon. "Any veteran who has ever served in a war understands that, and I think we should never forget the consequences of war."
Decades after the U.S. conflict in Vietnam, Hagel is using the power of his office to help some of the most troubled veterans of that war get the second chance he feels some deserve.
He is essentially ordering the Pentagon to open the books and allow some veterans of that war with less than honorable discharges to be classified as suffering from post traumatic stress and allow that to be a considered factor in their discharge.
The move could potentially allow thousands of veterans who did not qualify for disability pay because of their discharge status to finally be compensated.
For Hagel, who served as a senior official in the Veterans Department during the early years of the Reagan administration, the time has come to address an issue overshadowing veterans of his war, that has really only come to the forefront recent years....
(Excerpt) Read more at 12newsnow.com ...
Didn’t Carter do this? Kerry got his.
Yep....amnesty for draft dodgers. It’s why Kerry’s discharge papers are dated much, much later than his original departure.
My belief is that Kerry was given a discharge under less than honorable conditions because of his public anti-war activism while STILL technically on active duty. I believe when Carter’s amnesty program was implemented, he got his discharge upgraded...hence the later date.
I find it interesting that they chose to call him the first enlisted man to head the Pentagon.
Why start the aricle with that inaccuracy?
ARTICLE = aricle
Democrats are obsessed with pushing the PTSD angle. They hate the military, but “love” PTSD.
I recall a Dateline story a few years back of guy who did two tours,volunteered for a third (and was turned down...apparently for medical/psych reasons) and deserted shortly thereafter.He finally straightened things out,I *think* with a “general” discharge (I recall that it wasn't “honorable”).
“Yep. Amnesty for draft dodgers.”
Jimmy Carter’s amnesty for draft dodgers gave so-called anti-war activists the cojones to condemn those who served.
The “baby killer”, “knuckle-dragging”, “stupid and ignorant” memes of the left gained traction after that and the left enjoyed a victory that would last for generations.
One hopes that this past election is only the beginning of the complete and total prevention of the communist revolutionaries in camouflage from manipulating the levers of power in the U.S.
IMHO
I've never served anywhere near combat so I'm in no position to challenge things like PTSD developed in combat.And you?
Are there any Vets who served in Nam, under the age of 60?
I enlisted at 17 in 71, but stayed stateside.
Not a big believer in PTSD. I suspect it’s from conditions that were there even before service. If anyone should have gotten it was me from the meatgrinder in Vietnam. But I’ve never had any problem sorting that out from the rest of my life. And life has been pretty good. Politically frustrating at times, but pretty good overall.
This kinda burns me.
The area I was in at Quang Tri while on
base was a lot like Ferguson today.I mean
a lot.I wonder if most who will get amnesty
would be those who just refused to obey
orders,asaulted NCO`s,shot up scag,fraged,etc.
Well, I guess it would probably piss you off even more to realize that many of those draft dodgers, sympathizers, activists and all-round America haters managed to insert themselves into the highest levels of our government, wouldn’t it.
Seriously, I’m just guessing here but what I think Obama is going for is to give benefits to those persons who didn’t make it through much of basic training or shortly thereafter. Thrown out for unsuitability and the like, maybe even those thrown out for drugs.
The other day at the office, one of my young co-workers asked me how it was that I served multiple tours in Vietnam as a combat infantryman and I didn’t get PTSD. My rather flippant answer was “I didn’t get PTSD in Vietnam, I gave it.”
However, this PTSD question made me wonder what PTSD is and what the symptoms are, so I did a little research on the subject and found that I did indeed possess symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) concerning a traumatic and very stressful incident that occurred during my last tour in Vietnam. I was a professional soldier when the traumatic incident occurred and had accumulated over six years in Vietnam engaged occasionally in close combat with a vicious and cunningly capable enemy, but the traumatic event was not as a result of close combat with this enemy.
One day when I was totally focused on closing with and destroying the enemy, something caught my eye, I looked around and found a new enemy had unexpectedly appeared behind me; it was the American people. The same Democrat Party who had originally sent me to Vietnam promising that, “We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty,” had now sided with the Communists I was fighting. They were parading in the streets of the United States under a Viet Cong flag, were quoting from Mao’s Red Book, and were spitting on and flinging insults at returning Vietnam Veterans. Then, a Democrat led Congress cut off funding for the Vietnam War, American combat troops were withdrawn and we abandoned a valiant ally to their fate. I was ordered out of the country in 1973, and when I arrived at Travis Air Force Base, purposely in the dark of the night, I was advised to change out of my uniform and put on civilian clothing to avoid being attacked by the American people when I entered San Francisco.
I was not at all surprised when a few decades later these same people elected a Marxist-Communist as President of what was once my country.
Yes, the deep, burning hatred I feel for the Democrat Party to this day could be diagnosed as a symptom of PTSD, and I assure you, every Vietnam Veteran I know feels the same way.
Thanks for your service.
Every Vietnam Veteran I know also feels the same way. One tour was enough for me. Welcome home.
Well Said. Welcome home Bro.
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