"Old Buddies, Pals, Shipmates, Families and Friends" is a new locator service for former and current military personnel and their families, on the World Wide Web. The Web site at  http://www.shipmates.com/  is a free service available for anyone to use. There are three databases for each branch of the service. One database allows individuals to register where others can find them. A second database allows posting the names of individuals (or units) that people would like to contact. A third database is for listing reunions. Contact: Nick Baker, Email  mailto:nickbaker@shipmates.com.  This is a fairly new service and the database are limited to those who provide submissions but its worth a try!

 National Personnel Records Center
 9700 Page Blvd., Room 5007
 St. Louis, Mo 63132-5295

Operations Reports/Lessons Learned (ORLL) and other primary source material about Army units in Vietnam such as radio logs, unit journals, and after action reports, are stored at the

Textual Reference Branch
National Archives II
8601 Adelphi
Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001
301-713-7250
fax 301-713-7482.

Similar reference assistance may also be obtained from the

U.S.Army Center for Military History
1099 14th Street, NW,
Washington, DC 20005
202-761-5413

U.S. Army Military
History Institute, Bldg. 22
Upton Hall, Carlisle Barracks,
Carlisle, PA 17013-5008
717-245-3611
fax 717-245-3711.

BURIAL INFORMATION

A — Burial arrangements for an eligible veteran are made by the funeral director or the next of kin by contacting the national cemetery in which burial is desired. The veteran's name, rank, service number, Social Security number, and VA claim number if a prior claim has been made, date and place of entry into and separation from the service, branch of service, date and place of birth, and date of death, should be furnished. A copy of the official military discharge document bearing an official seal or a DD 214 is required and is usually sufficient to establish eligibility for burial in a VA national cemetery. The document must specify active military duty and show that release from
active duty was under conditions other than dishonorable. (Families of retired Reservists and Guard members may furnish their 20-year letter.) The cemetery director sets a tentative date for the committal service, pending verification of eligibility, and notifies the applicant when the burial is authorized.

Q — What benefits are included when a veteran is buried in a national cemetery?
A — For eligible veterans and family members, VA provides a grave site, preparation of the grave site and burial, a headstone or flat marker, a Presidential Memorial Certificate, a burial flag, and perpetual care of the grave site, but does not cover funeral home costs.

Q — A veteran wants to be cremated and have his ashes scattered. Is there a marker for this?
A — Memorial markers are available from VA. The marker is the same as that used to identify a grave, except the words "In Memory Of" are inscribed.

Q — My father, who recently died, was an honorably discharged veteran. Can VA reimburse our family for the headstone he paid for through a pre-need burial plan?
A — No. VA provides headstones or markers without cost, but does not reimburse the cost of purchasing them from other sources. VA headstones or markers are available for the unmarked grave of veterans buried anywhere in the world and of eligible dependents buried in national, state veteran or military post cemeteries.

Q — If a veteran not in receipt of any monetary benefits from VA dies in a VA medical center, can VA provide any financial assistance for the burial?
A — Yes. VA can pay up to $300 in burial allowance. VA may also pay a $150 plot allowance if the veteran is not buried in a national cemetery. Also, costs of transporting the remains to the nearest national or state veterans cemetery with space available for burial may be reimbursed.

"SERVICE WITHOUT REWARD - DEDICATION TO BROTHERHOOD"

BASIC OVERVIEW OF POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER

BY: JIM LOUGHREY

can be accessed by going  HERE  .

Letters are being sent to 500 randomly selected veterans inviting them to participate. Random selection is being used to achieve a representative sampling. Volunteers are not being sought. The study may ultimately include 2,600 veterans, if the pilot phase shows the full study's feasibility. The feasibility study is expected to take at least a year. If the full-scale study is feasible, that may take another three years.

Knowledge of the effects of Agent Orange has grown as studies have been completed and newer laboratory methods have been used. Study results have enabled VA to award disability compensation to Vietnam veterans suffering from certain chronic diseases.

Two earlier VA studies of Army veterans assigned to Chemical Corps units in Vietnam who died later have found a significant excess of deaths from digestive disease, primarily due to liver cirrhosis. Non significant but elevated rates were also observed for deaths due to all cancers combined and for specific cancer sites. An ongoing mortality follow-up study is being conducted by VA.

For a detailed explanation of exactly what Agent Orange is, its history, use, effects, and other useful information we recommend that you go  HERE for a very informative and well written page.

Insurance
PO Box 8079
5000 Wisconsin
Philadelphia, PA 19101

Federal Building
Ft. Snelling St.,
St. Paul MN 55111
 

INSURANCE HOAX

The 89-page handbook covers changes in eligibility for VA medical care. Addresses and phone numbers of all VA benefits offices, medical centers, national cemeteries, counseling centers and other VA facilities are listed.

GPO sells the booklet for $3.75, but the full text is available free through the Internet at www.va.gov/benefits.htm. For copies, ask for GPO stock number 051-000-00214-8 from the Superintendent of Documents, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954. To order with VISA orMasterCard, phone 202-512-1800.

We see numerous advertisements offering to research names at a cost of $15 per name. This is a good deal if one is searching for only one or two individuals with uncommon names.

Pro CD has a toll free number 1-800-992-3766 for placing credit card orders. Regular retail price varies and is about $100.

• Before you invest in a phone book CD-ROM you might check with your local library. Many carry phone books for major metropolitan areas. In addition, many of the larger libraries have computers and phone book programs you can use for free. It is worth checking out.
• If searching for someone with two capitals in their last names, e.g., DeMarco, try both "DEMARCO" and "DE MARCO."
• Same for those with names like "O'Connor, try "OCONNOR" and "O'CONNOR."
• Lots of the clerks who type in the names for the phone data bases will  abbreviate first names, especially if the last name is long. So if you are searching for a William Higganbotham be sure and try W'm H...."
• If there are very few listings for a last name but no match on the first  name then try "Bill"   for a "William," "Bob" for a "Robert," "Sam" for a "Samuel," "Ed" for an "Edward," etc. Also try initials.
• We found that sending letters was an expensive and time-consuming way to make contact. A phone call is quick and only costs pennies when you contact the wrong person. It does run up a fairly large bill if it is the person  you are looking for but it is sure worth the  money.

We recommend searching for someone with a common last name who has an unusual first name. If you are searching for a retired military person with a totally common name it often pays to review the long list of identical names to see if an individual's rank is shown and/or if the individual has an address near a major military installation of his branch of service..


VIETNAM TRIBUTE

BY
GENERAL WESTMORELAND

 I am highly honored to pay tribute to the gallant veterans who served their country and for a worthy cause  --  the maintenance of freedom. As a Veteran of World War II and the Wars of Korea and in Vietnam, I presume to speak for the Veterans of all those engagements.  But I am particularly proud of speaking for the Vietnam Veteran.

 Few have had the anguish that has been mine for that man and woman who did in Vietnam what the leadership of the country asked them to do and did it well.  But in return these men and women have been ignored and often abused by their fellow countrymen and neglected by their nation.  It has been an irrational and sordid period in the history of America.

 But now as the people of America and world have noted the ruthlessness and callousness of the rulers in Hanoi - the estimated 1,000,000 boat people (only about one-half surviving the ravages of the sea), the - still in existence concentration camps in Vietnam, the military occupation of Laos, and the invasion of Cambodia - most of us have reflected on the worthiness of our now defaulted commitment to the people of the non- Communist South Vietnam.  That commitment was clearly stated from the beginning:  to assist the Government of Vietnam and its armed forces to defeat externally directed and supported Communist subversion and aggression and attain an independent South Vietnam functioning in a secure environment.

 Historically, there are few exceptions to the rule that wars on foreign lands are fought for the purpose of acquiring those lands as part of a political or economic empire.  Vietnam was one such exception.
Indeed, history may judge that American aid to South Vietnam constituted one of man's more noble crusades, one that had less to do with the domino theory and a strategic interest for the United States than with the simple equation of a strong nation helping an aspiring nation to reach a point where it had some reasonable chance to achieve and keep a degree of freedom and human dignity.

It is also a fact that America held the line in Vietnam for ten years against inevitable, rapid expansion of Communism in Southeast Asia, thus providing a shield behind which the other countries of Southeast Asia ( Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines) could politically mature and build self confidence toward the resistance of future Communist pressures.

At last, America and the world are beginning to realize that America was not defeated militarily on the battlefield in Vietnam, but by propaganda involving lies and exaggerations here at home.  Although in the main unwitting, such propaganda sapped the traditional dedication to a cause, persistence and courage of America.
 Ironically, the Vietnam Veteran deserves even more appreciation than his veteran grandfather of World War II.  Why?  Simply because in those earlier wars the country was generally unified behind those sent to the battlefield.  But not so with Vietnam.

Have you ever paused to consider that during the Vietnam War there were more Americans here at home cheering on the Communist enemy and waving his flag than there were Vietnamese doing likewise in all of Vietnam?  Can you imagine putting your life on the line in the combat zone when a boy who lived next door may have been visibly supporting your nearby armed enemy from some chosen campus sanctuary remote from the battlefield?  Can you imagine living through that ordeal only to come home to stony silence or even hostility?  And then the release of the American hostages, held by the irrational Iranian regime, and the overwhelming reception they received upon release;  the mindless lack of welcome of the Vietnam Veterans stood in stark contrast.  The psychological pressures on the man in uniform were overwhelming.

Nor did we fight alone in Vietnam.  Thirty-four other nations contributed food, medicine, technical advisors, equipment, training, economic aid and the like.  Four more - Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and the Republic of Korea - all furnished combat troops.  A fifth - the Republic of the Philippines - provided a civic action group that had its own security force of infantry, armor, and artillery.  The total of foreign troops was 68,800.  This was more than had fought under the United Nations in Korea.

If only the Communists are to assist people of emerging nations, what hope is there for those who aspire to freedom?  We may well be unable to afford to be the world's policeman, but neither can we afford to fail to live up to the responsibilities that the accidents of a bountiful land and a beneficent fate have placed upon us.  It is fashionable today in some quarters to disparage idealism, patriotism and zeal; but if there are to be no more Vietnams, is there to be no more support of aspiring freedom, protection of the weak against the strong?

What of John F. Kennedy's stirring pledge " to assure the survival and success of liberty"?  As many have observed, the price of freedom is never cheap, nor is even the survival of existing freedom.  But we see from the plight of the boat people and of that of the refugees pouring into Thailand, the price of freedom's loss is greater still.  Though we did not succeed in achieving our stated purpose in Vietnam, a lesser nation would never have tried at all.  President Reagan said it for us:  "Ours was, indeed, a noble cause.".

But despite the psychological pressures that have scarred many men, the percentage of those psychologically affected veterans is not much greater than experienced after other wars.   But in the aftermath of Vietnam, we have heard so much about this percentage - wise small group that the man on the street has been given the false impression that most Vietnam Veterans are psychiatric patients.  Such is not the case.

As I travel around this huge country of ours, I meet many, many Vietnam Veterans and I can tell you the overwhelming majority are doing very well indeed.  They are a precious and valuable nation asset.  They are moving into positions of responsibility and leadership across the spectrum of our society.  America should be proud of them.

Among some of my military colleagues I nevertheless sense a lingering concern that the military served as a scapegoat for the war in Vietnam.  I fail to share that concern.  The military quite clearly did the job that the nation asked and expected of it, and I am convinced that history will reflect more favorably upon the performance of the military than upon other segments of society.  The American military services can take pride in their accomplishments in Vietnam and assurance in the knowledge that it was not they who lost the war.

But, thank God, the worn and tried attitudes of a decade ago are now almost history.  A sensible approach to the Vietnam War era and toward those involved has emerged.  As truth overshadows perceptions, facts are overwhelming emotions.

Yes, the Vietnam War was an episode unique in American history.  It has left scars that may be with us for years.  Some say it will be recognized as a turning point for America - for bad or good.  Those scars are beginning to heal.  A more objective view of the period, the cooling of emotions, and constructive activities of the type we participate in today testify to a new and refreshing public attitude.   This is proof that our great nation has maintained its traditional sense of values - values that have contributed in a major way to the character and success of the United States of America.

In 1918, following many bloody battles, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month the guns fell silent on the western front of  France.

Twenty five years later, Americans were fighting and sweating in the jungles of the South Pacific; and on the other side of the world soldiers of Hitler's army had been defeated in Northwest Africa and Sicily, a beachhead had been established by the U.S.Army in Italy, and buildup for the invasion of France was underway.

And fifty years later, soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines were putting pressure on the Communist enemy on all fronts following the huge losses by the enemy during the battles following the Communist Tet Offensive.

Today let us pause, remember and pay tribute to the sacrifices of the Americans who gave their all for the preservation of freedom around the world throughout our nation's history.  And we add to that honored assemblage the equally deserving Vietnam Veteran.

As the notes of "Taps" drift over our land and as darkness falls our eulogy is beautifully expressed by words written to those simple but melodious notes:

     Day is Done
     Gone the Sun
     From the Lake
     From the Hill
     From the Sky
     Rest in Peace
     Soldier Brave
     God is Nigh.