Las Vegas Review Journal Breakfast Meeting with Keith Rogers‏

The breakfast meeting with Keith Rogers from the Las Vegas Review Journal was held on Friday morning and included John Scaduto, President; Don Sacco, Director; Neal Johnson, Director; Mitch Roach, Director; and David Hugus, Budget & Finance Chairman.    

Let's all thank David Hugus for being up all night writing about VVA CHAPTER 1076 and what we are all about. 

Please see the attached file on what was discussed.

Tina Sansouci

Secretary

VVA Chapter 1076

702-294-0402 (Home)

702-635-2695 (Cell)

 

 

Two points are appropriate to establish a context for all other comments. The first is that Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 1076 is not in competition with any other veteran organization nor do we have any issues or concerns about the way they have chosen to support their respective constituents. Some organizations are known as places where veterans can sit around and drink and tell stories about the past or discuss the issues of today. The ability to associate with others who understand what you have been through and understand the issues you face is a valuable one. Healing occurs in a lot of different contexts and no one should judge the venue a person chooses to use for that healing.

In addition, veteran organizations with large memberships command attention in Washington and provide clout when these organizations address veterans’ issues on Capitol Hill. Even if local chapters or posts are not particularly active in their communities, they provide a measure of political clout that smaller organizations cannot match.

The second point is that VVA 1076 warmly accepts any Vietnam era veteran, regardless of service, gender or location of service. Service in Vietnam is not a requirement for membership in VVA. Service in country between February 28, 1961, and May 7, 1975, or service in any duty location between August 5, 1964, and May 7, 1975 qualifies a person for membership. Any member of any armed service who served during or immediately after the Vietnam War faced the same hostility and rejection by the general population that those who served in country experienced. That serves as a bond and commonality of experience that allows Vietnam era veterans to form a close and supportive relationship regardless of the location of their service.

Women veterans are often overlooked when the general population thinks of war veterans. I suspect that this is because women have been systematically excluded from most combat roles in previous wars. But no one who was wounded and evacuated through the medical system will forget the always welcome and sometimes lifesaving efforts of the female doctors and nurses who treated them and prepared them for either return to duty or for evacuation out of theater. Women also served with honor in support roles in Vietnam in those military occupations that were open to them. In consequence, Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 1076 welcomes women veterans to its ranks and appreciates the particular experiences and orientations that they bring to our membership.

One of the disturbing characteristics associated with the way Vietnam veterans were treated when they returned from service was that some of the old veteran organizations actively discouraged Vietnam veterans from joining or refused to accept their applications for membership. So Vietnam veterans were not only rejected by the general population, but they were often shunned by the very organizations that should have been reaching out to help them. This environment of rejection was the basis for the formation of Vietnam Veterans of America and served to motivate its creed that “Never Again Will One Generation of Veterans Abandon Another.” At the national level, VVA supported the formation of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America with office space and legal and financial support and thus lived up to its stated creed.

Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 1076 received its Charter on March 1, 2013. The Chapter is starting its third year of existence. In March of last year our membership was a little over 30. Today it stands at over 110. This impressive growth indicates that there was an unmet need for an organization like Chapter 1076 in the southern Nevada area. I believe that Chapter 1076 is becoming known as an organization that is actively engaged in helping veterans and those organizations who provide support for veterans of all wars. Our current budget for our fiscal year from March 2015 to February 2016 contains the following:

Henderson Veterans’ Treatment Court:

Cakes for graduation ceremonies

Money for bus passes for veterans without transportation

Support for counseling not available through the VA

Mentors for veterans going through Treatment Court

Coordinator for mentor program

Nevada Veterans’ Home in Boulder City

Two pizza parties for residents

Support for the installation of automatic door openers for mobility challenged residents

Support for Christmas party for residents

Provide burial ceremonies for veterans who are buried as state wards

Support One Hero at a Time program in both Mesquite and Henderson

Thank a Vet

Transport veterans’ and service members’ children to summer camp

Money for Thanksgiving and Christmas food basket program

Support Toys for Tots campaign

Support fund to assist veterans and service members in financial difficulty (working with Thank a Vet, we can often get financial assistance delivered to a veteran and the family in less than 24 hours)

Provide support for the Catholic War veterans’ food bank program

Provide 100 “care” packages to deployed service members

Procure, train and provide two service dogs for a veterans with PTSD

Provide financial and volunteer support for US Vets stand down

Support transition counseling for service members leaving service

Support training for Chapter members seeking VA certification as Service Officer

Provide emergency funds to support veterans in need at VA Southeast clinic

Support local Disabled Veterans of America volunteer driver program

Financial support for the Military Order of the Purple Heart convention

Chapter 1076 is motivated to continue to expand the support it can provide because there is clearly an unmet need in the area and the need is likely to grow significantly in the near future. If the sequestration process that is currently in place remains unchanged, the Army is scheduled to shed more than 70,000 soldiers in the next few years. Other services will face similar, but smaller, decreases in end strength simply because they currently have fewer members than the Army. Most of these service members will be involuntarily released. That will mean that they will be released from active duty after serving during an extended period of war and will not be eligible for retirement benefits. One can anticipate two classes of issues that these veterans will face. The first is that they will have an “attitude” about the way the service and the country treated them and they will be released without having an active, long term plan for life after active duty. Both of these issues are likely to exacerbate the issues these members will have when trying to integrate into civilian society.

An additional reason for expanding and extending the range of services Chapter 1076 supports is the simple fact that helping others serves two very valuable purposes for the membership. The first is that the activities themselves serve as a bonding process among the members. It allows our members to associate with people who they know will accept them as they are, understand their issues and help and support however they can. In short, the things our members do together tend to recreate the kinds of binds that existed in the service. Second, our activities serve as a healing process. Some of our members have publically said that they never felt a part of anything since they left their service until they joined Chapter 1076. Others, having participated in a parade, received the first “welcome home” of their lives, bring some members to tears. In some way, helping other veterans with the assistance that was denied to Vietnam era veterans serves to ameliorate the feelings of rejection that nearly all Vietnam era veterans experienced. Living the VVA creed to not abandon our current veterans helps relieve some of the anger that many Vietnam era veterans have largely buried. So the things we do as a Chapter not only help the general veteran community, but they also serve to help our own members heal some of the wounds left ignored and unattended after their service.

One of the important reasons that Chapter 1076 has been successful in supporting veterans is the remarkable cooperation it has received from retail locations and the incredible support provided by the local population. Many retail locations have made their locations available for our fund raisers in spite of the additional administrative burden and logistical issues associated with having an outside organization try to mesh with their ongoing operations. Without the support of these local vendors, we could not do any of the things we are currently able to do.

And we could not do anything without the generosity of the local people. We don’t ask for money during our fund raisers. We simply ask people to wear a flower for us and they generously decide to donate to us. Their financial support is key to our ability to operate. Even though the financial aspect of the fund raising is important, the generosity and openheartedness of the people we meet go far beyond monetary considerations. We frequently have people stop to talk about their grandfather who served in World War II, Korea or, unfortunately for our self-image, Vietnam. Veterans will stop to talk about their experiences in service and for a short time reconnect with someone who understands without being told. Some people will ask for help dealing with the Veterans Administration or some other government agency. Last month a man asked for directions to a local gas station and later came back to share that he was a Canadian Army veteran who had served in Vietnam. Occasionally, young Americans, whose parents emigrated from Vietnam, will come and tell us that if it weren’t for our service they wouldn’t be here today. Two weeks ago a Vietnamese man asked one of us to pose in from of our VVA sign. After taking his picture, we asked why he was interested. He was a veteran of the South Vietnamese Special Forces who had not only served his country in war, but spent six years in a “reeducation” camp after North Vietnam successfully invaded his country. He has since attended one of our Chapter meetings and we continue to explore ways for the VVA and the local Vietnamese community to support one another. It is experiences like these that make the participation in our Chapter experiences an emotional one that supports and reinforces the membership’s need and desire to continue to do what we do. Without this kind of support and interaction with the local community, our efforts would dwindle and die. There is no way that Chapter 1076 can adequately express its appreciation for the support and welcome we have received from the people we encounter during our activities.

Chapter 1076 attempts to coordinate and cooperate with other organizations providing services to veterans. One way Henderson VVA Chapter 1076 supports veterans is by ensuring they are safely and timely transported to and from their medical appointments at the Southern Nevada Veteran’s Administration Medical Center, plus all four of the local area veteran’s clinics. Vietnam Veterans are an integral part of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) Transportation Network. This network consists completely of volunteer drivers. Presently, there are over fifty volunteer drivers in the Southern Nevada DAVTN, many of them are Vietnam Veterans, and two are members of Chapter 1076. Volunteer DAV drivers transport veterans for medical treatment to the Las Vegas valley from Laughlin, Pahrump, Mesquite, Henderson and Boulder City.

Some veterans die as wards of the state with no family or relatives to claim the body. The remains of these veterans are buried at the Boulder City veterans’ Cemetery. Without the local veterans’ organizations, these remains would be buried without notice or honor. VVA Chapters 17 and 1076 alternate the provision of burial ceremonies at the Boulder City Veterans Cemetery with the Women Veterans of Nevada. VVA Chapter 17 provides an honor guard for the ceremonies. The ceremonies provided note the service that these veterans provided and provide one last recognition of their sacrifices for the country. Chapter 1076 has installed a plaque at the cemetery expressing its appreciation for all of those who died during or after their service to our country.

We support the Catholic War Veterans’ food bank program. We hold combined efforts with our VVA Chapter 17 brothers and sisters to reach veterans at local gun shows. We continue to expand the reach of our cooperative efforts and try to develop additional ways to coordinate the efforts of organizations supporting the veteran population of southern Nevada.