Vietnam Tet Offensive 1968

                       

Vietnam Tet Offensive 1968

(first time pictures published anywhere)

Deadly 122 rockets (click to enlarge)

Marine Corps Vietnam/ Tet Offensive 1968

Camp Books north of Danang during Tet 1968. 122 mm rockets fired into base almost daily. Sometimes several times a day, and a lot at night. You either lived or you died. Each rocket was six feet long and carried 40 pounds of TNT. It could explode on impact or be delayed to bury in the soil and then explode. All the shrapnel usually went forward from the blast so if it passed over your head before impact, you were usually safe.

(You could be KIA or injured by blast, too. I had a Timex watch and my left arm was outside the bunker when a rocket exploded. The watch stopped at 6:00 and could not be fixed.)

They sounded like freight trains coming at you. If the train sound passed over you, you waited for the blast on impact. If the train sound stopped like it was cut off, you were in trouble because it was close or on top of you. Little different than mortars. If a mortar passed over, you were safe, but the one that lands on you makes no sound. That's why the saying, "You never hear the one that gets you," is true.

Rockets were real bad. They couldn't aim them for accuracy but only point them in the right direction. They had a six mile range. When they hit someone usually died.

In B Company, most rockets passed over us on the North end. We were the blocking force for any ground assault, and almost every other fighting hole had a machine gun. Our numbers were few but our fields of fire were deadly.

The mess hall was at center base, empty at the time at night. One man KIA, could have been 50 during chow. The other two buildings were empty, I believe, or everyone inside would have died.

(The base camp in the movie Full Metal Jacket was Camp Books)

Semper Fi, Marines and all Nam Vets

Vietnam Shrine

Vietnam Shrine

  

  My family doctor outside the VA is someone I see on an emergency basis when I feel that I won’t be able to get a VA appointment in a timely manner.

  Her family is from Egypt but she has been here forever and considers herself American and loves our country. She is older than me and very wise, and we have long talks about everything. She gave me some advice.

  “Stop watching the news,” she said. “This isn’t the America we knew. These people are all crazy. We don’t even go back home to see relatives anymore because they are all crazy in Egypt, too.”

  This is great advice. I’ve tried not to get angry about things since she told me that. Sometimes, even an old Nam vet needs someone to give him directions. She could be a Gunny.

  Then she told me about her trip to Vietnam with her husband. She said it’s all North Vietnam now and looks nothing like it did when Americans were there during the war.

  She also told me she saw something that really surprised her. Each time they build something in Vietnam, the people erect a shrine, usually religious. They saw one large building under construction with a shrine that was a statue of an American soldier. It had fresh flowers, food, and a full bottle of whiskey as an offering. No one would ever think of touching the whiskey or the food.

  She asked the tour guide what it meant and told him she was surprised to see a shrine to an American soldier.

  “Americans are an important part of our history,” the guide said. “Many died here, and we must erect a shrine to appease the spirits of dead Americans who fought here so they won’t put a curse on our new building. The whiskey and food is our offering.”

  She told me she never thought she would see anything like the respect the Vietnamese show for dead Americans warriors. I never thought I would hear of anything like that, either.

  That war still haunts all of us including the new generations in Vietnam. I’m surprised the Communist government would allow such a shrine, but I guess they have to respect the religious customs of their people in a place where so many have died.

Transcendental Meditation For PTSD?

Vietnam: 122 rocket attack at Camp Books during Tet 68 (click to enlarge)

Transcendental Meditation For PTSD?

  

(from the S-2 Report)  

   

   I read a story recently about a veteran with PTSD who practices transcendental meditation.

  The article said this vet was an incident investigator in Iraq and had PTSD depression very bad. He said transcendental meditation helped him to function with his PTSD so he could support his family.

  This has been tried before along with other types of meditation, playing war games, jogging, medications, other forms of exercise, hypnosis, and everything in between….and has pretty much failed in the long run because there is no cure for PTSD.

  You have to learn to live with it like this veteran is supposed to be trying to do. In his own way, he is trying to cope with it.

  The big flag I got when I read this article was that the guy had  his wife and two kids in the room with him. He sat in a chair and put a gun to his head in front of them.

  This direct action in front of loved ones that could also change their lives forever is something very out of the ordinary for combat PTSD sufferers,  It may be done out of anger and frustration, but...

  This is not a cry for help.

  

  It’s as if the veteran is trying to convince the family he has PTSD and is going to possibly kill himself in front of them and pass on his PTSD for the rest of their lives.

  But he’s probably is not going to do it, but wants a witness to the fact he might do it. Most vets with severe or even moderate PTSD don’t want to admit it, ever.

  They may be hyper-vigilant, carry a weapon, have severe startle reaction, or maybe show signs of severe depression. Those vets with PTSD normally don’t go out of their way to parade the symptoms in front of people. They isolate themselves. Family can sometimes take the brunt of this frustration, but it also usually involves alcohol or drugs.

  At VET Center years ago we had two people hang themselves in their own yards where their kids could find them after school. One jumped off a bridge (this guy wasn’t really trying to die but wanted attention. He did die when they moved him to an ambulance because of a broken spine. He kept saying that he didn’t think he would hurt himself that bad.)

  We had one vet cut off his own arm in front of his son, for what reason, no one really knows, except he was trying to get 100% PTSD. He was just crazy.

  And that’s what concerns me when a vet threatens suicide in front of his family. There is something else going on besides PTSD, and this situation, though calm right now, has a good chance of ending bad.

  Alcohol or drugs could possibly make this happen. I can’t say 100% of the time. But I can say when a veteran makes his family witness his suicide attempt or possible suicide attempt, there is a lot more going on than PTSD. The veteran had mental issues before being exposed to a war situation.

  PTSD will not make you beat or rape your wife and children or terrorize them. It will not make you beat your mother or father or any relative.

  This is something I truly believe. PTSD alone will not make a veteran do some of the things the shrinks believe can happen because a veteran has PTSD.

Infidelity

  Infidelity can also play a role in PTSD or family reactions.

  (I believe this reaction to infidelity would apply whether a veteran has PTSD or not. It’s human nature to be hurt when your partner  strays.)

  Approximately 50 to 60 percent of military couples seek marital therapy as a result of infidelity, according to a paper released by researchers at the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Connecticut.

  Military relationships are marked by frequent and extended periods of separation, which prompted researchers at the National Center for PTSD in Connecticut to investigate the issue of infidelity among deployed service members.

  Researchers began by distributing surveys to recently deployed veterans who were in a relationship at the time of their deployment. The participants answered questions about their infidelity experiences and concerns, PTSD and depression symptoms and post-deployment stressors.

  Of the 573 veterans who participated, 22 percent reported that their partners were unfaithful during deployment. Of the participants who did not report infidelity, 37.8 percent indicated that they were concerned that their partners had been unfaithful.

  The results of the surveys also indicated that veterans whose partners were unfaithful during deployment were significantly more likely to experience depression and symptoms of PTSD. The research suggested that infidelity can function as a contributing stressor during deployment and ultimately leads to greater post-deployment stress.

  (I disagree that infidelity is a PTSD stressor, since any  normal person can be expected to react the same.)