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Noooze Regional

By VVAW

OPERATION P.O.W.
Operation P.O.W. was organized by the New England Chapter of the V.V.A.W., this past Memorial weekend. A "one if by land, two if by sea, three if by air" signal of six flares began the four day march which commenced at Concord Bridge and retraced the route of Paul Revere. From the Concord Bridge the Vietnam Veterans chose to march to Lexington Green in protest of the Vietnam War. The Lexington Board of Selectmen ignored the demands of the people that the war must end now. A last minute meeting was called by the Chairman of the Board of Selectmen in order to talk to all of the local clergy and to persuade them to ask us to leave the Green. Five hundred Lexington citizens attended the meeting, which turned out to be one of the wildest in Lexingtons' history. Realizing that the outcome of the meeting was being met with great resistance by the Vets and their supporters, at 10:00 PM, Chairman Cataldo, along with the Chief of Police and two or three patrolmen, approached the Green, asking that we meet with them on neutral grounds in order to discuss an alternative site. As did the Minutemen in April, 1775, the Vietnam Veterans in May, 1971.

THE A.T.C. REPORT: UGLY RACISM
An Air Force human relations team, consisting of seven officers and eight enlisted men, which visited 15 Air Force Bases, has officially confirmed that racism and discrimination does exist in the Air Training Command. The report which was submitted to Lieutenant General George B. Simler on July 26, '71, stated: "It has to be understood plainly by everyone in A.T.C. that there is discrimination and racism in the command and it is ugly."

The report documented specific instances of unequal treatment for blacks. It stated that this mistreatment "is manifested in unequal punishment, offensive and inflammatory language, prejudice in the assignment of details, lack of products for blacks in the base exchange, harassment by security policemen under orders to break up five or more blacks in a group, double standards in enforcement of regulations."

The A.T.C. Report, in agreement with other studies conducted elsewhere in the military service, states that racial discrimination is the result of a lack of leadership. Many in supervisory positions are insensitive while others deliberately ignore or dilute orders intended to ease racial conflict.

The A.T.C. Report concluded that if effective measures were not taken, "next time there will be fire."

VVAW AT NSA CONGRESS -Veterans Problems Highlighted
VVAW made a strong impact on over a thousand participants at the 24th National Congress of the National Student Association at the Colorado State University- Fort Collins August 20-29.

With Resource People from our Denver, Fort Collins, Fitzsimmons Army Hospital, Boulder, Ft. Carson, and statewide chapters taking part, VVAW held a Winter Soldier Investigation for the whole Congress; presented three days of workshops on the problems of vets and active duty GIs, ranging from hospital conditions and the GI Bill/ readjustment returning to campus to "justice" under UCMJ and student elitism towards vets and GIs; and sponsored a talk by VVAW member John Kerry during a day long teach-in on "Repression in America".

As delegates from student governments discovered that there were Nam vets among themselves, a vets caucus was put together with Dave Knox, R.I.T.; Lee Mons, Newark State; Dennis Feeley. (NCACC) Bethlehem; Norm Grossman, Camden County College, NJ; and Steve Samuel, Oshkosh State, Wis. The caucus successfully pushed for a mandate from the Congress for NSA to establish a Vets Awareness Desk with a full time staff person (a vet) at NSA to coordinate the setting up of a vets desk at every NSA member school. The Vets desk at each school would have a vet-student hired by the student government who would work on the problems of readjustment of campus vets and help the vets in both squeezing their checks out of the V.A. and creating vets consciousness on the war in Asia and at home.

VVAW CHAPTER IN MICHIGAN'S STATE FAIR A SUCCESS
Detroit chapter has set up a tent at the Michigan State Fair. Inside we are showing flicks (1st Mar. Div. & Only The Beginning) continuously. Outside, we are rapping with people before and after they watch the flicks. Good crowds - much of the time standing room only. Some very enthusiastic response, especially from people who are young and/or black. Have signed up a lot of new vets.

This weekend (Sept. 11-12) Bob Hope will be coming to the fair. Needless to say, we will be there to greet him.

We will also be doing guerilla theatre across from the area housing the army, marine, and air force recruiters. The theatre will be all about our military trainigg (sic) in racism, sexism, and brutality.

We're going to be working with some beautiful local kids who will be playing Vietnamese children.

The press will be there. If they decide to bust us, it will look very heavy dragging off six or seven year old militant demonstrators.

We'll send more details after it happens.

-- Note new address & phone #:
965 Emerson St., Detroit, Mich. 48125. (313) 499-9000

OPERATION TURNING THE GUNS AROUND
"Operation Turning the Guns Around" was initiated by the Texas Vietnam Veterans Against the War in the Ft. Worth - Dallas area in an attempt to "bring the war home." The entire area was declared a free-fire zone at 0600 hours Friday, 3 Sept., 1971. The Assembly-Point was in Trinity Park, Ft. Worth; and the unit crossed the line-of-departure at 0800 hours on Saturday.

The Nam vets marched from Ft. Worth to Arlington, Texas the 1st day and then convoyed to their 1st bivouac at Fire Base Davis, named for James Davis, the 1st American to "officially" die in front of LTV's death industry plant. The final bivouac was in the western edge of Dallas at Fire Base "?" (the last American to die in this war without purpose). The final day's march terminated at Glendale Park with a rally. Skip Roberts, Jim Barton, Bob Gonzales, Terry DuBose, Larry Waterhouse, Randy Floyd, and Father Larry Kowalski spoke.

Searches, interrogations, and ambushes were carried out along the route. The major confrontations came with a family reunion of Southern Baptist and the American Nazi Party. VVAW members from all across Texas as well as from Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana marched the 35 mile route between Ft. Worth and Dallas.