From: jewell@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Larry Jewell)
Subject: 'NamVet Newsletter, Vol.4, no.6 (6/7)
Organization: Purdue University
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 01:13:00 GMT

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     Volume  4, Number  6                                 June 17, 1990




     me in the face with her purse. I said, 'Shit. This is what I came
     home to.'  I went out and got a drink. I didn't want to come home
     if this was how it was gonna be." 
     
        Cervando, a tough ex-marine with a drawer full of medals,
     said to me: 
     
        "Look around you. There are still people who are ashamed to
     say, 'I'm a Vietnam veteran,' because they are scared that people
     won't talk to them.  I've been insulted. 'Sir, were you one of
     them butchers over there? Did you really enjoy killing babies and
     people?'" 
     
        Another veteran remembered one event that haunted him when he
     was awake and in his dreams:  
     
        "I see this kid, twelve or thirteen years old, with his leg
     blown off, telling us in Vietnamese to go home and let the
     Vietnamese do their own fighting. At the same time, he was yelling
     to kill us. I turned away and somebody killed him." 
     
        Bill, who lost his leg in a mine explosion, told me this
     nightmare, which recurred several times a week for four years:
     
        "We were on a search-and-destroy mission and were going
     through a friendly village. A baby was crying in a hooch, and no
     one else was anywhere around. My buddy went into the hooch and the
     captain shouted, 'DON'T PICK IT UP!'  but my buddy didn't hear the
     warning and reached for the infant. The baby was booby-trapped
     with a grenade. It exploded. There was nothing recognizable left
     of the baby and only parts of my buddy.  I'll never get that cry
     and explosion out of my head. Never."
     
        Mike, a paraplegic, had been accidentally shot in the back by
     what was called "friendly fire."  A buddy's M-16 went off and
     severed Mike's spinal cord. Now confined to a wheelchair, with
     excruciating, intermittent pains in his thighs, Mike was referred
     to me by the Vet Center because of his severe depression and
     nightmares. He said:
     
        "Vietnam was a high for me. I was seventeen years old, and
     that shit was better than any combat movie I had ever seen. It was
     for real. Sometimes I would think it would be nice to stay there,
     at and the end of a year I extended my time in Vietnam. Six weeks
     later I was shot in the back."
     
        Mike's dream:
     
        "The Americans have turned on me. It is as if I am the enemy.
     They tied me to a tree and threw axes at me. Sometimes I dream I
     am a POW being captured by the Americans."
     
        I worked with Mike once a week for eleven months. Only once
     did he complain about having been shot by an American and wonder
     what his life would have been if he hadn't been shot.  Mike
     
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     dreams:
     
        "We called one of the guys Coke Bottle because of his thick
     glasses.  They blew the top of his head off.  'PICK HIM UP, MAN!'
     There were pieces of his brain and shit on my boots. We took his
     body to the LZ and the AK-45s were cracking.  Pass the word --
     'They got Coke Bottle!'  We dropped napalm. I dug in, scared,
     crying my ass off. 'Maybe he's not dead.'  There was artillery
     fire all night. I feel asleep and had a frightening kind of dream
     of the sounds of elephants coming at me. I woke up screaming. We
     moved out in the morning. They lift Coke Bottle sitting up in a
     hoist, blood and all." 

        After I had been working with Mike for three months, his
     nightmare stopped completely and his depression lifted, but then
     he began to bleed from his bowels. He was admitted to Ward 13 at
     Fort Sam Houston. He remarked that the first time he had been
     admitted to that ward was 13 years before on the thirteenth day of
     the month, and he had weighed eighty pounds. He said, "There was
     something about that ward from the first day I saw it. It seemed to
     me that it was going to be a part of me for the rest of my life."
     
     
        Although Mike was afraid that his depression would return, it
     never did. He didn't know why his war dreams had changed and then
     stopped.  He said: 
     

        "Maybe it had something to do with seeing you. In the past, if
     I had one of those dreams or flashbacks, I'd start trembling and
     sweating. It would worry the hell out of me. Now I sit back and
     accept the fact that talking about Vietnam is not going to change
     anything. I don't think of Vietnam. But how the hell can I live
     like this?"
     

        The surgeons removed a cancer of the colon and performed a
     colostomy. Mike was convinced that his cancer was caused by Agent
     Orange. 
     

        The last time I saw Mike on that ward, he was semicomatose
     and weighed eighty pounds again. I wanted to say something to him,
     but I didn't know what, and the silence was painful to me. His
     loving wife was at his side. Seeing him there, I thought back to
     Christmas time eight months previously, when he had told me how he
     had envied the simple Vietnamese lifestyle and the beautiful
     countryside, and that he had never hated the Vietnamese. Mike said
     to me last December, "What would I say if a doctor told me I had
     so many months to live? I'd probably go ape-shit!"  But of  course,
     he didn't. He died rather peacefully.  
     

        He and I had been relieved that his depression, nightmares,
     and flashbacks had gone away, but at the same time he had
     developed symptoms of cancer. That was both bewildering and
     disheartening. For one brief moment I wondered if he would have been
     

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     better off with his depression, as if that had warded off the
     cancer, rather than heralding it. He and I had done the best we
     could.  Fate had its own hand to play. His healing nightmares had
     done their work.
     
        I reviewed all the audiotapes of our meetings, I found no
     clue that his unconscious was reacting to his impending death.  Not
     even in his dreams. Perhaps, as Jung noted, the unconscious does
     not take much notice of our death but rather reacts to our
     attitude towards dying. Still I wondered why this had happened
     just as his spirits were lifted, his life was joyful, and his
     marriage more happy than ever before?  Was it possible that the
     depression had been the alarm signal of impending peril, and
     unconsciously he had sought me out to help him die?  I thought
     perhaps that was the case.
     
        What I could do for most of the veterans I saw was to give
     them a handle on their dreams and terror, to convey an attitude
     that there was meaning to their suffering and sacrifice. Even if
     the situation was not SO hopeful after all these years, there was
     hope. 
     
        It goes almost without saying that my work with these men was
     often painful to me. Many times I asked myself why I had taken it
     on, or more correctly, why it had taken me on. At times I
     experienced war nightmares and dreams of combat. Then I knew that
     the suffering of the men was getting to me, and I would take a few
     days off from working with them.  This is one of my dreams:
     
        I see the silhouette of a large aircraft carrier off the
     shore of Vietnam. It was a dark night, and I could just make out
     the outline of things. Then I am on the deck. Suddenly all over
     the deck I see muzzle fire of revolvers and rifles. I am running
     to avoid being shot, but the firing seems haphazard and I am not
     really in any danger.  
     
        I am astonished that while men were shooting every which way,
     no one was getting hit. At that point it dawned on me that these
     were all security officers, naval intelligence, CIA, and FBI, and
     that they were trying to kill an enemy somewhere on the ship. Then
     the shooting stops, and a naval intelligence officer tells me that
     the man has escaped off the ship, which was not tied up at a Vietnam 
     pier.
     
        What does that dream mean?  How was it trying to help me?
     What was all this shooting about? Surely it was a dream of the
     shadow, the whole image of the dream was shadow.  And the dark
     forces that were holding out escaped, as is always the case with
     the shadow. You cannot kill the shadow. It always survives or is
     recreated. I knew that. Here on the ocean of the unconscious,
     close by Vietnam, all of the intelligence powers of America were
     trying in vain to kill the shadow. And so it became obvious to me
     that even the most intense concentration of intelligence of all
     the thinking powers could not cope with the enemy I was trying to
     find. In short, I had to reach my subject from a feeling more than
     



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     a factual approach to the American shadow. Perhaps this is best
     explained in the final lines from "King Lear:"
     
          The weight of this sad time we must obey,
          Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
          The oldest hath borne most; we that are young
          Shall never see so much, nor live so long. [3]
     
        And so it is important to point out that the most stressful
     dreams the veterans had were not of their own danger -- of being
     shot, maimed, or killed -- but of seeing others, particularly
     their buddies, and next the children, and then women, being killed
     and slaughtered.  
     
        George's dream:
     
        "We get into this village about six miles north of Da Nang. A
     bunch of little children are running towards us. Our captain
     yells, 'FIRE!'  When we fire, they explode. they were loaded with
     grenades. They were booby-trapped. We really blew them away. They
     just blew to pieces."
     
        Children were often killed because they were armed or
     booby-trapped. George said, "That's what's shattering my nerves."
     We all know about My Lai and atrocities involving shooting
     children in cold blood, but do we know about grenades killing
     booby-trapped babies and the shooting of armed or booby-trapped
     children and civilians?  These occurred often enough so that the
     men involved, as well as those who heard stories from buddies, and
     who became psychological casualties, carried a heavy burden of
     guilt and a great sadness.
     
        Wilson, a marine sergeant who spent two years in Nam, told me
     this nightmare, which recurred once or twice every week:
     
        "There is a big flash and everybody is hurting and crying,
     'MEDIC! MEDIC!'  Then everyone is kinda lying there, hearing the
     helicopters come in. I see an army lieutenant walking across the
     field with no foot. It was blown off. I hear him getting on board
     the damn helicopter, dragging the bone across the steel deck. I'm
     being medevaced in that helicopter. DAMN! It hurts to look at it.
     He doesn't even know what is happening.  I wake up sweating, and
     say, 'Oh, shit! That happened all over again.'  I get a real bad
     headache then. I just lie there. I feel like something is coming
     apart at the seams. I lie there, trying to relax. Waiting for the
     sun to come up. I can't sleep."
     
        Now a story that demonstrates the soldier's identification
     with his dead buddy and his survivor's guilt. And that touches the
     heart of my paper -- death and compassion.
     
        Mario, a tall, brooding marine sergeant, was sent home to
     escort the body of a buddy who had been his close friend since
     childhood. Mario said to me:
     

     
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        "I came back to stand in the funeral with two other marines
     as honor guard. My buddy's wife came up to me and said, 'Why did
     you let him die?'  I just flipped out there. I took off out of
     the
     funeral home, and for a long time I held that guilt within me.  I
     wasn't sure if it was my fault or not.  Maybe she just needed
     someone to blame it on. When I went back to Vietnam, I went back
     to be killed. I really didn't want to go back home at all. Now I
     have a nightmare about how it actually happened."
     
        Mario's dream:
     
        "My buddy gets hit. I am close enough to reach him but I
     can't do anything.  He is dying. The right side of his head is
     totally gone. It looks like hamburger, and the other side is a
     mess. I don't know what hit my buddy, but for some ungodly reason
     he is still alive. I hold him between my legs and he bleeds to
     death."
     
        THAT is the psychological, social, and physical reality of
     death. 
     
        THAT is the story of bravery and selflessness of the hero who
     became the American anti-hero. 
     
        THAT is what the conflagration of war does to men and women.
     
        THAT is the primitive basis of the pain that comes when
     people are slaughtered and maimed and butchered, when there are no
     words to articulate what happened....and no one wants to hear them
     anyway. And it comes relentlessly in the dream, in the black of
     night. 
     

          "To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
          For in that sleep of death what dreams may come...." [4]

     
        Until only a few years ago, Americans had turned their backs
     on the Vietnam veteran. Since symbolically our shadow is at our
     back, the metaphor is apt. But it is changing, and at long last
     understanding of the Vietnam veteran becomes possible. Yet we
     Americans have not yet faced our shadow, and we project our evil.
     We are still caught in the American myth of the hero and the
     hubris that always attends the hero motif. The hero myth is also
     the myth of invulnerability expressed in the good-bad guy westerns
     and the shoot-out between the sheriff and the lawbreaker. As in
     Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, unleashing the powers of good and evil to
     go their separate ways is a fatal mistake. The integration of both
     good and evil is the way to heal the nightmare. That is what the
     transpersonal psyche is trying to do in dreams of war.  And
     without mourning and grief worked though, the inner shadows
     continue to torment us all.
     


          "He that lacks a time to mourn, lacks a time to mend.
          Eternity mourns that. 'Tis an ill cure
     
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          For life's worst ills, to have not time to feel them.
          Where sorrow's held intrusive and turned out,
          There wisdom will not enter, nor true power.
          Nor ought that dignifies humanity." [5]
     
        The characteristic war nightmare, as I have said, is recalled
     as precisely as the real event. It is perceived as the reality. At
     first the reality of the trauma images in these dreams led me to
     think that they were something like the substance of what
     nightmares are made, rather than ordinary dreams. And in the end,
     it might be that these are indeed the archetypal dreams of war. As
     expressions of circumstances to which human beings are subject and
     in which the reality image itself is the most powerful expression
     of the feeling involved, they have no basis for metaphorical
     transformation. And there is no antecedent human resource or
     experience that can mollify the intensity of the images. Such
     archetypal dreams are both symbol and metaphor inherent in the
     original image, which is frozen in time and place. 
     
        I have classified the war dreams into three categories. The
     first is the characteristic war (trauma) dream, in which the dream
     is reported to be a replication of the actual trauma, EXACTLY as
     it happened. This represents 53% of the dreams told to me. The
     second group of dreams are the VARIABLE dreams, which portray the
     exact trauma but elaborated with sequences that did not happen but
     which might conceivably have happened. Such dreams might include
     images of the here-and-now and life experiences from the past.
     They constitute 21% of the dreams.  The third group of dreams are
     like ordinary hallucinatory nightmares and constitute 26% of the
     total dream sample of 359 war dreams. [6]
     

        All these men suffered because they were caught in a tragic
     situation. Each one is innocent, in the sense that what happened
     to him was far greater than anything he had done to provoke it.
     They are like the mountaineer (in Northrup Frye's image) whose
     shout brings down an avalanche. [7]  He is guilty in the sense
     that he lives in a world where injustices are an inescapable part
     of existence. I am referring to the collective guilt as
     personified in the shadow of the hero -- the anti-hero.
     
        It is well known that most veterans came back home and made
     successful re-entries into society.  For vast numbers of Vietnam
     veterans, the experience in Vietnam was a positive one. While most
     of the men I saw felt positive about the closeness, tightness,
     even brotherhood among the combat veterans, the war still raged.
     Some of the dreams of veterans are allegorically prophetic.  A
     Texas veteran dreams he is on a street in Dallas: 
     
        "I am trying to warn people that another war is coming.
     People are laughing at me.  I yell, 'Hey, there's a war going to
     happen!  You'd better take cover and get off the street!'  but the
     people laugh at me.  They wouldn't listen to me.  I am going to


     
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     secure a position by chopper, but the helicopters fly off and
     leave me there.  I wake up angry and afraid. When the choppers
     leave, I have lost my last link. Without it, I am not part of the
     unit anymore." 
     
        In our world today, too much evil is done and too little is
     said about it.  
     
        There is no shortcut to facing the depth of the impact of war
     on the human psyche, and denial wears off. "There is no pill
     called salvation," says the Mayo Clinic psychiatrist Howard Rome.
     No pill will cure the wounded psyche of the warrior.
     
        Novalis said, "Whatever the spirit that calls, a kindred
     spirit will answer."  This is the way to help the wounded  warrior.
     We who try to help these men must realize that we ourselves are
     wounded healers. 
     
        Once, long ago, when I was sitting in the Stanford University
     Chapel during other troubling times, these words came into my
     mind:  "Things are better than they are."  Many times since, these
     words have come when I needed them most.  I hope they are the
     words of the human psyche speaking through me, not by me, to you.
     



     
     
                                   NOTES:
     
     
      [1] William Broyles, "Peace Be With You," Reader's Digest (March
     1982). 
     
      [2] W.H. Auden and Louis Kronenberger, eds., The Viking Book of
     Aphorisms (New York: Viking Press, 1962), pg 90. 
     
      [3] Shakespeare, "King Lear," V.iii.
     
      [4] Shakespeare, "Hamlet," III.i.
     
      [5] Sir Henry Taylor, "Philip van Artvelde (1839)", part I, act I,
     scene V. 
     
      [6] The format and motif of war dreams and their classification
     are reported in a paper: Harry A. Wilmer, "Combat Nightmares:
     Towards a Therapy of Violence," Spring (1987), in press.
     
      [7] Northrup Frye, Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays (Princeton:
     Princeton University Press, 1973), pg 41. 
     
     
      HARRY A. WILMER was the founder, director, and president of the
     Institute for the Humanities at Salado and professor of psychiatry
     at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.
     Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1969, Wilmer has written five
     books and [more than 150] medical articles.  While on active duty
     
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     in the US Navy in the 1950s he worked with Korean War veterans.
     His work with the nightmares and post-trauma stress of Vietnam
     veterans at the Audie Murphy Hospital in San Antonio is reported
     in his book, DREAMS OF VIETNAM. 
     
      -----
      Source: UNWINDING THE VIETNAM WAR: FROM WAR INTO PEACE. Reese
     Williams, Editor. Seattle, Washington: The Real Comet Press,  1987.
     Pages 68-82. 
     
     













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     ==================================================================
            I n - T o u c h     -     N e w   S e r v i c e ! ! !
     ==================================================================

                         In-Touch.  What is it ???
     
                       Input by: Ray "Frenchy" Moreau
                      NAM VETs IN-TOUCH Section Editor
                     Herndon Byte eXchange - Herndon, VA
                               (703) 471-8010
     =================================================================
     
     |+++++++++++++++++++++++++ IN TOUCH ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++|
     |  There are some 43 million people in the United States whose  |
     |  lives were directly and irrevocably touched by the Vietnam   |
     |  War.                                                         |
     |                                                               |
     |  Almost four million people served in Vietnam -- the longest, |
     |  and perhaps most difficult, war in our history.  More than a |
     |  quarter of a million were seriously wounded. 58,175 are dead |
     |  or missing.                                                  |
     |                                                               |
     |  Each of those who returned recognizes the true cost of war.  |
     |  But so too do the families and friends, wives and lovers of  |
     |  those listed on the Wall.  They too paid a tremendous price, |
     |  not always recognized... many still do.                      |
     |                                                               |
     |  Though twenty years have passed, it seems that is the period |
     |  people have needed to get the distance necessary to begin to |
     |  address the unresolved, deeply personal issues that have     |
     |  been haunting them since the war.  Perhaps that is a measure |
     |  of the pain.                                                 |
     |                                                               |
     |  But, the "healing of a nation" that was intended by the      |
     |  building of the Memorial, has begun.                         |
     |                                                               |
     |  In the office of the Friends of the Vietnam Veterans         |
     |  Memorial, we hear them on the other end of the phone on      |
     |  any given day, and far into the night, they call from all    |
     |  corners of the country.                                      |
     |                                                               |
     |  "If only I could find out..."                                |
     |  "I need to find his family so I can keep my promise..."      |
     |  "I just want to talk to someone who was with him... "        |
     |  "Please, can you help...?"                                   |
     |                                                               |
     |  At the Wall, we find them every day. Veterans who have not   |
     |  spoken of their experiences even to their most intimate      |
     |  family members are now beginning, tentatively, to seek a     |
     |  responsive ear.                                              |
     |                                                               |
     |  Brothers and sisters, parents and even wives who were simply |
     |  never allowed full expression of their grief because of the  |
     |  fierce pressures of the time, are now coming forward,        |
     |  looking for someone who can help with their healing.         |
     |                                                               |
     |  We hear from children, now 15 - 25 years old, who are        |
     |  searching for bits and pieces of information they can        |
     |  assemble to help fill that empty place in their lives that   |
     
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     |  is the father they never knew well, if at all. And they want |
     |  to talk to each other, to share their special needs and the  |
     |  unique experience of growing up with a father on the Wall.   |
     |  They understand each other all too well.                     |
     |                                                               |
     |  Millions of Americans need to meet and talk because of the   |
     |  Wall, and only the Friends can help them.                    |
     |                                                               |
     |  Initial discussions with many other national organizations   |
     |  whose work brings them into contact with Vietnam veterans    |
     |  and their loved ones have attested to the need for IN TOUCH  |
     |  and their willingness to help.                               |
     |                                                               |
     |  Simply put, the Friends will draw on its special work at the |
     |  Memorial,  its acquired and available data bases and         |
     |  programs designed and integrated by Electronic Data Systems  |
     |  (EDS), and the commitment and concern of its volunteers to   |
     |  place people with a common association to a name on the Wall |
     |  to be in voluntary communication with each other.            |
     |                                                               |
     |  From there, we will let human nature take its good course.   |
     |  And let the healing begin.                                   |
     |                                                               |
     |  The starting point for the data base will be the more than   |
     |  twenty thousand names of people who have requested name      |
     |  rubbings from our volunteers in Washington. Each will be     |
     |  contacted and given the opportunity to participate by being  |
     |  listed in the IN TOUCH central data base file.               |
     |                                                               |
     |  Confidentiality is the keyword to cooperation and IN TOUCH   |
     |  will respect the integrity of all lists and records.  Lists  |
     |  will be unavailable for public use and will not be           |
     |  distributed for any commercial purpose.                      |
     |                                                               |
     |  By its nature, IN TOUCH must reach far beyond the veterans   |
     |  community in order to be successful. With professional       |
     |  guidance, the Friends will develop a program of on-going     |
     |  articles and other coverage in major media markets, high-    |
     |  lighting the personal experiences of people as they are put  |
     |  "in touch."  The International Vietnam Veterans Echo         |
     |  Conference via the Herndon Byte eXchange 1:109/316 node as   |
     |  the enter point for gathering and disseminating information  |
     |  will be used.  Aside from bringing the program  into public  |
     |  awareness, these articles and stories will serve as a val-   |
     |  uable tool for public education on a wealth of matters       |
     |  relating to the Vietnam era.                                 |
     |                                                               |
     |  As a preliminary test of the IN TOUCH project, the Friends   |
     |  has implemented a pilot project to test the design and       |
     |  demands of such a program.  Several hundred requests with    |
     |  full background information have been entered into a system  |
     |  designed to match requestor data with the existing Memorial  |
     |  data. Even with such a small sample, limited data and a      |
     |  fairly unsophisticated cross-indexing system, matches have   |
     |  been made and IN TOUCH has produced its first real           |
     |  connections.  The results have been as profoundly moving for |
     |  the participants as expected. And as gratifying for the      |
     |  Friends.                                                     |
     |                                                               |
     
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     |  But it was clear that the information management system and  |
     |  the supporting hardware system would have to be more power-  |
     |  ful and more complex in order to handle thousands, perhaps   |
     |  hundreds of thousands, of requests.  Confidentiality of the  |
     |  system and information must be paramount.                    |
     |                                                               |
     |  With well over 2,000 Vietnam veterans, Electronic Data       |
     |  Systems (EDS) became involved and has been generous in its   |
     |  assistance with designing the data management systems which  |
     |  will be critical to a successful program.  The Friends have  |
     |  reached a three-year working agreement with EDS which        |
     |  promises continuity and maximum potential for success in     |
     |  building an information bank that can truly help people in   |
     |  their search for others who knew a loved one.                |
     |                                                               |
     |  The Friends are delighted that Bob Hope has agreed to make   |
     |  a public service announcement which we can use on radio and  |
     |  television to help get the word out to the public on the     |
     |  availability of the service.                                 |
     |                                                               |
     |  The Friends are also pleased to note that Hewlett Packard,   |
     |  Zenith Data Systems, Borland International, FASTCOMM         |
     |  Communications Corporation and the First National Bank of    |
     |  Chicago have all contributed computer equipment, computer    |
     |  software, and office equipment to the project, so they are   |
     |  beginning to feel fully functional.                          |
     |                                                               |
     |  The Friends hear from people who have long been living with  |
     |  the pain of loss and looking for a way to heal.  For         |
     |  instance, the Friends recently received a letter from a      |
     |  woman who wrote:                                             |
     |                                                               |
     |       Dear Friends:                                           |
     
     |           For quite some time I have been searching for a     |
     |       way to know my brother.  It seems hopeless at times.    |
     |       I was 12 when he was killed...  I had waited for the    |
     |       day he would come back to us.  He never did.  A part    |
     |       of me will always be 12 and continue to wait.           |
     |           Thank you for giving me hope that there may be      |
     |       a way to find him and bring him home to my heart..."    |
     |                                                               |
     |                          +   +   +                            |
     |                                                               |
     |           The Friends of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial        |
     |                     Electronic Data Systems                   |
     |           Herndon Byte eXchange TCOMMnet BBS 1:109/316        |
     |                                                               | 
           
     |+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++|
     








     NAM VET Newsletter                                         Page 88
     Volume  4, Number  6                                 June 17, 1990

                       Input by: Ray "Frenchy" Moreau
                      NAM VETs IN-TOUCH Section Editor
                     Herndon Byte eXchange - Herndon, VA
                               (703) 471-8010
          
         THIS FORM REQUIRES SIGNATURE FOR CONFIDENTIALITY RELEASE 
                             PLEASE READ BELOW
     ------------------------------------------------------------------
     I wish to be IN TOUCH with (Please circle and/or comment) Family, 
     Friends and/or Fellow Veterans of the following: 
     __________________________________________________________________
     __________________________________________________________________
     
     ----------- PERSON WHO DID NOT COME BACK FROM VIETNAM ------------
        
     First Name_____________ Middle Name___________ Last Name__________
     Relationship to You and/or Reason for Request 
     (Answer as fully as possible)_____________________________________
     __________________________________________________________________
          
     ==================================================================
          
     -------- ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT HIM/HER - IF KNOWN ---------
          
     Rank_______ Birth Date ______________ Soc. Sec. # ________________
     Tour Date of Birth _______________ Where Buried __________________
     Branch of Service:  AR__   NA__    AF__   MC__  CG__  RC__   CIV__
     (Fill in his/her equivalent unit designations in the spaces below)
     Division ____________ Brigade ___________ Battalion ______________
     Regiment ____________ Company ___________ Ship ___________________
     Battles:__________________________________________________________
     Locations:________________________________________________________
     Nicknames:________________________________________________________
     Hometown (while in Nam): ____________________ Home State: ________
          
     ==================================================================
          
     ---------------------- INFORMATION ABOUT YOU ---------------------
     Title___  First Name ____________ Middle/Maiden Name _____________
     Last Name ____________________
     Address___________________________________________________________
     City __________________________________ State ____ Zip: _____-____
     Your Home Phone (   ) ____________  Work Phone: (   ) ____________
        
     ---------------- IF YOU ARE A VIETNAM-ERA VETERAN ----------------
          
     Tour date _______________________________  Rank __________________
     Branch of Service: AR__  NA __  AF __  MC __  CG __  RC __  CIV __
          Fill in your equivalent unit designations in the spaces below
     Division: __________  Brigade: ___________  Battalion: ___________
     Regiment: __________  Company: ___________  Ship: ________________
     Battles: _________________________________________________________
     Locations: _______________________________________________________
     Nicknames: _______________________________________________________
     Hometown (when in VN) _______________________ Home State: ________
     Comments: ________________________________________________________
                              CONFIDENTIALITY STATEMENT
     _____  I give permission to the Friends of the Vietnam Veterans 
            Memorial to release my name, address, phone number and 
            relationship to other participants in the IN TOUCH project 
     
     NAM VET Newsletter                                         Page 89
     Volume  4, Number  6                                 June 17, 1990

            seeking information on the individual above (strike out 
            phone number if you do not want it released).
                                    OR
          
     _____  I would like to have the names, addresses, and phone 
            numbers of persons who knew my friend or relative, but 
            prefer NOT to have my name, address, and phone number 
            released.
       
     I hereby release the Friends of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 
     any and all liability that may arise from the operation of the IN 
     TOUCH project.
       
     Signature ____________________________________ Date _____________
          
     NOTE: Do not electronically transmit this form, instead mail to:
           Friends of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial
           1350 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Suite 300
           Washington, DC 20036
     














           ____________   ======= _________________/|_____...
           |           |  "  ===  |_______________| |-----:::
           |._    -    " ) |_|___|
                        / /  |___|
                       /_/






















     NAM VET Newsletter                                         Page 90
     Volume  4, Number  6                                 June 17, 1990



     ==================================================================
                  C o n c e n t r a t e d     S e r v i c e
     ==================================================================

                  NamVet/IVVEC Concentrated Service Report    

     To keep you abreast of HOW NamVet/IVVEC Concentrated Service is 
     doing, we'll try to run a report every month of the status of 
     efforts currently underway and, if appropriate, apprise you of 
     positive or negative results.
          
     --   Letter dated 1/1/90 to Massachusetts' DAV Commander, with
          text-file copy in IVVEC: 
          To date:  NO response - VERBAL or WRITTEN
     
     --   Copy of above letter dated 1/1/90 to DAV National
          Commander, with text-file copy in IVVEC:
          To date:  NO response - VERBAL or WRITTEN
     
     --   Letter dated 1/13/90 to U.S. Congressman Silvio O. Conte,
          with text-file copy in IVVEC was received 3/26/90.    
          Flurry of activity!

          
     --   Letter(s) dated 1/21/90 to Commissioners and Directors of    
          Veterans Affairs in 50 states and 2 Territories, with text-  
          file copy in IVVEC:
          To date: 24 positive and helpful responses w/literature; 7
          letters returned ADDRESSEE NOT HERE UNABLE TO FORWARD We are
          now beginning to receive newsletters produced by the 
          Veterans Departments of a few states!
     
     I will keep you posted here and in the VIETNAM_VETS echo as to 
     continuing developments on any of the above issues.
     
            Yours, in Service to America ... and my fellow man
                   In kindness, honesty, and good faith
     
                              G. Joseph Peck
              Moderator, VIETNAM_VETERANS INTERNATIONAL ECHO
                          Managing Editor, NAMVET
                            SysOp - VETLINK #1
                President, BERKSHIRE VETERANS' CENTER, INC.
     

                                 __________
                                  \  IVVEC  \
                              _____) SERVICE )_____
                   _________(____(________(______(@)
                    )                    )
                   / O O O O O O O O O/_/|
                  /<> O O O O O O O O O/ |
                 /MM O O O O O O O  MM/  |
                /   ___________      /  .
               /O  (___________) O O/.
              (====================(



     NAM VET Newsletter                                         Page 91
     Volume  4, Number  6                                 June 17, 1990



     ==================================================================
            I V V E C     &     N a m V e t     -     W H E R E ?
     ==================================================================

                        The NAM VET Roll Call
     
     The following are the current locations where the NamVet
     newsletter and Annual editions are currently sent and, as I
     understand it, available for Bark/Wazoo File Requests.
     
                 FidoNet & AlterNet Nodes:
                 ------------------------
     Scott McKnight   1:389/2001    Blytheville, Arkansas
     Todd Looney      1:143/27      San Jose, California
     Mike Nelson      1:125/20      Burlingame, California
     Greg Peters      1:103/232     La Mirada, California
     Sam Saulys       1:141/488     Branford, Connecticut
     John McCorkle    1:369/10      Fort Lauderdale, Florida
     Charles Harper   1:370/10      West Athens, Georgia
     Gene Clayton     1:161/414     Kauai, Hawaii
     Gordon Kaough    1:380/5       Lake Charles, LA
     Mort Sternheim   1:321/109     Amherst, Massachusetts
     G. Joseph Peck   1:321/203     Pittsfield, Massachusetts
     Pete Farias      1:321/210     Pittsfield, Massachusetts
     Vern Pero        1:321/212     Dalton, Massachusetts
     Jim Henthorn     1:261/1044    Baltimore, Maryland
     Bob Rudolph      1:261/0       Reisterstown, Maryland
     Wayne Parrish    1:308/20      Alamogordo, New Mexico
     Chuck Haynes     1:308/60      Alamogordo, New Mexico
     Mike Connealy    1:305/101     Las Cruces, New Mexico
     Kathleen Kelly   1:1033/0      Staten Island, New York
     Tom Mickus       1:480/114     Toronto, Ontario, Canada
     Bob Currie       1:105/204     Milwaukie, Oregon
     Luis Salazar     1:367/16      San Juan, P.R.
     Jerry Hindle     7:48/0        Stratford Heights, Tennessee
     Aaron Schmiedel  1:124/4106    Dallas, Texas
     Carrie Brown     1:130/10      Fort Worth, Texas
     Rick Edwards     1:106/113     Houston, Texas
     Bob Davis        1:106/116     Houston, Texas
     Art Fellner      1:106/437     Missouri City, Texas
     Ray Moreau       1:109/316     Herndon, Virginia
     Jim Barth        1:350/21      Brownsville, Washington
     Ralph Sims       1:350/341     Grapeview, Washington
     
                     Other Nets:
                     ----------
     Martin Kroll     MetroLink     Chatsworth, GA
     
     Lefty Frizzell   RelayNet      Houston, Texas
     
     Ed Lucas         QuickLink     Houston, Texas
     Edward Green     Shop Qbbs     Exeter, NH (603)778-1698
     
                        Areas not covered:
     If *-YOUR-* BBS is in any of the areas listed below *-AND-* you
     have the NAM VET available for File Requests, please let us know
     your BBS (and SysOp) Name, its net/node number (if any), and its
     telephone number so that we might be able to direct a user in *-
     YOUR-* area to you.
     
     NAM VET Newsletter                                         Page 92
     Volume  4, Number  6                                 June 17, 1990

     
                - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * - * -
     
     Australian Continent - All            European Continent - All
     Alabama            Alaska             Arizona
     Calgary, Canada    Colorada           Delaware
     Idaho              Illinois           Indiana
     Iowa               Kansas             Kentucky
     Maine              Minnesota          Wisconsin
     Mississippi        Missouri           Connecticut
     Montana            Nebraska           New Jersey
     Nevada             North Carolina     North Dakota
     Ohio               Oklahoma           Pennsylvania
     South Carolina     South Dakota       Utah
     Vancouver, B.C     Vermonts           Washington, D.C.
     West Virginia      Winnipeg, Canada   Wyoming
     
     I'm going to be working on this list in an attempt to update it. 
     If any of you know of an error, please address a message to me in
     the IVVEC echo and let me know.  If you know of a system not
     listed above, also let me know, it'll save me some time and make
     for a more accurate list.
     
                     Thanks for your help...
     
                       Ciao for Niao
     
                           - Todd -
                   NamVet's Managing Editor
     




















-- 
#L.W. Jewell Moderator at the Veterans Information Site (veteran@cc.purdue.edu)#
#& WWII-L Listowner: "Sunday's horoscope is note worthy because of its strange,#
#sudden and wholly unpredictable and inexplicable occurrences, affecting all   #
#phases of life." "Your Horoscope" L.A. Evening Herald Express, Sat, 12/06/41  #
Newsgroups: soc.veterans