Agent Orange Victims

[madrecinco]

Yes my husband also did two tour of duties in VN...after he lived through the Ia Drang Valley Conflict that so many American soldiers died in 65...his "Survivor Guilt" made him go back for more in 71...

It makes me wonder about an incident that happened here recently in the Gulf where 4 football players....2 USF players and two Tampa Bay Bucs players went out deep sea fishing on a bad day to be at sea...small craft warnings were out that day.

Well the boat capsized at sea and only one guy survived the 72 hours of hypothermia...
He was taken to the hospital here where my son is a nurse in ICU and I wish he could tell me how that survivor is doing...but HIPPA Law don't allow us to discuss it...
But he was at the memorial Sunday for one of the missing guys so physically he is OK....But mentally he suffers for his loss of close friends. He watched all three slowly slip away... the only reason he survived is he is a "fitness nut" and in top shape...

But back to VN subject and yes we love our soldiers who sacrifice for freedom. Warriors are born my husband always used to tell me and I don't quite understand that concept...
BUT a needed thing in this troubled world...when the war ends in Iraq...
the real war is ONLY BEGINNING!!!!

 

[Pinball Wizard]

it's sad...so sad

 

[bbing]

Agent Orange

Agent Orange

Ms. Jill's father passed from AO exposure in Nam. That why the strain is named AO; after her fathers fav smoke while he was suffering.

To all who have suffered needlessly from AO;

 

[BurmeseDragon]

I tried googling it briefly, but does anyone know what the chances of someone going to Vietnam where if they were drafted in '65?

I had a relative that was drafted then and I'm pretty sure they had something in place so that if two brothers were drafted only one would go. But supposedly neither went, one was an MP and one was brown water navy, both Army. They both had an Uncle that went to the naval academy and died in WWII, but I never heard about their mother writing to keep them out of combat based on that family merit.

Just curious, sometimes a lot of family history doesn't get passed on; divorce and drinking hampers that deal.

Thanks

 

[madrecinco]

They used not to be able to send brothers if only one is left to carry on family name.
But at Anscestry.com you can go into war and draft records there on family member and actually see their status during the war.
You would be surprised what you can find out there. Obama is on the same family tree as Bush and Cheney....seriously. They also are related to the Queen of England and Maddonna...LOL!

In Vietnam it was the first "chopper war" and they were inventing guerilla tactics still used today...and they did not have all this high tech things today.

They were some Real Badass guys...proud to have been married to one. My new man was in the Coast Guard and spent his time in the Carribean.....but both did their duty to country in a different way...

Strange that I had 4 sons and only my daughter went to war...LOL Desert Storm....times are a changin'.....

But that site is good for finding your family military history.

 

[mpd]

That is strange. My two brothers and I served in the Navy. We were not all in at the same time and stationed in different areas, so I didn't get to see much of them. Eventually, we were all tossed out for dope (my older brother), weight (my fat-assed oldest brother) or being a PITA (me - and I was a big-time PITA).

Of all my kids, only two served - one in the Air Force and one in the Marines. Both are women and both are now combat vets. The Marine did two full tours with the Marines before walking away because they wouldn't give her a stateside billet so she could raise her kids - she was in one of those jobs that the Marines can't have left off the battlefield I guess. My sons (all steps, fosters and an adopted kid) all went to college and on to careers for the most part.

Ia Drang Valley was a serious shitstorm of hate and death. That was all I Corps then and they had to fight both the Vietnamese regulars and the VC. Absolutely vicious combat. I think the definitive treatise on it was done in The Valley by a guy in I Corps who survived it all.

I can only offer my deepest sympathies for the loss of your husband and hope that with God's grace, time will heal that old wound; and, while the scars will always show, I am left to offer you only the thought that one day all the memories will be of those times that you spent together, enjoying each other and living in the moment of happiness that comes when soulmates collide in this plane of existence.

 

[madrecinco]

That is strange. My two brothers and I served in the Navy. We were not all in at the same time and stationed in different areas, so I didn't get to see much of them. Eventually, we were all tossed out for dope (my older brother), weight (my fat-assed oldest brother) or being a PITA (me - and I was a big-time PITA).

Of all my kids, only two served - one in the Air Force and one in the Marines. Both are women and both are now combat vets. The Marine did two full tours with the Marines before walking away because they wouldn't give her a stateside billet so she could raise her kids - she was in one of those jobs that the Marines can't have left off the battlefield I guess. My sons (all steps, fosters and an adopted kid) all went to college and on to careers for the most part.

Ia Drang Valley was a serious shitstorm of hate and death. That was all I Corps then and they had to fight both the Vietnamese regulars and the VC. Absolutely vicious combat. I think the definitive treatise on it was done in The Valley by a guy in I Corps who survived it all.

I can only offer my deepest sympathies for the loss of your husband and hope that with God's grace, time will heal that old wound; and, while the scars will always show, I am left to offer you only the thought that one day all the memories will be of those times that you spent together, enjoying each other and living in the moment of happiness that comes when soulmates collide in this plane of existence.

Well mpd I have shared that I have healed some and have moved on to a new love as Sarge my late hubs demanded I do as I would have wanted him to do if I had died first. He was 7 years older than me and joined the Army in 58 at 17 years old. He was born on Pearl Harbor Day and grew up poor one of 12 children and the war heroes in the movies in those days inspired him to be a soldier. All he EVER wanted, and so he was. And a good one...but not an officer. Calvary...He was a WARRIOR and trained killer...hope this don't offend....but reality sux sometimes.
But he got to VN early and was at IaDrang 65 and was one of the few survivors.

I still can't watch the movie "We Were Soldiers" without bawlin'

But AO got him and he died a shrunken and suffering man. Prostate cancer with bone mets... He begged me to kill him in the end...but I just could not bring myself to do it.

In retrospect MAYBE I should have done it....to end the suffering because I don't believe assisted suicide as being wrong...but only legal in Oregan at this time. I would not go to hell as I am a Secular Humanist anyway.
Believers don't hate me as I once was brought up to be a "brainwashed Christan FUNDY" BUT years of counceling and I left that crap behind and ALL THE GUILT THEY TEACH!

But strangely my new man is a "peacenik" who joined the Coast Guard to keep from being drafted in the Army...his tour of duty was pullin' Cubanos out of the water swimmin' away from Castro's regime. He scuba dived the Carribean while my hubs rolled in AO.....BUT both are great men and my hubs killed many people in his career and as ya know my new hubs has saved many lives in his career. Hope it balances somehow.

first hubs woulda called second hubs a wuss for not goin' to Nam....but not true really..
ya gotta do what ya gotta do....in life.

but my daughter who is now a nurse/nurse journalist was a Navy journalist in Desert Storm. I have pictures of her with Jimmy Carter...Al Gore...Lee Greenwood from her interviews with them. The Navy sent her to JO school ...

So Texas citizens are at least the natives are patriots and are chided for it,,,but somebody has to go fight for freedom.

BUT we pay for our loyalty to our country and leaders by these tragedies.


HAGO mpd you are cool and I enjoy our intellectual exchanges here.