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California Regional Conference of Veterans and Military Families

By Steve and Carolyn Crandall

Ventura, CA - April 16-18, 2010

It was over a year ago when the VVAW West Coast Tour came to our home in Camarillo, CA. From this tour came the spark to create a gathering of like minded groups that support veterans and want to put an end to war. Enter 2010 and you will understand how we took this spark and made it grow.

The conference was held April 16th-18th. We had VVAW members come from Florida and Colorado to participate in the workshops as well as VFP members from Texas. We were honored to have visitors and workshop participants from Vietnam representing the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign. Our younger brothers from IVAW came from as far north as San Francisco along with members of VFP and MFSO. VVAW, VFP and MFSO came from as far south as San Diego and stretched inland as far east as Palm Springs to bring in members of VFP. Locally we were represented by all participating groups and then some. You couldn't ask for a much better California geographical representation of like minded groups that want to support veterans and put an end to wars.

We kicked off the event Friday evening with a social meet and greet. We listened to tunes from Annie and the Vets then later blues from a local singer and song writer Teresa Russell.

During Saturday's 7:30am breakfast Capt. Paul Chappell led the conference opener with Development Strategy and Actions Towards Peace - Why Peace is Possible and How to Achieve It. After breakfast we heard National Organizational Campaign updates, learned about Banished Veterans and how our voices can be heard and ways to link through VetSpeak.

We posed for a group picture prior to starting the workshops and as the day went on, more and more people arrived to bring our final headcount to 130. Some of the groups tabled and displayed brochures and sold t-shirts, dvds, caps, buttons and bumper stickers.

The first of nine workshops started at 10:00am. Because we only had one day for the workshops some of them had to compete with each other for the hour long time slots. We considered adding another day but were concerned that having a four day conference might be problematic for most attendees due to work schedules and the cost of lodging.

We put the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign together with Depleted Uranium into one workshop. It only seemed fitting since DU is the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans Agent Orange. Again, like Agent Orange in the beginning, the government is denying that there is any real proof or concern that DU presents a hazard to our GI's health.

Jeff Paterson presented the Courage to Resist workshop. Jeff was brought to tears as he played a cell phone message from Marc Hall, received that morning. Marc was released of all charges and will be discharged immediately. Marc was jailed back in December for writing a song about the personal impact of being forced to remain in the military beyond his contract date due to stop-loss.

Also sharing the 10:00 time slot was the workshop about Re-thinking Afghanistan hosted by Jeff Merrick of Orange County MFSO.

The three workshops sharing the 11:00 time slot were Sexual Assault in the Military by Ann Wright, who later gave an evening presentation to the public regarding the same subject. Homeless Veterans workshop by Maurice Martin and Lane Anderson and a Media workshop on how to put your news on You Tube and Face book, hosted by Jeff Merrick and Marshall Blesofsky.

After lunch we continued the workshops with Membership Expansion and Fundraising by Doug Zachary of VFP. War's Hidden Wounds, Effects of PTSD on Troops and Families by Dr. Judith Broder and Informed Enlistment Strategies by Peter Dudar, Sally Marr, Arlene Inouye and Michael Cervantes.

On Saturday evening, we hosted an event that was open to the public featuring the following speakers: Sexual Assault in the Military by Col. Ann Wright; Empire vs. Veterans: Who Pays and Who Benefits from Global Wars by Dr. Michael Parenti: and Rules of Disengagement by Professor Marjorie Cohn.

Sunday morning a breakfast was held to wrap up the three-day event and to discuss what we got out of the conference, what went right and what improvements could be implemented for the next conference. We hugged, shook hands and congratulated each other on an event that we believe accomplished our goal of bringing together veterans and veterans' families to listen, learn and take back information to share with others who were not able to attend. In the words of VVAW and VFP member George Johnson, we got a 97% rating and this was after George realized we just ran out of coffee.

Carolyn and Steve Crandall are members of the California Central Coast Chapter of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.