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Jun 01, 2012

Associated Press| by Margie Mason

She will always be naked after blobs of sticky napalm melted through her clothes and layers of skin like jellied lava.

She will always be a victim without a name. Continue reading →

There are over 1.4 million people serving on active duty in our U.S. Armed Forces, and another 848,000 assigned to the seven reserve components. That number doesn’t include the more than 23 million veterans in our country. Almost all of these military members and veterans have family members, bringing the total military community to over 50 million individuals.

There are many organizations and associations available to help members of the military during and after their service to the country. These associations not only encourage and spur camaraderie, they also offer incredible benefits for their members. Some provide advocacy, help you network and access job opportunities, tap into benefits at a reduced cost, lobby congress concerning issues vital to military life, or find support for you and your family in times of war and peace. Continue reading →

Background

The Medal of Homor was first suggested shortly after the beginning of the Civil War.  Congress passed the law on December 21, 1861 authorizing President Abraham Lincoln to authorize 200 Navy Medals of Honor.  A second congressional act followed on July 12, 1862, allowing Lincoln to authorize an Army Medal of Honor.  The first Medal of Honor ceremony occurred on March 25, 1863. Continue reading →

Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye.

Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg – or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul’s ally forged in the refinery of adversity.

Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can’t tell a vet just by looking. Continue reading →

The Vietcong used elaborate tunnel systems to store food and ammunition as well as housing medical and combat facilities. The largest tunnel systems in South Vietnam (some under US bases) could be as vast as 200 kilometers (125 miles) long and were built to withstand bombings, explosions, poison gas etc. Many of the systems were built using forced labor from surrounding villages. Continue reading →

FROM A (ao dai) to Z (zoomie)

By Wayne Draper, Army Times Staff Writer, April 10, 1968

WASHINGTON–If, as Emerson said, language is the archives of history, then U.S. soldiers in Vietnam are writing history with words as well as weapons.

So many slang terms, Vietnamese words and specialized usages are used by U.S. soldiers in Vietnam that language poses a bit of a problem to the new man coming over. Until he picks up the current slang, he is marked as a recent arrival. Continue reading →

Upon taking office in 1969, U.S. President Richard Nixon (1913-94) introduced a new strategy called Vietnamization that was aimed at ending American involvement in the Vietnam War (1954-75) by transferring all military responsibilities to South Vietnam. The increasingly unpopular war had created deep divisions in American society. Nixon believed his Vietnamization strategy, which involved building up South Vietnam’s military strength in order to facilitate a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops, would prepare the South Vietnamese to take responsibility for their own defense against a Communist takeover and allow the U.S. to leave the conflict with its honor intact. In 1973, the U.S. negotiated a treaty with the North Vietnamese, withdrew American combat troops and declared the Vietnamization process complete. However, in 1975, South Vietnam fell to Communist forces. Continue reading →