Download PDF of this full issue: v36n1.pdf (6.8 MB)

Remembering the "War on the VA"

By Steve Bublitz

Here are some musings and memories of one vet's tour as a member of the Milwaukee chapter of VVAW from 1971 to 1978.

I was antiwar and pro-civil rights before I enlisted in the Navy. I came from a working-class family. My dad was in Korea when I was born, and I remember his nightmares, the ghosts that stalked him: what we now know as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). An Army sergeant, he was commander of a 'track. He got blown out of the turret twice, and was the only survivor. So I knew, even though it took years to understand, the guilt of surviving.

I was worried about the draft and was pressured at home to "straighten out my life." After taking tests and getting my GED, I enlisted for six years of active duty in the Navy, with a written guarantee of no river boats, but nuclear subs weren't off the list. I lasted one month before going AWOL and working to correct my mistake. I'm lovingly referred to as "almost-a-vet Bublitz."

I got in trouble coming out. I joined the Milwaukee VVAW chapter, and even though I had straightened out and had support, I pulled two years in prison. There I met the walking dead: brothers who came back over the line and never got help from the VA. That dead look in the eyes is something I'll never forget. It helped me in organizing at the VA later and with many nights of friends' nightmares, holding them and talking them back to "the world."

Such was the latent trauma from 'Nam. We'd be doing a march at a Memorial Day parade, the VFW would fire a volley, and half a dozen of the chapter would hit the deck. It's in this context—losing people to PTSD who had carried out orders and the policy of our government, and in many cases, embarrassingly survived to turn against the government—that we initiated the "War on the VA."

Looking back, I guess volunteering to organize at the VA was a natural step for me. Back then we were outsiders, troublemakers, and rabblerousers. I had to sneak in, with leaflets and posters under cover, and dodge security to get up on the floors with the bros. I made many friends with sympathetic VA rank-and-file staff along the way.

We did takeovers of regional offices and VA hospital administration offices and organized veterans around the country to demand decent health care, recognition of PTSD, etc., until the VFW, the American Legion, the DAV, and the public joined us in demanding justice for vets. As in past wars (going back to the Bonus March), we said, "We will not be forgotten."

Now we're right back where we started. A new generation: our kids. Hell, old guys like me are being reactivated and sent off to fight for democracy—spelled Halliburton. Profit. They're coming home maimed, physically and mentally, to be discarded like so much cannon fodder. Yeah, I'm pissed off all over again. I want my country back.

It took a nationwide organization such as VVAW was and still is to accomplish these goals. That it started in Milwaukee, that I played a small part in this history...that's one campaign ribbon that I hold dear. Peace. And let's kick some ass.