(click on pictures to expand)
Badge and Certificate from the Republic of
China for Hull's service to Taiwan from 1955 to 1975. If you served on
Formosa Patrol during this period, send your request and proof of service
to:
Yu, Chung-san (Rocky)
Senior Assistant Taipei
Economic and Cultural Office
555 Montgomery Street, Suite 501
San Francisco, CA 94111
Information compliments of Neil Baliber ETN3 '59 - '63
RADM
Byron B. Newell, USN (Ret.)
Subject:
Hand Salute
Hand
Salute
Last
January, the National Defense
Authorization Act, Section 594, was
passed, allowing members of the armed
forces and veterans who are present but
not in uniform during the hoisting,
lowering or passing of the flag to
render the military salute.
Already, a
change has been made, sponsored by
Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), an Army
veteran and minority member of the
United States Senate Committee on Armed
Services. In addition to saluting the
flag, veterans and out-of-uniform
military personnel are now also allowed
to hand-salute during the national
anthem. This provision was included in
the Duncan Hunter National Defense
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009,
signed by President Bush on 14 October
2008.
To read
more, go to the Library of Congress's
"Thomas" web site at thomas.loc.gov
(S.3001; the provision is Subtitle
E--Joint and Multiservice Matters, Sec.
595), or govtrack.us for the final
version in its entirety.
Definition of a VN Veteran
Subject: Definition of VN Veteran Department of
Veterans Affairs Prepares to Strip John McCain of Vietnam Veteran Title By
the implementation of changes as set forth in the Federal Register, April
16, 2008, regarding "Definition of Service in the Republic of Vietnam," for
the purpose of clarifying eligibility for presumption of exposure to
herbicides status, the DVA very clearly states and reiterates its stance
that "38 CFR 2.307(e)(6)(iii) does not provide a presumption of herbicide
exposure to a Vietnam Era veteran who never set foot on land in the Republic
of Vietnam and did not service on its inland waterways." What this action
accomplishes, in addition to the relationship to herbicide exposure, is a
re-designation of all veterans into two clearly distinct categories: Vietnam
War veterans and Vietnam Era veterans. The VA is careful to keep this
distinction of Vietnam Era veterans when referring to veterans who "never
set foot on land in the Republic of Vietnam."
This re-writing of history
began at least 4 years ago and can be seen quite clearly in a presentation
made by Dan Brown, Director of the Environmental Agents Service, in
November, 2004 in the "Science for Judges" Symposium, held annually at
Brooklyn Law School. In that presentation, Brown says that those veterans
not covered by the Agent Orange Act of 1991 are "non-Vietnam veterans" and
"non-Vietnam War veterans." These are not typographical errors on the part
of the VA. They are well thought out titles developed in their new emphasis
on who is covered by the Agent Orange Act and who is not. They are titles
meant to separate "boots-on-the-ground veterans" (often referred to as
in-country veterans) from all other Armed Forces participants in that
Southeast Asian War. Read this carefully. It is the creation of a very
well-defined rift, a division, within the ranks of Vietnam War veterans. It
is part of a campaign to "divide and conquer" which will have immense
negative impact on these veterans as well as all present and future
veterans. It gives the DVA the power to segment groups of veterans for the
purpose of withholding or bestowing VA benefits on selected groups from any
current or future armed conflict.
All aircraft pilots who flew
off aircraft carriers during the time of the Vietnam War, as stipulated by
the DVA to be January 9, 1962 to May 7, 1975, are therefore Vietnam Era
veterans, as they are all Blue Water Navy veterans. They are also
non-Vietnam War veterans. All jet fighter pilots who may have flown in the
"airspace above" the Republic of Vietnam, or above North Vietnam or any of
the surrounding countries, are also exempt from herbicide coverage and
therefore are titled Vietnam Era veterans. Furthermore, all US Navy pilots
who were shot down over North Vietnam, who landed by parachute in North
Vietnam, and were not fortunate to have landed in the Republic of Vietnam,
fall under this re-written definition of Vietnam Era veterans. A pilot from
an aircraft carrier who became a POW and was kept in captivity anywhere but
on the soil of the Republic of Vietnam, is now officially referred to as
non-Vietnam War veterans. All POWs who spent time in the prison called the
Hanoi Hilton, or any other place not located in South Vietnam, receive this
new title as well.
John McCain, Jim Stockdale
and all others in this predicament have been re-classified by the Department
of Veterans Affairs as Vietnam Era veterans. Public reference to them as
Vietnam War veterans is incorrect, per the new re-written history presented
by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Our Presidential Candidate should no
longer refer to himself as a veteran of the Vietnam War. This title is being
stripped from him by the DVA. And just imagine the embarrassment of having
to remove names chiseled in the stone the Vietnam Memorial Wall.
Blue Water Navy Association PO Box 1035
