Vietnam Veteran News with Mack Payne

Episode 1079 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about a wonderful thing the good people in the Petersburg, Virginia area are doing to honor our veterans. The event was covered in a story found in The Progress - Index of Hopewell, Virginia titled: Community unites for Freedom Hunt in Waverly and was submitted by Kate Gibson, a staff writer with the paper.

Across this great nation events are taking place where the veterans who served their country including Vietnam Veterans are honored for their service. One such happening took place in the environs of Waverly, Virginia. On December 9, 2017, the Freedom Hunters for Wounded Veterans conducted their second annual Freedom Hunt for special guests including 30 veterans and civilians with disabilities.

The Freedom Hunters for Wounded Veterans is an amalgamation of five different hunt clubs in the area that include Bendall, Sussex, Sussex-Newville, Colonial and Waverly Hunt Clubs. They all came together and established the incorporated title Freedom Hunters for Wounded Veterans to put on the Freedom Hunt.

Justin Stell who led the effort that resulted in the Freedom Hunt is the president of the Bendall Hunt Club. He stated the inspiration for the inaugural Freedom Hunt came to him one night on his front porch. He said “I was just sitting there thinking, ‘Daggonnit, we’ve never done something small — why start now? I called the other club presidents and every one of them said, ‘We’re in,’ and they jumped right on it.”

Hundreds of hunt club members got an early start on Saturday morning making ready for the first snowy hunt of the season for the special guests: 30 veterans and civilians with disabilities.

Listen to episode 1079 of the podcast and discover more about this wonderful event that helps honor all of our veterans.

Episode 1078 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will take a look at how sometimes Vietnam Veterans are not treated properly regardless of their country of origin. There was a story in the National news on the Stuff website of Wellington, New Zealand titled: SAS veteran denied pension for 40 years after being told he hadn't served in Vietnam that tells of such a case that occurred in that country way down under.

The story was submitted by Matt Shand. It told about the problem Vietnam Veteran Denny Makara encountered when his disability payments for injuries he suffered in Vietnam were abruptly terminated. The payments ceased in 1976 after his doctor was told Makara had never served in Vietnam. Despite evidence to the contrary being on hand it took Makara 15 years of fighting the system to get his disability payments restored.

What makes Makara's experience hard to understand is the fact he served in Vietnam as a member of The New Zealand Special Air Service or better known as the NZSAS. The New Zealand Government states that NZSAS is the "premier combat unit of the New Zealand Defense Force." It went into service on 7 July 1955 and is the special forces unit of the New Zealand Army. It was modeled after the famed British Special Air Service (SAS).

Even though the Veteran Affairs office reinstated his pension he was still not satisfied. He demanded to be compensated for payments not paid and for an apology from the Veteran Affairs office. Finally he prevailed against the government bureaucracy. His experiences leaves the reader with two conclusions. One the improper treatment of veterans happen in other countries and two, when facing similar situations with a government, never, never, never give up.

Listen to episode 1078 of the podcast to discover how New Zealand Vietnam Veteran Denny Makara beat the system.

In episode 1077 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast the perspective of an Australian journalist, Karl Quinn, toward the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick epic documentary The Vietnam War will be featured. It is important for Americans to value the viewpoint of the Australians because next to Korea and Thailand they were one of our most valued allies in that War.

Australians were willing to support the American effort in Vietnam as a result of their concerns about the growth of communism in Southeast Asia after the Second World War. Australia's active entry in the War began in 1962 when they sent 30 military advisors to Vietnam. Their commitment to the War peaked out at 7,672 military personnel in 1965. The Australians pulled out along with the Americans in 1972. That turned out to be Australia's longest war to date where they paid a price of 521 killed and 3,000 wounded. That is why Americans should always value and honor the Australians due to their willingness to help in the fight to stem the tide of world communist domination.

Quinn recently wrote a show review that appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald that was titled: Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's Vietnam War series is 10 hours in hell, well spent. The review byline gives a reasonably sound idea as to his opinion of the show. It reads: " This superb 10-part series from the makers of The Civil War goes way beyond America's pain to tell a story of a bigger tragedy a century in the making.”

Quinn's review examines The Vietnam War in a step by step fashion that leaves the reader with an excellent overview of the show and enough facts about the War so they can draw their own conclusions.

Listen to episode 1077 of this podcast and discover exactly what Karl Quinn thinks about the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick epic documentary The Vietnam War.

Episode 1075 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will highlight the Atlanta History Center and their “More Than Self: Living the Vietnam War” exhibit. There was a story about it on The Atlanta Planit website titled: Atlanta History Center’s Vietnam War Exhibit Delivers Firsthand Views that was submitted by Gabbie Watts

The Atlanta History Center, nee Atlanta Historical Society, was founded in 1926 by fourteen Atlanta citizens who had a passion for their city's historical relevance in society. 1990 is when the Atlanta Historical Society officially became the Atlanta History Center. This occurred after decades of after decades of researching, collecting, publishing and celebrating the early stories of the city of Atlanta. In 2016, the Atlanta History Center expanded its horizons to connect people, history, and culture in an effort to be more relevant in today's quickly changing world.

The center's current exhibit titled: “More Than Self: Living the Vietnam War” comes out of the center’s larger Veterans History Project that started in 1999. That project features veterans’ stories from live interviews.

Sue Verhoef, the Atlanta History Center’s Director of Oral History and Genealogy, said this about the Vietnam War exhibit: “It’s an opportunity for anyone to hear what happened from the people who experienced it." The exhibit has six sections which covers the various themes that came out of numerous interviews with Vietnam Veterans. In addition to the oral histories there are pictures and a large array of Vietnam War relics.

All who can are encouraged to visit the Atlanta History Center located at 130 West Paces Ferry Road NW in Atlanta. It is so important to know the history of something like the Vietnam War so that we might not make similar mistakes in the future.

Listen to episode 1076 of the podcast and discover more about the Atlanta History Center’s More Than Self: Living the Vietnam War exhibit.

Episode 1075 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a special love story. It is about a Vietnam Veteran, Gary Barnes, who recently met his daughter he never knew existed. The event was describe in a story from the Union newspaper which serves western Nevada County, California titled: DNA match introduces Grass Valley man to his daughter for the first time that was submitted by Matthew Pera.

The story began one day when Barnes was relaxing at his home in Grass Valley. As he sat back and enjoyed the view of the beautiful mountain scenery he received a phone call out of the blue asking if he would submit to a DNA test. He said—sure! and the story began. More samples were sent to Ancestry.com and before he knew it he was speaking to the fifty year old daughter he never knew was there.

The daughter, Olivia Robles, had being searching for her real father ever since she was ten years old. That was when she made the discovery her mother's husband was not her biological father. Her mother and real father, Barnes, got together in 1966 while he was serving in the US Navy and on an R & R in the Philippines. He moved on and Olivia's beautiful mother kept a secret from Gary. She never uttered a word about their daughter.

Back in 2014 Gary Barnes's cousin, Diana Barnes, who lives in Alabama, submitted a DNA sample to Ancestry.com. When her DNA was analyzed she received a list of close matches that included Olivia Robles, a name she did not know. Olivia received a notification from Ancestry.com her DNA makeup was a close match with Diana Barnes. Olivia took that clue and ran with it.

Listen to episode 1075 of the podcast and discover the exciting story of how the lives of a father and his long lost daughter came together after a fifty year period of time.

Episode 1073 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a story about the first McDonald's restaurant opening in communist Hanoi. The story comes from The Japan News and is titled: Hanoi gets its 1st McDonald’s. It came from Yomiuri Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is part of the Yomiuri Group, Japan's largest media conglomerate.

The primary topic of the story is about the opening of the first McDonald's in Hanoi. Another aspect of the story in addition to the significance of it being a first in that city is the person who made it all happen. Henry Nguyen was a refugee who fled the Vietnam War along with his family and who made the perilous journey to America. He grew up in Fairfax County, Virginia and his first job was at a McDonald's restaurant. Ironically he rose up the ladder of success and returned to his homeland as a successful businessman with a McDonald's franchise in tow.

It is the opinion of this writer that this event in Hanoi makes an even greater statement about the Vietnam Saga that has played out over the last hundred years. Rather than being a true believer in the teachings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels as presented in their Communist Manifesto written in 1848, Ho Chi Minh was something else.

This writer believes he was a committed nationalist whose primary goal was the establishment of a free and independent Vietnam. He claimed to be a communist when he saw that as the most viable way for him to go in his mission of creating an independent homeland. After the dust settled, it is clear the independent Vietnam Ho fought so hard to create is now a vibrant and growing country looking for a place to dispose the dead corpse of its formerly communist government.

Listen to episode 1073 and discover the whole story about the opening of a new era of fine dining in Hanoi that is being ushered in by the Henry Nguyen and the McDonald's Corporation.

Episode 1072 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature another outstanding representative of the Great Vietnam Veteran Generation. He is Dr. Brian S. Joseph of Amherst, New York which is not far from Buffalo. His story was told in an article in The Buffalo News titled: Doctor studying psychiatry helped soldiers in Vietnam hooked on heroin and submitted by Lou Michel reporter for The Buffalo News.

Brian S. Joseph grew up in North Buffalo and as long as he could remember he had a passion for helping people. Psychiatry was the method he chose to pursue that passion.  In 1969 he received an invitation from Uncle Sam to pack up his psychiatric talents and bring them with him for a yearlong tour in Vietnam. He had just completed medical school at the University at Buffalo and was completing his first year of psychiatric residency at the old E.J. Meyer Memorial Hospital in 1969.

They made him a flight surgeon and assigned him to an Army aviation unit at Can Tho which is way down south in the delta of Vietnam. Joseph immediately got to work on a serious problem facing the military in the country - a heroin epidemic among soldiers fighting the Vietnam.

Joseph described the situation and a step he took to help remedy the challenge: "There was a heroin epidemic raging among the enlisted men at the time and concern that some of the mechanics fixing the helicopters were high on heroin. "myself, the chaplain on the base and another officer developed a heroin treatment program for anyone who would come forward."

Listen to episode 1072 and discover more about what this outstanding Vietnam Veteran, Dr. Brian S. Joseph did for the troops in Vietnam battling heroin addiction and the outstanding service he rendered to his country when he came home to Buffalo, New York.

Episode 1069 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature the story of Dick Durrance Jr., a brave Vietnam Veteran who was a combat photographer in country. After the war he authored and edited a book titled: Where War Lives - A Photographic Journal of Vietnam.

Recently he spoke to a business luncheon in his hometown of Aspen, Colorado. The event was captured in a story in the Aspen Daily News Online titled: Dick Durrance recalls stint as combat photographer in Vietnam. The story was submitted by Chad Abraham, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer. Abraham's story recounted that Durrance described how he was drafted in 1967 at the age of 23 just after he had achieved a long time dream of having National Geographic accept one of his photographs.

Due to his photographic expertise he was assigned to the Army Special Photographic Office and served two tours in Vietnam. Durrance said: “I felt like I was being snatched away from my dream to be a photojournalist.” He went on to serve honorably and record many battlefield images with his camera that helped tell the story of the Vietnam war.

After his time in the US Army Durrance remained active in the field of commercial photography his entire life and has become an in demand speaker. In 1969 he became a member of the National Geographic staff and had photographic assignments in South Africa, Russia, Brazil and the North Sea. In 1976, he provided images for three landscape books, then switched to the world of corporate and advertising photography. Durrance now lives in Carbondale, Colorado, about thirty miles north of Aspen, where he spends most of his time focusing lens on the beautiful Rocky Mountain landscapes and the sport of golf.

Listen to episode 1069 of the podcast and discover the exciting adventures Dick Durrance Jr. experienced in Vietnam and his profound quote that every American should know.

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Episode 1068 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature a special event occurring in New Iberia, Louisiana where Vietnam Veterans are being honored in a special way. The event was described in a story found in The Daily Iberian titled: USO SHOW - IPAL salutes veterans with special preview that was submitted by Danny Fenster.

A word about the Iberia Performing Arts League which is also known as IPAL. It is a community theater organization based in New Iberia, Louisiana. It get support from the Louisiana Division of the Arts, Office of Cultural Development, Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism in cooperation with the Louisiana State Arts Council administered by the Acadiana Center for the Arts. Funding also provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. ART WORKS! . Additional Funding provided by the Iberia Parish Foundation, an affiliate of the Community Foundation of Acadiana.

The IPAL's mission is to promote live theater in New Iberia and to enhance the community. It generally offers five major productions per season, a summer youth play or activity, and occasionally other special events. The USO show is one of their five major productions and is a truly fitting way to honor area Vietnam Veterans.

The show is intended to present a USO performance similar to the ones many Vietnam Veterans saw while they were serving in that War. It will run from Thursday, November 30 through Sunday, December 3, 2017. On Tuesday a pre-show held for family members of the cast and crew along with 100 invited special guests.

Listen to episode 1068 and discover who those special guests were and how they were honored. All in the New Iberia area are highly encouraged to attend this special show that presents a special salute to Vietnam Veterans.

CLICK HERE  for more information about the IPAL USO Show or call them at 337-364-6114.

Episode 1067 of the Vietnam Veteran News Podcast will feature another peril Vietnam Veterans face as a result of serving an ungrateful nation in that demanding War in Southeast Asia. On top of all the other dark shadow legacies of that overseas contingency such as PTSD, a host of diseases caused by exposure to Agent Orange, JASTA enabled legal entanglements and mental problems caused by ignorant anti-war protesters, now Vietnam Veterans must be concerned with a new vulnerability - liver fluke parasites. That’s right - liver fluke parasites. They are a known cause of a rare bile duct cancer. The Department of Veterans Affairs has consented to commissioning a small pilot study to investigate the possibility of a link between the ingesting of liver fluke parasites and bile duct cancer.

The Associated Press ran a story recently titled: Slow-killing parasite from Vietnam may be killing veterans, VA study says. The article indicated that research conducted by Sung-Tae Hong, a tropical medicine specialist at Seoul National University in South Korea, led credence to the supposition many Vietnam Veterans contacted the aforementioned cancer during service in Vietnam after they consumed locally procured raw or under cooked fresh water fish.

The hideous thing about bile duct cancer, more commonly known as cholangiocarcinoma, is that it can lay dormant in a person for up to fifty years before swelling and inflammation of the bile duct occurs. This can lead to, intense pain, jaundice, itchy skin, weight loss, cancer and other symptoms. The symptoms generally appear only when the disease is in its final stages. The ironic thing about this is that liver fluke parasites can be easily removed from the body if the condition is treated early on. Untreated, the inevitable will happen over time but there are no early symptoms to warn a potential victim.

Listen to episode 1067 and discover the story about this new danger coming from service in Vietnam and the vital thing every Veteran must consider.