Vietnam Vet Or Vietnam-Era Vet - BIG Difference
Used to be we had to hide the fact that we were former "baby killers" or risk getting spit on. Now it seems fashionable for those that never served in Vietnam to claim they were. Sorta like all the boomers that say they were at Woodstock. (I wasn't) A matter of semantics? - you decide. This article appeared in the Arizona Republic November 20, 2006 and was provided by the Associated Press. I keep waiting for an update on the status of this issue but as of this writing it seems to have been buried. It's a matter of concern for all REAL Vietnam veterans - those that were actually there. When I hear something new about this I will let you know.
New Leader of vet group did not fight in Vietnam - BOSTON - The national commander of the American Legion never served in Vietnam although he describes himself as a "Vietnam veteran," a newspaper reported Sunday. Paul Morin, elected August 31, 2006 to a one-year term as commander of the nation's largest veterans group, spent his time in the Army from 1972 to 1974 at Fort Dix, NJ, the Boston Globe reported.
Neither the government nor the 2.7 million-member American Legion makes a formal distinction between veterans who actually went to Vietnam and the "Vietnam-era" veterans. Not too surprising coming from the U.S. Govt. but the American Legion too?? Come on guys, how about we put the WW II - era vets who fought the Japs from a chair in NJ in the same category as those who actually battled them hand to hand in the Pacific. Would that statement fly?
"I am a Vietnam veteran," Morin, of Chicopee, Mass., told the newspaper. His biography on the Legion's website describes him as a "Vietnam veteran of the U.S. Army." If he said that and he wasn't in Vietnam isn't that a bald faced lie?
The Legion's top spokesman, Joe March, backed Morin. He said any service member now stationed in the U.S. could claim to be an Iraq war veteran. Great analogy Joe! Ask any Iraq vet who served in that country if there is a difference between them and someone who says they were an Iraq vet when they might never have gotten any closer to Baghdad than NJ? If I was an Iraq combat trooper I would be pissed!
But former Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia said Moran's claim might undercut veterans groups. No sh..t Max! "For the national commander of the American Legion, who never served in the Vietnam theater, to call himself a Vietnam veteran is a lie," Cleland said. I never put much faith in anything a senator said but this time I would have to agree. This is a travesty to all those veterans who were actually there. I find it hard to believe that anyone who would claim to have served in Vietnam and had been proven that they never saw service there could be elected to lead a veterans group like the American Legion. Only politics can be credited for such a stupid statement and is an insult to combat troops.
