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Letters To VVAW

By VVAW

The Veteran welcomes letters, comments and criticisms. Please write to us. Also, if you have any poetry, drawings or stories you would like to see in the paper, send them along.

To VVAW:

With the most sincere gratitude of the Vietnamese people for your precious support and assistance to our just struggle for a peaceful, reunified, independent, democratic and prosperous Vietnam.

Vietnam Committee for Solidarity with the American People

Dear Veteran,

I'm writing in regards to the conditions at the VA hospital at Allen Park, Michigan. You might want to use this in your newspaper.

On May 30th, my brother entered the hospital for treatment for a fractured pelvic bone. Earlier, he had been discharged from the VA hospital in Memphis, Tenn. I was told then that his condition wasn't so bad that he couldn't stay at home with plenty of good care. I went and brought him home about two weeks after he was discharged and he could get around with the aid of a walker. But the pain was very bad. He was suffering from malnutrition. He told me he was afraid to go to the VA, afraid for his life. He told me that medication they gave him caused him to be drunk and confused.

When my brother entered the hospital in Allen Park, he could walk with a walker. He had some detraction in his legs from not being able to use them. He had emphysema for the past eight years and was receiving a pension from the VA.

On the fourth day, he had one of the hospital aides call the family to come out. We found him barely able to sit on the side of his bed, with no PJs on, just a pair of shorts he had worn the day he entered the hospital. There was urine all over the floor, and it was two o'clock in the afternoon. He was so confused, as if he was drunk. He was placed in an isolation room; about four o'clock that same afternoon his breathing was so bad it seemed like he wasn't going to make it. My other brother, my sister, and I kept trying to get the head nurse to get a doctor to see him. We were told the doctor had seen him that morning and that his doctor was in a meeting. We waited an hour and asked the nurse again to call a doctor. We were then told his doctor had gone home ill.

We then went to see the chaplain who called the head nurse on the ward; by that time the second shift had come on. It was seven o'clock that evening when finally a doctor came in to see him. He was then sedated. We were allowed to stay until eleven that night; he wasn't even given an IV feeding he was able to eat, or fluid he was able to drink. He remained in that condition another seven days before he was taken to intensive care. He spent three weeks there and seemed to pull through the most critical part. He was then sent back on the 1013 ward next to an open window with the sun on him and a draft. I complained to the head of nursing; they sent him to 4C; he spent four days there and died on July 4th, 1975. We were told so many things. We think he got pneumonia from negligence.

I have written our Congressmen, Senator, and the President. But they told one lie after another. They had the VA investigate his care, but they would have to take the doctor's word.

He had the same amount of IV the day he died that was in the bottle the day before; the needle was in the vein, but the IV wasn't going. Many of our men are afraid to go into the VA--they fear for their lives. Some are really ill and really need healthcare. It's a national disgrace that we have to stand by and watch our boys that paid this price for our country to go through with such poverty that they have no choice but to go to these VA hospitals. My brother's name was Rex G. Henson, VFW.

Sincerely your,

Dear Veteran,

I am tired of seeing hospitalized veterans neglected because of understaffed hospitals. I have seen too many veterans die because of the cutbacks in personnel at VA hospitals. Veterans deserve first class hospital care, not the kind of care I see everyday.

A lot of problems are blamed on the workers. But the workers are underpaid and overworked. They do all they can to make the hospitalized veterans comfortable. I would like to point people in the right direction--the fat do-nothings in Washington are to blame.

I am tired of seeing veterans mistreated. I am speaking as a veteran and as a VA hospital worker.

A frustrated hospital worker

VVAW,

I'm a veteran who is attending college. As usual this semester I'm having problems with late checks. It is now the middle of November and this month's check is late. At the beginning of the semester my first check for September was over a month late. I went to the Veterans Counsellor and the Vet Rep on campus but got no results. I then went down to the VA and saw somebody in the contact office. These are a few of the things the VA contact Counsellor told me:

"It was my fault that my check was late because I had two files."

"I should not depend on the VA check in the first place."

"The GI Bill was never intended to pay for my college tuition."

"What was I complaining for? My check was only a month late, and he had people whose checks were over 8 months late."

"You young veterans are all the same--rabble rousers; you're always complaining and never want to work; you want everything given to you."

When I told the counsellor that my records were never lost and there weren't any delays when I was sent to Vietnam, he replied: "I was back in the big one, kid; I've got more time overseas that you had in the Army."

This is not the first time I've had problems with the VA. I also noted that this wasn't an isolated incident; a large number of other vets at my school are also hurting from late checks and unconcern from the VA. I wasn't able to buy any books for my classes for the first month of school. Lots of other vets are married and have families to feed and no check to do it with.

Keep Up Your Good Work,
A New York City Vet

PS: The change over in last month's paper was great; it's really starting to speak to the needs of the veteran.

To The Veteran,

First of all I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for what I think is the best paper "in dealing with the struggle against imperialism" that I have ever read. It is not too often that I get to read a paper such as yours. For the simple fact is that I am in the military, the Marine Corps at that. And if I may say so myself I have never seen, smelled, or heard so much bullshit in my poor life...

Keep Up the Fight for the Righteous.

Fight Back, Brothers,
A Soldier for Peace