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Letters to VVAWBy VVAWTHE VETERAN welcomes letters, comments and criticisms. Please write. Also, send along any poetry, drawings, photos or stories you would like to see in the paper. I am currently organizing a chapter of Vietnam Veterans of America in Austin, but to cover issues such as Central America which we feel the VVA doesn't go far enough with, we have also organized the Vietnam Veterans Peace Project. After contacting Roland Nichols of the VVA in Dallas, and Tom Wetzler of VVAW in San Antonio, we are considering converting the Peace Project to VVAW to more effectively fill the goals of the Peace Project. Any information and organizing materials you can send will be appreciated. Thank You- Dear VVAW: Received April-May issue of THE VETERAN and than you for it. Enclosed is $10 for subscription and 2 "I'm a Vietnam Veteran" bumper stickers. Financially I'm strugglin' so I can't come up with the dues of membership, etc. Hope to eventually, but til then will read THE VETERAN. Want to thank you for keeping me on the mailing list?enjoy reading of VVAW's struggle, Liked your review of Deadly Deceits. Jackson Schwartz Dear Friends, An ominous note: my helper at work is 28 and just had his 3rd child. His wife worked at the Houston Morgue before she had the 2nd child and I talk to him about Vietnam to try to open his eyes a little. I have been working on him for about a year and he tells me that he discussed it with his wife when he goes home. I have been talking to him about the high suicide rate amount Vietnam vets and he came in the other morning and said he and been talking to his wife about this and she told him that a lot of suicide notes at the morgue mention Vietnam. They are always hushed up and the notes are not made public. There are a lot of individual Vietnam vets in the cities and scattered around in isolated situations, and the never have had the support that I have seen you all give to each other. That's where a lot of the suicides come from, I suspect. You know what a good job I think you all have done over the years, but I'll say it again you have prevented suicides. I just wish there were more of you. Best Regards, WANTED: SOURCES ON VIETNAM VETERANS BEHIND BARS Dear Veteran: I am presently compiling information, and selecting Vietnam veterans to be included in a book called Captive Heroes. This Book will contain a section on the extent and nature of the pattern of Vietnam veterans in prison. I need specialists in the service and documentation area to contact me with information you might have collected during your work or studies with incarcerated vets. This book will include profiles of prisoners who participated in the Vietnam War. I want these veterans to represent a cross-section of the American service person and would appreciate receiving names of prisoners you think would reflect this experience to the American public most effectively. Short biographies of those you might consider would help very much in the selection of these vets. Besides the personal history, I would like the veterans to explore in taped interviews their views on military service, society readjustments problems, survival behind bars and the possible relationship they may find in their war experiences and where they have ended up. I am a Vietnam veteran and freelance journalist who has written for publications like the New York Times, San Francisco Examiner, Oakland Tribune, Rolling Stone, and Mother Jones magazines. Please contact me if you have some contribution you can make to this book project or pass the work to anyone else who could assist. Thank you. Phil Reser WANTED: VETERANS OF LAM SON 719/DEWEY CANYON II Dear VETERAN: As some of your readers know I've been researching the Vietnam War for several years now (I'm a student, not a vet). My first proposed book on the subject (mini-biographies of 30 vets I had the opportunity to interview) went nowhere with the publishers. My second book (a history of the 1968 Battle of Hue based on interviews with Hue vets) was recently bought and is scheduled for publication in the Spring of 1984. I am presently starting research on a third proposed book. The subject is Operation Dewey Canyon II/Lam Son 719, the US/ARVN invasion of Laos in 1971. I would greatly appreciate it if any veterans of this campaign would contact me as soon as possible so we can get together for an interview. U.S. Army participation in Lam Son 719 included elements of the 101st Airborne, the 1st of the 5th Mechanized Infantry Division, the Americal Division, and a host of smaller units. As I said it would be Invaluable for me to hear from any vet of Laos; feel free to call or write anytime. Sincerely, WANTED: DOPER STORIES Why is it that I get the feeling that a lot older vets (exlifer) don't' like Nam vets (even eras) Is it the 'generation gap' older? Is it the WE 'lost the war!'? Is it simply post traumatic SS? But, that could be just the dope, which is what this is all about. I want "GI drug stories" Good or bad, any era or setting. Sure it was and is illegal/quiet. HAVE FUN. Exaggerate! Explain! Illustrate! Versify! Ray Parrish, I was only five years old in 1865 when President Johnson ordered intensive bombing below the 20th parallel, but as I grew older, I realized what an impact the war was having on me. If there is anything that I can do, please let me know. I am very sincere in my wish to help. Sincerely, ATTENTION VETS WORKING FOR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT While the government is all too willing to send us off to die for it purposes, they have recently come up with problems in paying our retirement is we work for the government as a civilian. The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1982 (P.L. 97-253) requires individuals employed under the Civil Service Retirement System to make a deposit into that system to cover their time in the military (after 1956) or else have their annuity recomputed to eliminate post-1956 military service. It will work like this: unless you deposit money in the retirement system now, to cover your time in the military (say two years as an example), then retire with 30 years at age 55, when you reach 62 your retirement will be recomputed on the basis of 28 years service (subtracting the military years). The deposit will be 7% of basic pay (not including things like housing pay, combat pay, etc.) plus interest after a two?year grace period. The grace period ends after October 1, 1984 or two years after the individual first comes under the Civil Service Retirement System. For calculating leave, military time will count whether or not the deposit is made. Necessary forms and further information should be available at our local personnel office.
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