Sometimes surviving just isn't good enough. A group of Knoxville, Tennessee veterans who made it through the violence of the Vietnam War headed back to the small Southeast Asian country on Dec. 1 for a sense of closure. Some wanted to experience the new Vietnam, while others were looking for a chance to put their past behind them.
Maybe what was most important to the men, however, was finally getting the welcome they deserved all those decades ago when they returned to Knoxville on Tuesday. Friends, family and members of both the Patriot Riders and American Legion Riders cheered Joseph Spencer and the others on as they disembarked their plane.
"This is a welcome home 47 years later," Spencer told his Local 8 station.
Bill Robinson was among the 14 returning veterans. Robinson was taken prisoner in North Vietnam after his helicopter was shot down in the middle of a rescue mission. For the next seven years he was a prisoner of war. Last week's trip was the first time he'd stepped foot in the country since.
"I would be doing a disservice to the 58,000 who gave their life if I was unhappy," he told ABC 6. "Seeing their smiling faces of the Vietnamese and realizing we weren't overrun by English speakers, so that meant they were able to make it on their own. That makes us proud because we went over there independent and now they're independent and doing quite well."
Johnny Hurst, another Vietnam veteran, agreed. "You can see that the Vietnam people are better off. They've got better. Everything is better for them. They treated us good and made us feel welcomed."
The group paid for the trip themselves, but organizers hope that in the future enough money can be raised to give all veterans who wish to return to Vietnam a chance to do so.
Many veterans find in their life after service that the pains associated with military duty – like heavy Kevlar helmets and 60-plus pound packs – don't just vanish upon entering the civilian world. Instead, they can often times get worse, leading to anxiety and depression. Rather than treat these mental pains with heavy doses of medication, scientists have begun to use light therapy.
Earlier this year, the Department of Veterans Affairs reported that researchers with the VA Boston Healthcare System were experimenting with the effects of light therapy on the brain functions of veterans with Gulf War illness. After pilot work produced encouraging results, the researchers had veterans wear an unusual helmet. Unlike their old Kevlars, this helmet was lined with diodes emitting red and near-infrared light to their scalps. Applied for 30 minutes at a time, the light was totally painless and without heat.
"We are applying a technology that's been around for a while," said Dr. Margaret Naeser, the research team's lead investigator, "but it's always been used on the body, for wound healing and to treat muscle aches and pains, and joint problems. We're starting to use it on the brain."
The diodes work by increasing blood flow to the brain. There is also evidence that they have some effect on damaged brain cells, as the LED therapy moves into the skull and into brain cells where the lights trigger mitochondria to produce more ATP, a chemical that can improve thinking processes.
Jacquwlyn Jackson, a former aircraft mechanic and field medic for the U.S. Navy who experienced horrible pain after returning from the Middle East, told WGN TV that after trying out the light therapy a few times "I got into a routine of preparing for bed and going to sleep and then actually sleeping thru the night. When I got up I did feel like I had actually rested and I wasn't as irritable. I would say since then I've been 90 percent pain free so that is excellent for me."
Recent data seemed to suggest it would happen, but it's now official: the unemployment rate for all U.S. military veterans of working age fell to 3.6 percent in November. According to Fox News, that is the lowest it has been since the federal government began tracking veteran employment in November 2006.
The jobless rate for men and women in their life after service fell from 3.9 percent in October. It is also significantly lower than the 5.3 percent recorded in 2014. These gains follow nationwide efforts made by numerous companies to specifically hire veterans and their family members.
"Hiring a veteran can be one of the best decisions a company can make," said Kevin Gardner, Walmart's spokesman. Two years ago the company launched a public initiative to hire 100,000 veterans, but has since raised its goal to 250,000. "They're quick learners, team players, leaders with discipline, training and a passion for service. They help us to build a better business."
As positive as the employment news is, it was received with muffled optimism by some.
"The issue is that veterans, overall, are older, and overall, older people have a lower unemployment rate," said Gary Steinberg, of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Perhaps this is not a fair comparison."
Veterans have traditionally had a lower unemployment rate than the general, non-veteran population, which is why some concern – especially over young former servicemembers – remains.
"Nineteen to 35-year-olds are a vulnerable population across the board – veterans or nonveterans," Susan Kelly, director of the Department of Defense Transition to Veterans Programs Office, told Fox News. "The economy is improving, and that's certainly great news for the entire nation, but in reference to our veterans, there is a cumulative impact in corporate American and small businesses to hire veterans because it is the right thing to do."
No one knows for sure how many military veterans are living alone in the vast wilderness of Washington's Olympic Peninsula. One thing is certain, however – Cheri Tinker won't let this country's heroes suffer in isolation. While she can do something about it, these men won't spend their life after service alone.
It's been more than a decade since Tinker decided to make helping veterans in the peninsula her mission in life. She told her local Fox station that some of the men she finds leave to escape from society. Others have severe psychological issues that were never treated after returning from conflicts overseas.
"There's a guy that has been out in the woods in Hoh since 1972," she said. "When I met him, he was living off barnacles. Off barnacles! This thin little wisp of a man with a straggly beard. He was a Navy Corpsman at 18. He was on a boat right off Vietnam and they were bringing all those injured and dead soldiers onto his boat. He saw such horror – I can't even imagine."
TInker's efforts took off in 2009 when Sen. Patty Murray helped her secure $500,000 to establish Sarge's Place, a transitional shelter for homeless veterans.
One former Marine who spent time at Sarge's Place following tours of Iraq and Afghanistan told Fox that his life was in utter disarray when the VA put him in touch with Tinker. "I was not in a good place," he said. "And to tell you straight up, I'm glad she was there because I couldn't have done it without her."
It was also in Washington state that Pierce College was recently named the thirteenth best community college for veterans in the country, based on factors that evaluate how good a school is for veterans and their families.
Efforts of both Cheri Tinker and Pierce College suggest that Washington is eager to help veterans as best they can.
Most people take pride in their new vehicles, but there was something extra special about the car that veteran Trent Brining received. According to Fox 4 News, GM recently celebrated reaching a milestone of having produced over 500 million cars. In order to make that event even more memorable, the company donated a brand new 2016 Chevy Malibu to the former servicemember from Kearney, Missouri.
The news source reported that Brining was injured by a rocket propelled grenade in Iraq in 2004. Since then, he and his family have been living and working near Kansas City, Missouri.
GM CEO Marry Barra, who has fueled the car company's commitment to serving veterans, choose Brining to receive the newest, fully loaded car in May. On Dec. 8, the veteran was able to take it home. Brining told KMBC how excited he was to own the new car and that he wanted to use it for something good.
"I just only hope that one day I can, you know, kind of repay this favor and do something cool for somebody else like this," Brining told the news source.
According to the Department of Defense Trauma Registry, roughly 1,400 servicemembers had injuries to their genitalia between 2011 and 2013, many sustained from improvised explosive devices. Several doctors at Johns Hopkins University are hoping to change the life of one of the veterans who lost part of his penis during service.
CBS Baltimore reported that a team of nearly 30 doctors will soon perform the first penis transplant ever performed on American soil.
For many of the doctors involved, the surgery is about more than improving the physical and sexual health of the injured veterans. A wound to genitalia is often accompanied with psychological repercussions.
"I don't care who you are military, civilian, anything you have an injury like this, it's more than just a physical injury," Army Sergeant First Class Aaron Causey, a victim of an IED genitalia injury, told the NY Times.
RT.com reported that the operation is expected to take up to 12 hours and cost $200,000 to $400,000. However, the final result will be a veteran who has been given back an important part of his life. The surgery will leave the former servicemember with a fully functional penis and urethra, meaning he will be able to have children of his own and use the restroom normally.
Most people who were alive during the attacks on Pearl Harbor are no longer alive to commemorate the event. There are even fewer veterans from that time period who are still living. Frank Levingston, of Lake Charles, Louisiana, is currently the oldest living veteran from World War II.
Levingston, who turned 110 on Nov. 13, 2015, according to Fox 5 News, enlisted in the Army after the attacks in Hawaii in 1942. The news source reported that he spent three years serving in Italy before retiring and returning home.
The veteran was recently invited to make the trip to Washington, D.C. for the 74th Pearl Harbor remembrance ceremony. The news source stated that it was the veteran's first time to the nation's capital, and he was not going to let age hold him back during the experience.
Levingston was flown from New Orleans to Washington D.C. on Dec. 5, where he was driven to the VFW Post 2013 by a limousine, as reported by Fox 5 News. On Dec. 7, the anniversary of the attacks, the veteran was invited to be a part of the wreath-laying ceremony at the National World War II Memorial.
There were 400 people in attendance at the ceremony, including Levingston's wife.
It isn't unusual for veterans, in their life after service, to find that navigating the complex legalese of military benefits, wills and estate planning is thoroughly confusing. However, Virginia has a plan to help make these things a little less burdensome. Starting next year, four statewide legal service clinics will be offered to low-income veterans totally free of cost.
News Channel 3 reported that the clinics will come in the form of a partnership between the Virginia Department of Veterans Services and the Virginia State Bar. Volunteers from the Office of the Attorney General and the state bar association will help veterans draft wills, establish powers of attorney and sort out medical and insurance problems.
"Wills, powers of attorney, and advance medical directives can provide veterans, their partners, and families with peace of mind and planning for the future, and we're proud to serve these Virginians who have fought for this great nation and the American people," said Attorney General Herring, according to News Channel 3.
"Veterans are true heroes who, without question, put their lives at risk to protect the freedoms we enjoy as Virginians and Americans. The very least we can do to honor their service to our country is volunteer our time to prove these critical legal services," he continued.
The new legal clinics are expected to prove particularly useful to older veterans. But they will also assist a wide range of former servicemembers. According to WTOP, more than half of Americans haven't written wills or put together estate planning documents. If that disparity is applied to Virginia's 800,000 veterans, the necessity of the legal clinics becomes clear.
"It's a cost many of our veterans may not be able to afford, especially if they are older Virginians or students on a fixed income. But it doesn't mean that these documents are any less important. Our veterans deserve the peace of mind that these legal services offer," Herring told WTOP.
In a blow to sinister stereotypes that returning war veterans are more likely to commit crimes than the average citizen, the number of incarcerated military veterans has continued to fall. According to the report released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics on Monday, counts and rates of veterans in state and federal prison, as well as local jail, declined from 203,000 in 2004 to 181,500 in 2011-12. This is the first government report to include substantial numbers of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in its findings.
Veterans, the recent data show, are less likely to be imprisoned than non-veterans – with incarceration rates of 855 per 100,000 and 968 per 100,000, respectively. In the two years under study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, veterans only accounted for up to 8 percent of inmates in state and federal prisons and local jails. Of those locked up, 99 percent were male.
In 1978, when the Bureau of Justice Statistics began to track the number of imprisoned veterans, around 24 percent of prisoners were veterans. Ever since then veteran incarceration rates have fallen. NPR reported that by 1998 veterans had the same rates as those who never served in the military. Now they've declined further still.
Some interesting differences between veteran and non-veteran populations exist. Hispanic and non-Hispanic black inmates made up a dramatically smaller percentage of incarcerated veterans – 38 percent in prison and 44 percent in jail – compared to the same demographics among non-veterans – 63 percent in prison and 59 percent in jail. A greater percentage of veterans, however, were sentenced for violent offenses.
The falling population of veterans in prison accords with national trends. World War II and Korea veterans – in their 80s and 90s – aren't committing much crime, and many Vietnam veterans in their 70s are in the same low-crime boat. Not only that, but increased veteran services, as well as high employment figures, mean that a veteran returning to his life after service has plenty of options.
It was a beautiful and moving sight on Sunday when a fleet of trucks left Columbia Falls, Maine with 248,000 wreaths in tow. The convoy of box trucks and tractor-trailers was headed for Arlington National Cemetery as part of Wreaths Across America, an initiative that adorns the gravesites of the fallen with homemade greenery every year.
According to the Associated Press, five stops were made in Maine communities on Sunday, including in Portland, where Maine first lady Ann LePage joined in to help load up the trucks. They are continuing south on Monday to make other stops, where no doubt veterans and thankful citizens will be on hand to contribute. The convoy is expected to arrive in Arlington, Virginia on Saturday.
Wreaths Across America began in 1992, when Morrill Worcester – who owned the Worcester Wreath Company in Harrington, Maine – found that he had thousands of extra wreaths he couldn't sell. He didn't want them to go to waste, so he reached out to Olympia Snowe, the U.S. Senator, who helped Worcester to deliver the wreaths to Arlington.
For years the tradition flew under the radar, no more than a quiet show of respect and a sign that the country had not forgotten, but in 2005 photos of snow-covered balsam wreaths leaning on graves became popular online. It wasn't long before community leaders reached out to Worcester for wreaths to adorn their own cemeteries and donors sought to help expand the scope of the project.
The initiative has come a long way in the last decade. Maine's local WMTW reported that Wreaths Across America predicts they will ship over 900,000 wreaths to hundreds of places, including all 50 states and even some cemeteries overseas.