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#161
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On Sun, 13 Jun 2004 22:07:21 GMT, Michael Wise wrote:
In article , Ed Rasimus wrote: Burkitt reserves a lot of space in his book to discuss the VA. Meaning what? Does he claim combat vets and/or disabled vets working for the VA are less than honest? "Stolen Valor" is a very worthwhile read. It covers a lot of urban myths about the war--things like the average age of the combatants being only nineteen or predominantly minorities. It covers the poseurs and wannabes--folks claiming distinctive service, high level awards, and special status. It also talks extensively about the VA's interest in perpetuating PTSD to the point of falsifying diagnoses for the purpose of maintaining high funding levels. (Please do not jump ahead and suggest that I'm all wet if I deny PTSD. I certainly do not. Read the book and see what Burkitt documents.) During Rolling Thunder, I got up each day and went to a briefing with 25 other guys. On average, each and every day for six months, one of those 25 would be lost. Some days, none. Some days three or four. Average, one a day. Keep going to the briefing and one day you will be the one. Well my hat goes off to you and to all those who paid in blood or risked that blood doing what their country told them to do. I find it next to impossible to understand how any vet (especially a combat vet) would make statements about not "****ing on somebody if they were one fire" when that somebody also risked their all and shed blood for their country. It isn't Kerry's combat experience that can speak for itself whether you respect it or find it self-serving. It is his conduct during the Winter Soldier testimony, his categorization of the military still in harm's way as criminals and guilty of atrocities, his throwing of someone else's medals over the White House fence, his alignment with VVAW and offering of aid/comfort to the enemy. He now seeks to turn the clock back and trade on his combat experience as that seems to offer more traction in a nation at war. The odds of completing a 100 mission NVN tour were poor. In '66 an F-105 was lost every 65 missions over NVN. For every five that started a tour, three of the five would be lost. 40% survival rate. There are definitely ground units from the war that suffered similar rates, but that is the exception. I don't doubt what you're saying for a minute. Never having been in combat, I can't speak from experience, but numbers on paper be damned...I'll take fighting from above over eyeball to eyeball at close quarters any day. So will I. Didn't you say a while back that you were in the CSAR business? Never got to employ your skills? Ed Rasimus Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret) "When Thunder Rolled" Smithsonian Institution Press ISBN #1-58834-103-8 |
#162
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In article ,
Ed Rasimus wrote: ...It also talks extensively about the VA's interest in perpetuating PTSD to the point of falsifying diagnoses for the purpose of maintaining high funding levels. Fair enough. I guess I'll have to read the book to find out the details. However, if the VA has falsified diagnoses for financial gain as the author apparently claims, it hasn't been very successful. Both Bush Sr. and Jr.'s admins have slashed VA funding tremendously. It seems like the leaders who beat the war drums the loudest and lavish money on the military the most...also have no qualms about screwing over the people who answered the call and paid for it in blood. The latest shining example is maimed vets (returning from Iraq) at Walter Reed actually being charged for their food (because the government didn't want to pay for it). (Please do not jump ahead and suggest that I'm all wet if I deny PTSD. I certainly do not. Read the book and see what Burkitt documents.) Sounds like a worthwhile read. The only book I've ever read concerning Vietnam was Chickenhawk....which being a helo type, I enjoyed immensely. ... It isn't Kerry's combat experience that can speak for itself whether you respect it or find it self-serving. I don't find ANYBODY's combat experience to be self-serving. If you put your ass on the line and/or shed blood, honor is merited. It is his conduct during the Winter Soldier testimony, his categorization of the military still in harm's way as criminals and guilty of atrocities, Did he say that all military personnel in Vietnam were criminals and guilty of atrocities? his throwing of someone else's medals over the White House fence What of it? his alignment with VVAW and offering of aid/comfort to the enemy. How did he offer either aid or comfort to the enemy? He now seeks to turn the clock back and trade on his combat experience as that seems to offer more traction in a nation at war. He was silent on it for a long time, but the media kept bringing it up...over and over again. Is he supposed to remain quiet about his honorable service to country? The Republicans made such a big deal about Clinton not having served and avoiding serving. Now that their opposition served in combat and served with honor while their candidate and many of the people in his admin (the people who really run this country) did everything in their power to avoid putting their asses on the line is on the table...they do everything to discredit honor where honor is due and inflate the service to country of a chickenhawk administration. It's bad enough when chickenhawk politicians use such tactics, but its shameful when real vets do. You don't have to like John Kerry (I personally don't although the alternative is unthinkable) and you don't have to vote for him. But to **** on his service because he came home against the war (like many vets) and was outspoken about it is shameful. ... Didn't you say a while back that you were in the CSAR business? Never got to employ your skills? Nope. About 10 years too young to have served in Vietnam and got out well before Iraq. I was in the active reserves (HS-246) during the first Iraq affair, but never got called...and quit the reserved after hostilities ended (out of disgust over US troops being sent there in the first place). My CSAR experience is limited to the Nevada desert around NAS Fallon and a few close calls with some Iranian gunboats off of Bandar Abbas. --Mike |
#163
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#164
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#165
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#166
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#167
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"Michael Wise" wrote Fair enough. I guess I'll have to read the book to find out the details. However, if the VA has falsified diagnoses for financial gain as the author apparently claims, it hasn't been very successful. Both Bush Sr. and Jr.'s admins have slashed VA funding tremendously. It seems like the leaders who beat the war drums the loudest and lavish money on the military the most...also have no qualms about screwing over the people who answered the call and paid for it in blood. The latest shining example is maimed vets (returning from Iraq) at Walter Reed actually being charged for their food (because the government didn't want to pay for it). This condition has been in effect for a very long time. If a military member is receiving BAS (Basic Allowance for Subsistance), and is also receiving meals in a military facility (mess facility or hospital), s/he is required to either pay for the meals at whatever the standard rate is, or forfiet the per day BAS pay. You can't receive money to eat, and also get free meals. See DOD 7000.14-R VOL 7, Ch 25 (Feb 2002) http://usmilitary.about.com/gi/dynam.../07a/07A25.pdf ------------------------------ 2505 Meal collection rate 250501. Any member receiving a full BAS type must pay for all meals and rations that he or she receives from, or on behalf of, the government. All meals furnished by or on behalf of the U.S. Government will be charges at the rates established annually by the Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) C. All members receiving any type of full BAS and not on per diem orders, in the following listed categories, will have the collections for meals deducted from their pay account. The collections will be for full days at the discouont meal rate, except the first and last day will be collected at 25 percent of the discount meal rate. Exception to pay account collection will be made for any meals paid in full by the individual in cash. 1. Sea duty or temporary afloat assignment. 2. Field duty or temporary field assignment 3. Group travel 4. Essential messing ---------------------------------------- Let me reiterate - you can't get paid for BAS, *and* eat free meals. Now...the case may be made that combat hospitalized personnel should be exempted, but this is not a condition put in place by Bush and Co to screw the military members over. It would be an exception to the standing rule. It certainly *sounds* bad to the non-military person! "OMG....you're making wounded GI's pay for their own meals in a military hospital? You cheap *******s!" Of course, I could be completely wrong, and this was a specific change by the current administration to the previous regulations. But I'd have to see some proof of that. It certainly was the case when I enlisted in 1976, and still was when I retired in 1997. Pete |
#168
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On Mon, 14 Jun 2004 00:14:01 GMT, Michael Wise wrote:
Both Bush Sr. and Jr.'s admins have slashed VA funding tremendously. "...John McNeill, deputy director of the VFW, credited the Bush administration with increasing the VA's health care budget during the last few years..." ? The latest shining example is maimed vets (returning from Iraq) at Walter Reed actually being charged for their food (because the government didn't want to pay for it). "The rule was established because most military personnel receive $8.10 a day as a "basic allowance for subsistence" for food. But when they are hospitalized, the government tries to recoup the money on the theory that they are eating hospital food and therefore are double-dipping." Military personnel that had to eat in the chow hall, and usually live on base, pay nothing while in the hospital, but those authorized, usually to live off base, whether married or unmarried get $8.10 a day extra to pay for food. So if they forgive the $8.10 a day one person makes money and the other gets nothing? And they will probably end up changing the law because the single person living in the barracks eating in the chow hall is always the one coming out on the short end of the stick... |
#169
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"Michael Wise" wrote in message ... Ed, can I ask when John Kerry ever said that _everybody_ serving in Vietnam has committed atrocities and were war criminals (verifiable cite please)? I don't see him how saying that atrocities were going on translates to everybody was doing them. Can I ask who said that Kerry said that_everybody_ serving in Vietnam had committed atrocities and were war criminals? (Verifiable cite please?) Kerry said that thousands had committed atrocities in Vietnam, that it was a policy ordered from the top and known at all levels in the chain of command. "I committed the same kinds of atrocities as thousands of others in that I shot in free fire zones, used harassment and interdiction fire, joined in search and destroy missions, and burned villages. All of these acts were established policies from the top down, and the men who ordered this are war criminals." John Kerry, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, April 1971 "I would like to talk on behalf of all those veterans and say that several months ago in Detroit we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged, and many very highly decorated, veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia. These were not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command." John Kerry, Vietnam Veterans Against the War Statement, April 23, 1971 |
#170
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"Michael Wise" wrote in message ... So a single person who boasts of being a "staunch Republican" What boast? and whose name was given to the press by "a Republican close to Bush" and who claims to have witnessed all these appearances which nobody else can recall constitutes credible evidence on your planet? Yes, on my planet, Earth, this man is a credible witness. Not so on your planet? |
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