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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.

(The follow letter was written by a crewman of the nuclear submarine Haddock. This crew member along with others aboard the sub, fought against unsafe conditions and successfully stopped the sub from sailing until some necessary repairs were made in November, '75. After superficial repairs the sub went to sea tests in December, '75 but sprang a leak in the engine room, endangering the entire crew. The Haddock, based at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, has yet to become seaworthy. The crewman who wrote this letter, as well as other sailors involved in the fight for better conditions has been transferred by the Navy. See story in Dec-Jan Veteran.)

I was a concerned member of the HADDOCK crew who helped organize other sailors to fight the unsafe conditions that exist on the sub. As a result of our efforts, the problems of the sub have been brought out in the open and have forced the brass to clamp down.

The command is not concerned with the safety deficiencies; they have in the past and will try in the future to send an unsafe sub to sea. They are more concerned with hassling enlisted men who are organizing and effectively fighting their system. The brass is scared. They have lost control of the situation and are being exposed as the irresponsible and incompetent officers they are. The command is using their system to attack us and scare people into submission. They're trying to break our unity and silence us because, if they do, no one will be able to bring the problems out in the open. As long as the brass can keep their activities concealed, the problems on the boat will not be solved.

The command has tried to use me as an example to others, in an attempt to show what happens to enlisted men who organize and fight their unjust system. Their first attempt to scare us was trumped-up charges of dereliction of duty against me. They couldn't prove anything and they relied on military injustice to punish me. However, the command was forced to drop the charge when they realized their attack on me further united other crew members and that we would beat their own system, exposing it for what it really is.

The brass wasn't discouraged, as their system provides them with many ways of "fighting back." They regrouped and decided to try claims that I was mentally unstable. Once again they were beaten because they couldn't prove their claims when they were forced to.

Presently, they have changed their tactics and are trying to bra up our unity by transferring us to other commands. Their reason for trying to remove my job code and thus transfer me is that I am unreliable and that I have affected the morale and discipline of the ship. In every attack, they have very cleverly left out the unsafe conditions of the HADDOCK and have tried to keep things quiet.

It isn't working. Concerned crew members are still fighting the command and have refused to back off, after seeing how the brass is trying to use me as a scapegoat. Every attack by them soldiers our unity and exposes another unjust part of their system. But most important of all is that, when I am gone, I know others will take my place and continue the fight.

Fellow Vets,

Having served two years in Nam, from 1969-1971, I really know what you say. The Vietnam veteran has been shafted. We need to unite with all vets and people. I have tried to get an education on the GI Bill, only to have my hopes snuffed out. It's hard enough on $320.00 a month, but pay tuition, books and housing--forget it. Plus when you don't even get a check for 3-4 months! I'll be in Philly on July 4th. Please send any info you have. I have many Vietnam vets who are interested.

Hoa Binh!

A vet from New Hampshire

Dear people,

I was jailed in 1969 for non-violently blocking the doorway to the Oakland induction center with my body. At that time (I was only 18) I considered anyone who'd go to fight in Vietnam as something akin to the devil.

Since that time--not through any ideas I break, but through opening out and becoming a wholer and fuller person, I think, I've come to realize that the Vietnam vets are victims, as much so as the Vietnamese, the water buffalo, and the land of Vietnam. Especially now. Everyone wants to just forget you, you know.

I really would like to support VVAW now that the war is over (I did while the war was "on" too, of course)...I've been working as a volunteer teacher in a Chicano community school in Northern New Mexico. So my check is small.

You know, when some of you threw your medals at the White House--I think maybe it is not exaggerating to say this was important thing in our country's history...

From Los Alamos,
New Mexico

Dear Friends,

I'm sending you $6.00 for a one year subscription and also $4.00 as a contribution for The Veteran paper. I was in World War II--Company A, 372nd Engineers, at the Battle of the Bulge, etc, from 1942 til 1945, only 62 years old.

I have a found-hour detail in our VA hospital and domiciliary here without incentive pay of a big 5 cents or 10 cents an hour. Ouch!...But tomorrow morning I'm going into Building #1 and raise *!!(#*, telling them I want a different detail for only two hours without pay--that's enough of their BS around here! ON my four-hour detail, I'm an "Escort-Messenger Service"--pushing patients on carts and in wheelchairs up to the spinal ward and down to the basement.

On your last demonstration out here in front of the VA hospital, one of our so-called Keystone Kops said to me, "Hey! You! Keep moving away from this entrance!" I said to him, "Go to hell--I work here for my room and board to stay at the Domiciliary." Just then, two plain-clothes men said, "Do as he said."...Then I told them, "Come up to Spinal Ward and I will show you what happened to my cousin and his friends who are down in the basement, trying to learn how to walk with two artificial legs--hips down to toes. Bring that Keystone Kop with you and I will personally take you on a good tour of the hospital here so you big shots can see with your own eyes what these men went through so you guys can hold your so-called big shot jobs. They have all the right in the USA to fight for their rights. Next time I hope you guys have to go...When you fellows come back, look me up and then you tell me how in the Hell you like it." Yes! It's true--let the big shots fight their own war. Then they won't be so cocky...

Sure looking for my next VVAW paper...Thanking you for listen to me sound off.

Your friend,

VVAW:

I'm a Vietnam-era veteran attending college under the present GI educational program. I registered at one of the California State universities in October of 1975. Until this date, I haven't received a check from the VA.

I went to see the veteran counselor and the vet rep on campus to inquire about my checks. I received such replies as:

"It was my fault I haven't received any money. I was accused of reporting an incorrect address." I proved to them that I did not report an incorrect address.

Two and half months of inquires and I still get the runaround at the VA office. If I don't receive any assistance in the near future, I will be forced to withdraw from my classes in the middle of the quarter. I no longer have enough funds in my saving to pay for my living and transportation expenses.

I think something should be done about the mass inefficiencies that exist in the VA at present.

Sincerely your,

A California vet