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Letter to VVAW from an Active Duty Marine

By VVAW

I have tried on numerous occasions to write this letter but have found myself distracted by the daily grind of work, family, and life in general. I am an officer currently serving on active duty. I served in Iraq, and write this letter as I get ready to deploy for my second tour.

I have been a member of VVAW for awhile now and admire the work done by this fine organization. I look forward to each issue, and the strides the members are making on behalf of veterans past, present, and future. I can't say I agree with everything in the publication. In the military I operate in, the consensus is that there is a special place in hell for Cindy Sheehan, Ward Churchill, and John Murtha, and it troubles me when I see them in the The Veteran. But alas, the good that VVAW does overshadows anything I could find offensive.

My message as an active duty member of the military about to deploy again is that of tenacity and perseverance. This may oversimplify the statement; but please keep doing what you are doing! Organizations like VVAW are desperately needed now more than ever. It seems as though this country has made the system of checks and balances an agonizingly painful and convoluted process. Working for citizens has apparently taken a back seat to special interests. This is where groups like VVAW have stepped in to pick up the slack and have consistently been the honest broker for service members.

I respect the tenacity of my predecessors who after 40 years are still fighting for veterans. Each generation of veterans has taken up the torch and filled the ranks of VVAW over the years to keep this important message alive. I respect the tenacity of those in VVAW who never served a day in uniform, yet are compelled to "serve" this country in a different capacity.

In this day and age the rift between the military and civilians worlds has been more pronounced as conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan plaster the headlines. When VVAW was started, everyone had a brother, cousin, uncle, or friend in uniform. Now, that number has dwindled so that someone may know a "friend of a friend." Service members are someone that Americans may see on the evening news, in an airport, or the latest issue of Newsweek. As the American population becomes more detached from the military, the more important it is to keep service member's interest in sight. Service members coming back from deployments are still facing the same mental health, VA Hospital, and family problems they always have. I leave it to those in groups like VVAW to keep fighting on behalf of those veterans that can't speak up for themselves. Keep pressing this issue, and keep it in front of the American people so they are constantly reminded that they need to take care of veterans long after the conflict is over.