IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Secretary Carter Opens Vietnam War Commemoration Pentagon Corridor Honoring Vietnam Veterans and Their Families

Press Operations

Release No: NR-452-16
Dec. 20, 2016

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, along with former Defense Secretary and Vietnam veteran Chuck Hagel, provided remarks before cutting the ribbon and officially opening a corridor in the Pentagon honoring Vietnam veterans and their families.

The secretaries joined 15 Vietnam veterans Tuesday afternoon to mark the official opening of the museum-quality exhibit.  The permanent exhibit, located on the 3rd floor of the Pentagon between corridors 2 and 3, uniquely documents and illustrates the history of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War through a variety of media outlets of the time.  It exhibits historically accurate material and interactive experiences that will help today’s American public better understand and appreciate the service of our Vietnam veterans and their families, and the history of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
The commemoration took place at the center of the exhibit, an alcove that features two Huey helicopters.  Other highlights in the corridor include a binnacle from the SS Mayaguez, iconic memorabilia left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, statues and paintings, and chronological and thematic timelines of the Vietnam War.
“Today's unveiling and the government-wide commemoration that accompany it are an important part of commitment to honor veterans from Vietnam and their families, for service, for valor, for sacrifice,” said Secretary of Defense Ash Carter.
"This exhibit really and truly represents the service of a generation of citizens who were asked to do something for their country at a difficult time, as difficult a time as probably we've seen in our lifetimes,” said former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel.  “This exhibit very much reflects all that and pays tribute to men and women who never asked for anything in return; they never came back to any expectations. They wanted to get on with their lives and put that war experience behind them.” 
The United States of America Vietnam War Commemoration leads the nation’s effort to thank and honor the more than seven million living Vietnam veterans and the families of the nine million who served.  The commemoration was authorized by Congress, established under the secretary of defense, and launched in 2012 by President Barack Obama. The commemoration has partnered with more than 10,000 organizations to thank veterans and their families in their hometowns across the country.
Further information regarding The United States of America Vietnam War Commemoration, including how organizations can become commemorative partners and how individual veterans can find events in their hometowns,  can be found at http://www.vietnamwar50th.com/
For information regarding arranging a tour of the Pentagon, please visit https://pentagontours.osd.mil/Tours/

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VOLUNTEERS WANTED FOR 2016/2017

Re: VVA: Four staff members have resigned from a southeastern Oklahoma VA facility after a veteran was found to have maggots in his

 

Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs executive director Myles Deering said the maggots were discovered while the patient was still alive at the Talihina facility, although he said the maggots did not cause his death, the Associated Press reported.

Deering said the veteran came to the facility with an infection and died of sepsis, the Tulsa World reported.

The VA said a physician’s assistant and three nurses, including the director of nursing, all resigned after an investigation was conducted.

Spokesman Shane Faulkner said all four decided to resign before anyone could be terminated.

Since the government will do nothing.

I suggest we crowd fund a civil lawsuit against this four VA thugs.

Let take their homes, cars and saving.

Your thougths

John Schmidt

Before we go ballistics, sepsis is a serious problem that affects a person's ability to deal with reality and has no relation to maggots unless the person who has the wounds so infected has been in a state wherein they could not or would not seek medical help. There is a lot more to this issue than this article states and has much broader implications than medical care. for example homelessness and the reasons for same, mental illness and the reason for same, and on and on. The article implies that the maggots that were found in this man's wounds, incurred after he was hospitalized, which is ludicrous. While it is possible for such an event to occur, the inception of that condition would have to have been prior to hospitalization, not during hospitalization. For those of you who don't know, maggots come from fly eggs and for maggots to grow a hospital room and a person's wounds,  would have to be overcome with flies for a period of several days, and to suggest that any hospital, even VA hospitals, to allow that to happen is ludicrous. Let us not jump to  conclusions from the rantings of someone who wants to disparage VA care, but let us instead address the etiological conditions that lead up to this situation, which has nothing to do with the medical care that was given to this veteran after his hospitalization, but rather the lack of medical care prior to his hospitalization.

Ed Ryan, Ph.D.