Welcome Home Vietnam Veteran's Day March 30th

This weekend is Vietnam Veteran's Day.  In 2011 the Senate unanimously passed a resolution recognizing all Vietnam Vets.  March 30 is the official day.

As some of you will remember their welcome home from the war was very different for the welcome soldiers receive now.  Today, with much thanks to many of these veterans, their home comings are respectful.  The Vets of the 60's and early 70's wanted to make sure what happened to them would not happen to future men and women who bravely serve their country.

I found this wonderful article on the Paralyzed Veterans of America's web page.  I wanted to share it with you.

Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day Designated by Senate for March 30

In 1969, after a year of service to the U.S. Navy in Vietnam, Doug Vollmer returned home to a country that failed to differentiate between the war and the troops who served. “We just weren’t welcomed home,” said Vollmer,Paralyzed Veterans of America's Retired Associate Executive Director for Government Relations. But in 2011 the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution to provide these veterans with the chance at a proper welcome. Recognizing the final withdrawal date of all combat and combat-support troops from Vietnam, March 30 honors these veterans by its designation as “Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day.” Senator Richard Burr, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, introduced the resolution, calling it “a day to give our Vietnam veterans a warm, long-overdue welcome home.” Indeed, many homecoming veterans were scorned, insulted and even spat on by vociferous anti-war activists. “You don’t see that kind of rhetoric about veterans returning from today’s wars,” Paralyzed Veterans’ Retired Associate Director of Health Policy Fred Cowell said. After two tours stationed in Vietnam and the Philippines as a naval petty-officer, Cowell had trouble adjusting to civilian life after nearly three years abroad.  Attending college on the GI Bill, Cowell experienced the anti-war movement first-hand. “There was a time when we were trying to sort out the value of the war and the position of many college students at the time,” Cowell said, speaking of a group of veterans who congregated on campus. For many veterans, the construction and unveiling of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall was the most significant milestone in recognizing their service. Cowell spoke of the anger and frustration that veterans experienced during the tumultuous period as they returned home faced with a lack of appreciation for their service. “I am so thankful that today’s military veterans aren’t returning with that anguish,” Cowell said. He called the resolution to welcome home Vietnam veterans an “extended hand.” “As a Vietnam veteran, it’s nice to finally feel appreciated,” he said. Today, while opposition to the conflicts and continued American troop presence in Afghanistan and Iraq is fierce, support and respect for returning soldiers is widespread. While today soldiers often travel in uniform—a uniform that, today, elicits high esteem from the public—Vietnam veterans often trekked in plain clothes to avoid name calling and the like. Vollmer credits Vietnam vets as a driving force behind the respect afforded to today’s veterans.  “Our generation wasn’t going to allow what happened to us happen to them,” Vollmer said. Paralyzed Veterans of America urges all citizens and communities to honor Vietnam veterans on this date, and to remember and honor the service of all veterans throughout the year.

Part Three- Air Evacuation and The Nurse

There have been many "firsts" since the first graduation of Air Evacuation Nurses in 1943.

2nd Lt. Geraldine Dishroon received the first pair of flight nurse's wings and the honor graduate of the first class on Feb. 18, 1943.

The 802nd MAES was the first air evac squadron to serve in any theater of war - in North Africa.  The 801st followed suit in the Pacific.

Lt. Catherine Grogan was the first chief nurse of an air evac squadron to serve in a theater of war.

Lt. Ruth M. Gradiner, from the 805th MAES, was the first flight nurse killed in combat in Alaska.

Nancy Leftenant-Colon, was the first black nurse to be commissioned into the Regular Army Nurse Corps.

April 1945, the 806th MAES set a world record by evacuating 17,287 patients for that month.  This set a record for monthly evacuations in any theater of operations by any squadron.

May 18, 1944 the first major catastrophe of the 803rd MAES occurred while in flight.  Plane #372 received a radio message asking for the hospital ship to enter Myitkyina, Burma which the Allies captured the previous night.  Capt. Collins, flight surgeon, two nurses, Chief Nurse Audrey Rogers, 2nd Lt. E Baer and Sgt. Miller were the medical team on board.  They landed with enemy action still in play.  As they loaded the wounded, the Japaneese were strafing the runway and Capt. Collins and Sgt. Miller were struck by shell fragments and the patient on the litter was killed.  Lt. Rogers sustained shrapnel wounds to the right knee and thigh.  Lt. Baer, who was pushed out of the line of fire was unharmed.  The plane was riddled with bullets.  They treated each other's wounds, continued to load the injured, and flew the patients to Ledo.  They recuperated and returned to duty.  They all received the Purple Heart.

The first and only glider air evac in the ETO was made March 22, 1945 by 2nd Lt. Suella Bernard, flight nurse and Maj. Albert D. Haug, flight surgeon, members of the 816th MAES from Germany to an evac hospital in France with flying time of 30 minutes.

Lt. Dorothy P. Shikoski was awarded the Air Medal of Bravery for pulling crew members of her downed aircraft to safety and continuing to pull medical supplies into her raft all while being injured from the crash.

Reba Z. Whittle was the first flight nurse to be imprisoned by the Germans and the first repatriated.

Lt. Janette Pitcherella, 803rd MAES was near Calcutta when the plane she was in started going down.  She was the first nurse to bail out of a plane.  When she reached the ground she discovered she was missing a finger.  "I must have caught it on the door on the way out."

Lt. Thelma Le Fave of the 820th SWP was one of the first nurses into Tadji, and later was missing in action in the Philippines.

The first flight nurse to board a C-47 bound for France to evacuate wounded American soldiers was 1st Lt. Grace E. Dunnam.  On June 11, 1944, she made the first authorized evac trip to Omaha Beach and brought back 18 litter of patients.

Lt. Ellen Church was mentioned in a wire service story from General Eisenhower's headquarters.  It read, "Another woman, who did heroic work yesterday in the drive toward Bizerte was Lt. Ellen Church, a nurse in the Air Evac Unit of the AAF."

Lt. Ellen Church was also the first nurse employed as an airline stewardess in the US.

Women have continued to serve as flight nurses during war time.  They bravely stepped up for WWII and continued through Korea, Vietnam and today.

On a personal note, being from the Vietnam era, I have a particular admiration and heart of thanksgiving for the following story by a flight nurse named Patricia Clark Stanfill.  She was on the first air evacuation plane to land in Hanoi and retrieve American prisoners of war in Vietnam.  It was a mission of anticipation and anxiety.   Friends and I stayed up until 2:30 AM glued to the TV, and watched the arrival of the first POW's to touch American soil.

"On a misty morning in February 1973, a U.S. cargo plane veered toward the only Hanoi airport runway that wasn't bombed out.  Rows of North Vietnamese soldiers stood stiffly at attention in the grass along the runway and thinking, they have guns laying in the grass.

We had been told that if something happened, they weren't going to come get us.  There was no question in my mind this was not a peaceful thing."

Many of the POW's had been captured five and six years earlier, some longer.  As one boarded the plane he grabbed Nurse Stanfill and kissed her.

"I don't think any of them really believed we were leaving until we were airborne.  They had been told, yes we are coming; no, we are not.  It was very difficult to believe it was finally over.  I can still remember that as soon as we got up and the landing gear came in, everybody just stood up and cheered."

Miss Stanfill recalls the anguish of Vietnam, she also remembers the last assignment, flying POWs out, in a very positive way.  "Knowing that it was over and that this was the last of it, and we weren't going to have to bring pieces home any longer.  It was a good way of ending the tour and in a way helped me a lot, being part of it, that happy era at the end."

The Draft and Vietnam

In January of 1977, President Jimmy Carter granted an unconditional pardon to hundreds of thousands of men who evaded the draft during the Vietnam War.

In total 100,000 draft aged Americans went abroad in the late 1960's and early 70's to avoid serving in the Vietnam War.  Ninety percent went to Canada.  Others hide out in the US and Europe.  In addition to those who were "draft-dodgers," a relatively small number of about 1,000 were deserters.  Others were labeled "Conscientious Objectors."

A total of 209,517 men were formally accused of violating draft laws, while government officials estimate another 360,000 were never formally accused.  If they returned home they would have faced prison sentences or forced military service.

President Carter's decision generated a great amount of controversy.  He was heavily criticized by veterans' groups and others for allowing "unpatriotic lawbreakers" to get off scot-free.  The pardon and companion relief plan came under fire from amnesty groups for not addressing deserters, soldiers who were dishonorably discharged or civilian anti-war demonstrators who had been prosecuted for their resistance.

Although today, when reaching the age of 18 all males must register with the Selective Service, many people born after 1975 are not familiar with the draft and what it meant to young men and their lives.  From 1948 until 1973, during both peacetime and war, only men were drafted to fill vacancies in the armed forces which could not be filled through voluntary service.  All men between the ages of 18 and 26 had to sign up with the Selective Service, also known as, the"United States Draft Board".

A lottery drawing, the first since 1942, was held on December 1, 1969 at the Selective Service National Headquarters in Washington, D.C.  This event determined the order of call for the induction year of 1970. All registrants born between January 1, 1944 and December 31, 1950 were in the drawing.  This lottery differed from the 1942 lottery as the oldest were not called up first.  It was determined by the order that the dates were pulled.

With radio, film and TV coverage, the capsules were drawn from a jar.  The first capsule drawn was the date of September 14, so all men born on that date in any year between 1944 and 1950 were assigned lottery number 1.  The drawing continued until all days of the year had been batched to lottery numbers.  If you were number 1 you were going.  Number 365 would probably never see service.  The lowest numbers were drafted first.

If the draft were held today, it would be dramatically different from the one held during the Vietnam War.  A series of reforms during the latter part of the Vietnam conflict changed the way the draft operated to make it more fair.  If a draft were held today there would be fewer reasons to excuse a man from service.

Before Congress made the changes to the draft in 1971, a man could qualify for a student deferment if he could show he was a full time student making satisfactory progress toward a degree.  Under the current draft law, a college student can have his induction postponed only until the end of the current semester.  A senior can be postponed until the end of the academic year.  Today a man would spend only one year in the first priority for draft, either the calendar year he turned 20 or the year his deferment ended.  Each year after that he would be placed in a succeedingly lower priority group, and his liability for the draft would lessen accordingly.

Women are still not required to register with the Selective Service, but this could change with the new policy of allowing women to serve in combat arms specialties.