To: Ohio Veterans for Progress
From: "ColonelDan"
Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 14:29:39 -0600
Subject: [VeteranIssues] Homecoming Events to Mark Vietnam War
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/V/VIE...=customwire.htm
http://www.operationhomecomingusa.com/ June 13-19 Branson MO
http://vetsjourneyhome.dyndns.org/
Homecoming Events to Mark Vietnam War
By JAMES HANNAH
Associated Press Writer
DAYTON, Ohio (AP) -- When Mike Jackson came back from Vietnam in 1972, he
was met by ant-war protesters - not exactly a warm and fuzzy hello.
Now, 30 years after the war ended, Jackson is helping organize an event to finally welcome Vietnam veterans home.
"You've got a whole segment of the population that went through the same thing I did," said Jackson, who wrote a war memoir titled "Naked in Da Nang."
"I just want somebody to say thank you, somebody to say welcome home. It
would mean a lot."
Jackson is spearheading Operation Welcome Home, a four-day celebration to be
held Veterans Day weekend in Las Vegas. A similar event, Operation
Homecoming USA, is set for June in Branson, Mo. A highlight of both will be a parade.
There haven't been many ceremonies and parades over the years for the 7.9
million Vietnam veterans, though there was a homecoming parade 20 years ago
in New York City that drew about 25,000 former soldiers.
Military historian J. Michael Wenger can't recall any official homecoming parades during or shortly after the war.
"The military was just ready to have it done with," said Wenger, of Raleigh, N.C., who also has written about the Vietnam War. "It would have been a publicity nightmare. It would have attracted protesters like a magnet."
Jackson, 57, vividly recalls his June 25, 1972, return to the United States. Anti-war protesters were at the airport in San Francisco to harass him and his fellow soldiers as they caught flights home.
"We walked a gantlet through these guys on either side of us, putting signs in front of your face and screaming at you," recalled Jackson, who flew 210 combat missions during the war. "This was our welcome home."
When he returned to his hometown of Tipp City, just north of Dayton, there were no parades or any official welcome-home events. People were pleasant, he said, but not one asked him about his Vietnam experience.
"Nobody wanted to hear it," he said.
Clinical psychologist Steven Herman said many Vietnam veterans feel that their service was meaningless because of the way they were treated when they came home. This year's homecoming events could ease those feelings, he said.
"At the very least, it would provide some validation," said Herman, who practices at the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis.
YET YOU GO TO MIKE JACKSON'S WEB SITE (BELOW) AND WHAT YOU FIND IS A B.G. BURKETT, RIGHT-WING VIETNAM REVISIONIST HISTORIAN "STOLEN VALOR" CLONE. MIKE JACKSON STRONGLY BELIEVES THAT THE MEDIA STEREOTYPE OF THE MALADJUSTED LONG-HAIRED, PTSD SUFFERING VIETNAM VETERAN WAS NOT TRUE, AND YOUR AVERAGE GI SERVING IN VIETNAM NEEDED NO RE-ADJUSTMENT TO AMERICAN SOCIETY UPON RETURN. THUS, WHY DOES HE NOW FEEL THE NEED FOR A CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST INPUT AND A PARADE? THAT'S RIGHT FOLKS = THERE'S A MONETARY INCENTIVE "PLUS" PATRIOTIC RIGHT-WING VIETNAM VETERAN WELCOME HOME EVENTS WOULD BE JUST THE THING TO "DISCOURAGE" THE GROWING ANTI-BUSH WAR MOVEMENT AS THINGS IN IRAQ CONTINUE TO GET WORSE. IT WOULD ALSO BE A SPUR TO RECRUITMENT
YOU WILL NOTE ALSO THE MIKE JACKSON AND HIS WIFE ARE SELF EMPLOYED IN THE DAYTON AREA. THEY PROMOTE FUND RAISING EVENTS.
WHAT BETTER SCAM TO RAISE FUNDS ON THAN "THE VIETNAM AND IRAQ WAR" AND VETERANS. Gene McMahon is a Vietnam veteran and directs the Vets Journey Home, a
program for his former fellow soldiers to vent traumatic wartime
experiences.
The program has simulated homecomings for small groups of Vietnam veterans.
McMahon said those homecomings that can be critical to helping them heal.
"They have a missing piece," he said.
McMahon appreciates this year's homecomings but questions whether the Las Vegas and Branson events will be able to heal the severe psychological wounds suffered by some veterans.
"It will be too little too late," he said. "It's deeper work than that."
MY PROBLEM WITH THEM IS THAT THEY ARE INAPPROPRIATE WHILE WE HAVE TROOPS COMMITTED TO COMBAT ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD "AND" THE PROMOTERS HAVE A PROFIT MOTIVE OTHERTHAN WELCOMING HOME VIETNAM VETERANS - THEY ONLY WANT TO "USE" VIETNAM VETERANS
ARMYDADJackson calls the Las Vegas event a start.
"The time is right in the American psyche to do this," he said. "I think that there is a little bit of guilt in the American public on what did we do to these guys."
GET REAL = OVER 1000 AMERICAN TROOPS HAVE DIED BASED ON LIES, AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE STILL ON A GUILT TRIP OVER WHAT HAPPENED 30 YEARS AGO. DON'T THING THE RATINGS FOR MOST PRIME TIME TV SHOWS HAVE GONE DOWN
LIFE GOES ON. HECK, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES FOR DOING NOTHING TO STOP THE KILLING OF OUR TROOPS AND ITAQIS IN A WAR BASED ON LIES NOW. ARMYDAD. Branson organizer Gary Linderer, of Festus, Mo., agrees the homecomings are
late but better than nothing.
OH BTW GARY LINDERER WAS A MEMBER OF VIETNAM VETERANS AGAINST JOHN KERRY PLUS A BUDDY OF TED SAMPLEY. LINDERER WANTS TO WELCOME VIETNAM VETERANS HOME, BUT THIS SNAKE IS NOT ABOVE SMEARING OTHER COMBAT VETERANS = INCLUDING JOHN MCCAIN. ARMYDAD
"There are a lot of vets that are bitter and angry to this day," he said. "How do you apologize for what happened 30 years ago? This doesn't make up for it."
HECK THOUGH YOU GUYS DID THAT WHEN YOU GOT EVEN WITH JOHN KERRY. IT WAS HIS FAULT WE LOST THE VIETNAM WAR
:D 
On the Net:
http://www.operationhomecomingusa.com/
http://vetsjourneyhome.dyndns.org/
"Keep on, Keepin' on", Support Veterans & Thanks...Dan Cedusky, Champaign IL "Colonel Dan" See my web site at:
http://www.angelfire.com/il2/VeteranIssues/
Forward to a veteran or Sign up a Veteran to this list at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/VeteranIssues/join
I don't mean of OFFEND my brothers and sisters who fought in NAM but as the FATHER of a Soldier now fighting in Vietnam Part II, I have several problems with this so-called WELCOME HOME for Vietnam Veterans.
1. What little research I've done thus far reflects that the clowns setting up these events are Right-Wing (most-likely) GOP Veterans cut from the same cloth as Ted Sampley, John O.Neill, and B.G. Burkett.
2. More importantly ARMYDAD feels it MOST INAPPROPRIATE that one generation of Veterans be celebrating their WELCOME HOME from THEIR WAR while another generation is FIGHTING THEIRS (VIETNAM). My GOD you can just take the charter of Vietnam Veterans of America and it's MOTTO = "Never again shall one generation of veterans abandon another." Rip it up and throw it in the trash can.
Bobby Hanafin for one will have nothing to do with these celebrations as long as MY SON or anyone Else's SON or DAUGHTER remains in COMBAT anywhere in the world.
Let me start with Mike Jackson and the Veterans Journey Home Event planned for Las Vegas, NV., since Jackson is an former Air Force officer from Ohio. First off Mike Jackson was former executive director of the National Aviation Hall of Fame. He was a Forward Air Controller during Vietnam. That's his claim to fame. However, he did fly quite a few combat missions.
http://newsobserver.com/news/ncwire_news/s...p-8365432c.html
POINT: Air Force officers, especially in Ohio, and especially in the Dayton, Ohio area tend to be a bit on the ultra conservative side. YOU CAN BET YOUR BIPPY THIS GUY VOTED FOR BUSH!
He is also a writer. Mike Jackson. He has written:
Baghdad Butcher AND Back to Iraq
http://www.new-we.com/products/bookstore3.html
http://www.new-we.com/fiction.html#baghdad
HE FANTASIZES ON WAR. MAKES $$$ ON WAR AND GETS HIS ROCKS OFF ON WAR. NOW HE WANTS TO MAKE A PROFIT HAVING PARADES AND CELEBRATIONS IN LAS VEGAS TO WELCOME VIETNAM VETERANS HOME.
OH BTW - The above books are FICTIONAL.
Mike wrote a book called Naked in Da Nang which is not fiction. http://www.nakedindanang.com/welcome_home_pr.htm
HE IS A REVISIONIST VIETNAM HISTORIAN JUST LIKE GEORGE BUSH'S GOOD OLE BUDDY B.G. BURKETT WHO WROTE "STOLEN VALOR."
I haven't been able to find out anything too suspicious about Gary Linderer thus far. I ran a Google search that shows Linderer's Web Site is crawling with links to Right-Wing Nut Veterans groups who go for the REVISIONISTS take on Vietnam. Translation: If we would have staid another decade we would have WON!
In fact, he has ties with the POW/MIA movement type like Ted Sampley and Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry, but I'm not sure what they are or how direct.
REGARDLESS THE FATHER OF A SOLDIER IN HIS OWN VIETNAM FEELS IT HIGHLY INAPPROPRIATE FOR VIETNAM VETERANS TO HAVE A WELCOME HOME AT THIS TIME. LET'S HAVE A WELCOME HOME AT THE SAME TIME WE WELCOME HOME THE IRAQI WAR TROOPS
BOTTOM LINE: THIS IS MORE A MOVE BY THE CHICKEN HAWKS TO "USE" VIETNAM VETERANS TO DISCOURAGE EXPANDED PROTEST AGAINST BUSH'S (VIETNAM) WAR IN IRAQ AS THE SITUATION CONTINUES TO DETERIORATE. AGAIN NOTE THE MONETARY MOTIVE THE ORGANIZERS HAVE FOR THROWING THIS "WELCOME HOME" PARADE FOR VIETNAM VETERANS = WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?
Bobby Hanafin, Ohio Veterans for Progress
PS: After I contact this guy Mike Jackson to discuss those dime novels he wrote on Iraq, I'm going to send him an email with a piece of my mind as a Father with a Soldier fighting in Iraq as this small time War Profiteer makes $$$ off him.