In this episode of the H21 Southern Chapter of the Combat Infantrymen’s Association, we deliver the audio narration of the article from VFW Magazine’s February, 2010, edition titled:  “Debunking the Myth of the ‘Addicted’ Army.’

This is an article written by Jeremy Kuzmarov, in which the truth about the perpetration of a stereotype and myth was created by the Media, journalists, reporters, and even members of the US Congress and government about the Vietnam Combat veteran. This MYTH was so outrageous–but unfortunately, it caused so much damage–that is pictured the combat Vietnam veteran as a ‘baby-killer, psycho, dope-addict, heroin-addict and loser.’

As if a combat veteran needs more stigmas and more depression delivered by the rejection of an ungrateful American public, the Vietnam veteran had to cope with this for over 40 years. Now, the truth about the lies that were spread by TV, media, news and Congress is finally delivered–and even with the statistics and studies that show who the guilty parties were.

Thus, how can you blame a Combat Vietnam Veteran like myself that cannot trust the media at all? or who hates the mere presence of reporters and journalists and equates them to the lowest scum of the earth and slimiest creatures with nothing else on their minds except getting sensationalism to exaggerate the facts and get their story published?

And, most of all, don’t you think it is ironic that perhaps THEY THEMSELVES–the reporters and journalists who went out with the combat troops for only a couple of days (instead of the entire mission) and returned to the safety of the REAR and the security of hot water, clean linen and the comforts of ‘home’ to their typewriters would be the ones creating this sensationalistic exaggeration of the real situation about drugs in Vietnam?

I suggest that these same reporters, journalists and scum of the media were the ones who smoked the heroin, smoked marijuana and took the pills and got high while in the rear–because the could do so while the grunts kept them secure–and then blamed the partaking of drugs on the grunt himself. After all, he who wielded the pen controlled the media.

Little did they know how much damage, pain, loss of job and happiness, and how much misery they would cause in the lives of honest, returning Vietnam combat veterans who only did their duty, but would find the same words when they returned home to this frenzied stereotype:  “Sorry, we don’t want any Vietnam Vets; we don’t want any trouble from psychos, baby-killers or drug-addicts.”

Yes, Media and reporters and journalists. Thank you for the forty years of misery and pain–just so you could get your exaggerated story published, while the combat vets were spilling their blood and guts every day in the bush, the paddies and the mountains, the Central Highlands all the way from the DMZ to the Delta.

The question is: has the media changed since then?

In my opinion, I think not. Very little has changed, and the soldiers are the ones that have to fight the misinformation and exaggeration delivered to the public by the worthless entity called the Mainstream Media (or should we call it “Lame-stream Media”?).

Copyright (c) 2010, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

In this episode of the H21 Southern Chapter, Austin, Texas location of the Combat Infantrymen’s Association, we deliver a summary of the ceremony that took place on 18 September 2009 at the Texas State Cemetery near downtown Austin, Texas. We also give you information and details of the upcoming joint meeting of the CIB Association Austin Chapter and the San Antonio-based Alamo Chapter of the 82nd Airborne Division Association.

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Joint Meeting: 82nd Airborne and CIB Associations on 24 Oct 2009

We will be having a joint meeting with the members of the Alamo Chapter of the 82nd Airborne Division Association at the Drop Zone Club and Restaurant on Saturday morning, 24 October 2009, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Central time.

This is the 3rd time we will have been together as 2 associations. The first time was August, 2008 in San Antonio (we honored D.G. Harris at that time for his CIB and 3 combat jumps in WWII). The second meeting was on 9 May 2009 in Austin at the VFW 8787 Post. And this will be the third meeting, hosted by the San Antonio chapter.

We will have community with our comrades, sharing of stories and good times with our brethren from all the conflicts, both Airborne and Infantry. Both chapters will have their monthly meetings during this time, as well.

Also, as you will hear in the audio episode, this will be a great RECRUITMENT event. The Alamo Silver Wings Airborne Association and numerous other CIB-award winners frequent the Drop Zone Cafe. I have a feeling we will get new members for both organizations.

We hope to see you there for this meeting on 24 October, 2009.

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POW-MIA ceremony in Austin on 18 September 2009

On Friday, 18 September 2009, members of the CIB chapter in Austin participated in the ceremony to give honor to those still who are POW-MIA (Prisoners of War / Missing in Action). Tony Martinez from the chapter was part of the honor guard and participated with the VVA (Vietnam Veterans of America) in giving tribute to those fellow comrades.

Also in attendance were John Torres, Bobby Briscoe and Duane Williams.

The specifics of the ceremony are given in detail in the audio episode.

The next event will be the Veterans’ Day Parades and Ceremonies that will take place in downtown Austin and the State Capitol, as well as in San Antonio in the upcoming weeks.

Copyright (c) Matrix Solutions Corporation and the Combat Infantrymen’s Association. All Rights Reserved.

In this episode of the H21 Austin, Texas, Southern Chapter Combat Infantrymen’s Association, podcast, we give you an update of the upcoming events for the rest of 2009, as well as a summary of the meeting held on 12 September 2009.

We wish to welcome our newest member, Kevin Scharmen, who is a SouthWest Asia CIB recipient and still in the Army. He is the liaison with the 82nd Airborne Division Association Wounded Warrior Program at Ft. Sam Houston and Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Welcome, Kevin!

In this audio episode, we go at great lengths to detail each of the line items in the agenda of the meeting held on 12 September 2009 at the VFW Post 8787 meeting room in Austin, Texas.

For a look at the pdf file of the 1-page agenda, click here:  .

You can look at the items we discussed and then hear the details of the items in the podcast audio episode.

Paramount among the topics were:

1.  The POW/MIA ceremony participation on 18 September 2009 in downtown Austin. For details, contact Tony Martinez (cell number 512 228 7045).

2. If anyone wants to go to the Branson, Missouri, National Convention and reunion, the chapter will reimburse $75 for the attendance fee. Please contact Tony Martinez, Financial Officer of the chapter. More details about the National Convention and Reunion in Branson are on page 1 and pages 14-17 of the Blue Badge quarterly newsletter from National.

3. Upcoming meetings:

- October 24, 2009- scheduled joint meeting, hosted by the 82nd Airborne Division Association in San Antonio. More information on this in the next podcast episode, as well as the mailing of the newsletter.

- November 11, 2009- Meet at 7:30 a.m. on the Congress Ave. bridge between 1st Street and Riverside Drive, for participation in the Austin Veterans’ Day Parade and ceremony. Members should be in CIB Association uniform.

- Dec. 5 or 12, 2009- Austin chapter will host a family holiday social event and pot-luck gathering. More details to be provided later.

- 9 January 2010- The chapter will have its monthly meeting in San Antonio, Texas. More details on this later.

- 6 February 2010- The chapter will have its monthly meeting in the Fort Hood, Texas, area (e.g., Killeen or Harker Heights or Copperas Cove, etc.). More details on this later.

- The March and April meetings will resume in Austin, Texas. One of these months will have the chapter host the joint meeting with the 82nd Airborne Division Association at VFW Post 8787.

For more details on other items, please feel free to listen to the 22-minute audio podcast.

Copyright (c) 2009, Matrix Solutions Corporation and the Combat Infantrymen’s Association. All Rights Reserved.

In this episode of the Southern Branch, H21, Austin Chapter, of the Combat Infantrymen’s Association, we bring you an excerpt from an interview that we had with Gayle Temkin, who has over 30 years experience in treatment of physical and cognitive issues.

In this informal discussion, Gayle seeks for ways to help the Combat Veteran with experiential treatment–either by trying to get a funding grant that would support the combat veteran audience, or by recommending to organizations (such as the VA) the type of treatments needed for veterans still suffering from the aftermath of combat.

From this audio episode, it is interesting to note that many people — even the professionals who provide healing treatment for others — have a difficult time in trying to understand the plight, the suffering, the symptoms and the actual episodes that the veterans suffer. The textbook-type treatments have proven somewhat ineffective when dealing with actual Vietnam Combat Veterans.

How true is that addage: “if you haven’t been in combat, then you can’t be expected to really understand.”

Gayle’s practice has given her a wealth of experience from which to draw, and her recommendations are such that the VA should note.

In addition to her therapy practice for over 30 years, she is also trying to advance her Coalition for Emotional Literacy.

However, unless the formal organizations receive either grant funding from this administration; or unless the VA seeks to really help the Vietnam Veterans (and not just “set them aside” because they have to make room for those returning from SouthWest Asia during this present conflict), then these types of treatment alteranatives that can really help veterans may fall on deaf ears.

However, it is great to realize that there are those individuals who really do care about the appropriate treatment that should be given to the veterans who are suffering from PTSD and other symptoms, so that they can have a chance to improve their constant adjustment to the “World” upon their return from their tours of combat or improve their quality of life after suffering for over 30 to 40 years.

Copyright (c) 2009, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

On 9 May 2009, the two associations gathered in Austin for a joint meeting of the 82nd Airborne Division Association (Alamo Chapter, San Antonio, Texas) and the Combat Infantrymen’s Association (H21 Southern Chapter, Austin, Texas).

The meeting was special because it centered around the annual memorial service usually celebrated at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, at the 82nd Airborne Division Museum, around the monument with the bronzed jungle boots, rifle and helmet to honor those 82nd Airborne paratroopers who died in the Vietnam War, as they were part of the “Golden Brigade.” Ordinarily, this ceremony would take place during what is called “All-American Week” at Fort Bragg. But, because of the deployment of the 82nd Airborne Division in the Middle East, the veterans’ participation during All-American Week was cancelled.

Thus, we took it upon ourselves to perform this ceremony (called the “82nd Airborne Division All American Memorial Ceremony”) at the joint meeting. The crux of the ceremony is to remember each conflict in which the 82nd Airborne Division participated.

Since its activation in 1917 at Camp Gordon, Georgia, the 82nd Airborne participated in the following campaigns, and we had the following attendees at the meeting carry the photo of the campaign and render the memorial salute to those who gave their lives in the campaign:

- World War I – Gabe Garcia honored Alvin C. York, the hero of WWI, a member of the 82nd Infantry Division, for the heroic day of October 18, 1918, in the Muesse-Argonne offensive. A photo of Sergeant York was placed next to the 82nd Airborne Division wreath.

- Word War II - Matt Rayson was in the World War II D-Day airborne combat jump uniform and equipment, to honor General James Gavin, the WWII Division Commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, as well as the vets of World War II. He was accompanied by Darrell G. Harris, the WWII combat veteran of the European campaign (and author of the book Casablanca to VE-Day: A Paratrooper’s Memoirs), and Howard from the CIB Association, the WWII combat veteran of the Pacific Campaign in the Philippines with the 25th Infantry Division. The photo was a modern re-enactor boarding the C-47 for the D-Day parachute drop.

- Vietnam – Fred Castaneda was dressed in his original Vietnam jungle fatigues, with weapons and LBE,  flanked by Bobby Briscoe and Tony Martinez of the CIB Association. All 3 were veterans of the 23rd Infantry Division (Americal) and served in Vietnam in combat. They honored the 82nd Airborne Division Golden Brigade with the photo of the Huey helicopter air-mobility of the war.

- Grenada – We had an Air Force veteran, Airborne-qualified with nearly 100 parachute jumps, place the photo of the first 2 KIAs in Grenada, from B Company, 2nd Bn, 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division. The photo was of the Kevlar helmets placed on  the rifle butts which were staked in the ground with their bayonets along the Grenada coastline. This was the reminder of Operation Urgent Fury.

- Panama – We had Duane Williams place the photo of the 82nd Armour support in Panama. Duane was dressed in the woodland BDUs, with equipment and weapon–for Duane actually participated and made the combat parachute jump at night into Panama in Operation Just Cause.

- Desert Storm – We had Joe Franco of the 82nd Airborne Division Association place a photo of a combat infantryman of the 325th Airborne Infantry Regiment in Kuwait/Iraq next to the wreath of the “double-A.”

- Afghanistan and Iraq – We had John Trevino and Fred Castaneda stand in for our local hero, Alan Babin, and place a photo of an airborne officer saluting those who have fallen in Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.

- ‘WHEN YOU JUMP, IT’S JUST YOU…’ was the motto of the poster that signified the recruitment for the 82nd Airborne Division yesterday and today. This 1972 poster was carried by John Peed, the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, Alamo Chapter, to signify that our traditions of never forgetting those who have fallen will be carried on by our future recruits and members of the associations.

After the ceremony, the group listened to the presentation from Fred Castaneda (filling in for Clint Riddell of the Austin Texas Veterans’ Commission) as he handed out literature and details about veterans’ rights, claims, benefits for education and employment, etc., for the State of Texas. Predominant in the conversation was the Hazlewood Act, which provides free college tuition for veterans who enlisted in the State of Texas.

Then the meeting wrapped up as each association conducted its monthly old business and new business –including events– with the update from the officers.

With the food having been provided by the 82nd Airborne Division Association, the meeting was a great success. And look forward to the next joint meeting during the final week of October to be hosted by the 82nd Airborne Division Association chapter on a Saturday in a favorable location in San Antonio. More details will be given at a later date.

The final round of camaraderie had everyone look forward to our next gathering — both in San Antonio and Austin — to honor those who have fallen at the Memorial Day Ceremonies on 25 May 2009.

Copyright (c) 2009, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

We also try to address these common questions that are being asked now by some of the combat infantrymen who are returning from their tours of duty in the Middle East:

- what is this type of enduring and internal bond between comrades who are combat infantrymen?

- how is this bond created, and how does it last during combat–and even afterwards–for the combat infantryman?

- why is this something that the school-trained counselors at the VA cannot totally comprehend nor understand?

- what are some of the examples of this type of camaraderie that has existed in WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Desert Storm and the current conflicts in the Middle East?

Take it from one individual’s experiences in how this type of camaraderie saved his life and kept him going–solely to go above self and put the lives of his men before his own during the combat. Also, you will see in this audio podcast how this type of bond still endures to help those Vietnam Veterans that are being treated for mental health issues (like PTSD) because their trust, understanding and non-judgmental empathy is the real treatment that provides the healing and possible closure.

Copyright (c) 2008, Matrix Solutions Corporation. All Rights Reserved.