Remembering Veterans Day, November 11th, 2013

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This special edition of The Guide offers links to music, music videos, and news features appropriate to Veterans Day. We hope that our veterans, especially, will enjoy today's content.

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America is in the midst of another seemingly endless -- and many believe -- pointless war.

Military veterans are coming home from the Afghanistan / Iraq wars with unprecedented numbers of traumatic brain injuries.

Rates of PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder -- are higher than ever before, due in large part to repeated deployments to combat zones and time under fire that's measured in years.  It makes the longest individual combat deployments of World War I, World War II, Korea, and Vietnam pale in comparison.

Even the time in combat of Civil War soldiers, who left home in 1861 and didn't return until 1865 (if they returned) has been exceeded by the total deployment time of today's troops.

All the nation's veterans of the Great War are now gone. For them, November 11th was always Armistice Day, when, on the 11th hour if the 11th day of the 11th month, WW I -- "The war to end all wars" -- finally ended in 1918.

Tragically, what followed the hell of trenches and poison gas proved only a pause before that war's unresolved issues boiled-over as World War II. And now, the veterans of that second world war -- the youngest of them 86 years old -- diminish drastically between each Veterans Day.

Vietnam Veterans continue to comprise a large proportion of America's homeless. That's the most obvious continuation of the disgraceful way in which we have regarded their service. And now, their ranks include Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who were unable to cope, who are now residents in homeless encampments and on sidewalk grates.

Every time, we pretend to have learned profound lessons. Perhaps we even believe that.

Yet, here we are, still involved -- right now -- in a war that we allow our media to ignore, spending more money than it would have cost to send humans to Mars and colonize the Moon and fix our collapsing infrastructure and do something about global warming.

Have we learned anything? Alas, we must separate our philosophical musings from what our veterans and active military personnel have learned in their all-too real experiences in uniform -- in combat.

For peace advocates -- many of whom are veterans -- the struggle continues, also.

But today is the day we set aside to think of those who have heard bullets whizzing past their heads, and impacting into their comrades. Today, while we can continue to ask our leaders why, and at what price, and if they contemplate any more, we must make accommodation of the most solemn kind. Today is the day we honor all those who have rendered honorable service in uniform.

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Following are links to music and music videos, and news features appropriate to Veterans Day.

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MUSIC and MUSIC VIDEOS...

♪   R.W. HAMPTON's new single, "Hell in a Helmet" releases Nov 12. Written for his son's United States Marine Corps battalion, the men of the "2/9," after a particularly tough deployment in Afghanistan. This song deals with the tough issues they face coming home...
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http://m.soundcloud.com/r-w-hampton/hell-in-a-helmet-parental?utm_source=Arlo-Country+Joe-+Underhill+Rose-Hayes+and+Corb+-Veterans+Day&utm_campaign=yarn4&utm_medium=email

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♪   COUNTRY JOE & THE FISH -- live at  Woodstock, 1969 -- "Fish Cheer / I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixing-To-Die-Rag"
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http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dATyZBEeDJ4&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DdATyZBEeDJ4

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♪   KELLY'S LOT, with a  free download today of Kelly Zirbes' original, "I'll Go (A Soldier's Oath)." It's "a song honoring the promise Soldiers make and Veterans made to protect us." It's free at:

https://soundcloud.com/kellyslot/ill-go-a-soldiers-oath

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♪   ARLO GUTHRIE -- "When a Soldier Makes It Home" -- Live at The Birchmere, Feb 8, 2013
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http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iZjldSvro1A&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DiZjldSvro1A

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♪   SOLDIER HARD - "Red Flags" (Official Video)  Addressing Veterans Suicide Issue by Soldier Hard
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http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X92tVxqnmHs&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DX92tVxqnmHs

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♪  "FATHER WAS A WARRIOR" -- Robert Morgan Fisher -- has a haunting flute complementing its lyrical message. It's at the hugely long url:
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http://www.reverbnation.com/robertmorganfisher/song/4878124-father-was-a-warrior?fb_og_action=reverbnation_fb%3Aunknown&fb_og_object=reverbnation_fb%3Asong&utm_campaign=a_public_songs&utm_content=reverbnation_fb%3Asong&utm_medium=facebook_og&utm_source=reverbnation_fb%3Aunknown

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♪   AMERICAN SON - James Hyland & The Joint Chiefs [Official Music Video]
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http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qIbSxq-DjfE&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DqIbSxq-DjfE

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NEWS ITEMS for Veterans Day...

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THE FORGOTTEN BONUS ARMY...

[ Picture at:
https://fbcdn-photos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc3/s720x720/1441186_597849160263276_2077607134_n.jpg ]

ARMISTICE DAY AND THE TREATMENT OF VETERANS OF WW I

The March of the Bonus Army was big news in 1932. It began amidst the desperation of the darkest days of the Great Depression, and it was an exercise of hope.

But it ended in "a remarkable event" in Washington, DC.

The following is from:
http://www.gpb.org/march-of-the-bonus-army

"In the darkest days of the Depression, thousands of unemployed World War I veterans marched to the capital city, looking to Congress for an advance on the bonus compensation promised to them years earlier.
"Their 'bonus' was $1,000 for each veteran. They had to wait TWENTY YEARS for their bonus, because 'America did not have the money to pay them' - even though millionaires and billionaires were created from this war.

"After camping and lobbying throughout Washington for two months, the veterans were driven out by force, as rising military figures General Douglas MacArthur, Major Dwight Eisenhower and Major George Patton cleared out the 'Bonus Army' and burned their camps.

"By the time the clash was over, two marchers were dead, thousands were tear-gassed, and countless homeless veterans, many with families, were driven violently from the capital.
"The Bonus Army incident had become a political liability for President Herbert Hoover. The veterans bonus was finally approved, [during the Presidency of Franklin Roosevelt] after the public was infuriated by Hoover's actions."

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Added feature...

MERCHANT MARINE VETS CONTINUE TO SEE NEGLECT

Woody Guthrie served in the Merchant Marine during World War II. Among the songs he wrote during his service was "The Sinking of the Ruben James," memorializing a convoy escort ship's crew that died when their vessel was torpedoed by a German U-boat.

The song was recorded by the Almanac Singers, and later by Will Geer, The Weavers, The Kingston Trio, and The Chad Mitchell Trio. It has been performed live in recent years by Ross Altman. Woody's original version included the name of each person lost in the sinking. This was so unwieldy and psychologically numbing that he later replaced the names with the chorus, "tell me what were their names."

The influence exerted on Woody's songwriting by his wartime seafaring should make this topic especially interesting to folk fans.

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Upon reading the Guide's feature on the Bonus Army and their travails, Al Phillips, a retired ship's engineer, wrote:

"And after WW II, the Merchant Seamen were denied all benefits awarded to the military. No GI Bill, etc. This especially hurt those captured by Axis forces in that, unlike the military, a Merchant Seaman's (including officers) pay stopped on the date of the loss of his ship.

"We can thank Admiral Ernest King both for some of the high losses suffered by the Merchant Marine, and for his adamant opposition before congress to awarding any [veterans] benefits for the Merchant Seamen.

"As the U.S. entered the war, King ordered the navy to execute roving patrols in an effort to hunt-down U-boats while our merchant ships continued to sail independently & un-escorted.

"The British advised him that escorted convoys were much more effective, and that roving patrols usually came up empty-handed. King hated the British and refused to accept the British advice [that had come] from hard-won experience. We lost so many ships off our East Coast that the U-boat people refered to it as their 'second happy time.'

"Next, King wanted to assimilate the Merchant marine directly into the navy. The entire industry resisted that idea after the experience of WW I during which the Merchant Marine had been run most wastefully by the government. They [the Merchant Marine] won on the basis that they were professionals and would operate and manage their ships themselves, moving the cargoes wherever they were directed.

"King absolutely HATED to lose, and he held a lifetime grudge against the Merchant Marine. May that bastard roast forever in hell's hottest fires!

"On a brighter note, we dined at a Texas Roadhouse this evening, and there, meals were served to Veterans at no charge!

"They also displayed a MIA/POW table they called the 'Missing Man Table.' I took two photos of it with some stmbolism. I haven't figured out how to download from my cellphone to the composter yet, but as I remember:

"The white tablecloth symbolised the purity of their efforts. The red rose in the vase (I think) the blood spilled; The red ribbon, the desire to return home; the inverted glass, the inability to be here and join the toast; and the empty seat the missing man. Very tastefully done!"

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The Guide has learned there are active dimensions to what Al Phillips reported. Some Merchant Marine veterans are receiving veterans benefits. But only some.

In 1988, the US government accorded Merchant Marines veteran status. But they failed to provide overdue bonuses for Merchant Marines. And it gets complicated.

It wasn't a legislative act that righted the wrong. A federal court in Washington, D.C. ruled that year that merchant mariners who could prove they served in the war are veterans and are entitled to veterans' benefits.

But many of the merchant mariners didn't keep their documents or were never issued them in the first place, noted J. Don Horton, a merchant marine veteran who is president of WWII Coastwise Merchant Mariners. Others don't know that the policy changed, he added.

Between 10,000 and 30,000 people served on barges and tugs along the coast, Horton said, but only a few hundred are alive today.

Thousands of teenagers who were too young to be drafted, men who were too old or physically unfit, and some women, served in the Merchant Marine during World War II.

Bills that would provide $1,000 a month bonus for WW II Merchant Marine veterans have been pending off and on for years in the House and Senate.

The federal "WWII Merchant Mariners Service Act" was not voted on in the House of Representatives last year, during the least-productive Congressional session in American history.

Horton said he expects the bill to be reintroduced this year.

Meanwhile, things were made right for some surviving Merchant Seamen -- in Pennsylvania.

In 2006, while Congress was casually wrestling with the idea, the Keystone State acted on its own.

Then-Gov. Ed Rendell signed into law Act 22 of 2006, which established the "Pennsylvania Merchant Marine World War II Veterans Bonus Program."

On July 5, 2006, Chris Buckley wrote a story in "Veterans Today" to celebrate Pennsylvania's action and those it helped. His piece was titled, "WW2 Merchant Marine Veterans Finally get Benefits– But is it Too Little, Too late?" ( http://www.veteranstoday.com/2006/07/05/ww2-merchant-marines-finally-get-veterans-benefits/ )

Buckley wrote, in part:

"'The bonuses are long overdue,' area Merchant Marines said.

"World War II veterans in all branches of the service received the same bonuses shortly after the war ended, said Robert Downey, president of the Mon Valley Chapter of the American Merchant Marine Veterans.

"'If we got it at that time, you could have bought a car,' Kemple noted.

"Merchant Marines served in the same theater of operations as other active duty troops, but without the same kind of recognition. Merchant Marines provided all of the supplies used by the fighting troops throughout the war.

“We were at every landing the Marine Corps made during the war,” Downey said.

"But Merchant Marines were not afforded veterans’ status after the war. The government ruled that although the Merchant Marines learned to fire their guns aboard their ship, because they did not received hand weapons training, they were not considered combatants.

"If their ship was sunk – as over 900 were during the war – they did not receive pay.

"Though they did not fire rifles or handguns, Merchant Marines nonetheless served under fire. One in every 29 Merchant Marines who served overseas died in the service.

"That figure was one in 32 for the U.S. Marines Corps.

"Still, Merchant Marines were not afforded any of the benefits that World War II veterans received –including the GI Bill, veterans’ insurance, access to the VA Hospitals and no compensation for their families after they died."

Seventy years and counting, and these veterans -- except in Pennsylvania -- have yet to be accorded the benefits of their honorable service.

Horton and retired tugboat captain Earl Maxfield, Sr., are trying to find others who served in the U.S. Merchant Marine during World War II. They want to help them apply for their veteran status. Horton can be reached at jdonhorton@embarqmail.com or 104 Riverview Av, Camden, NC 27921. Maxfield can be reached at emax50@att.net or 12 South View Terrace, Old Saybrook, CT 06475.

(The Guide acknowledges that various information used here was originally reported by Jennifer McDermott in "The Day" in Connecticut, on February 19, 2013. Her original story is available at: 
http://www.theday.com/article/20130219/NWS09/302199962/1018#.UoG1DCS2XYM )


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A LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT...

Dear Mr. President:

World War II veteran James "Maggie" Megellas is the most decorated member of the 82nd Airborne Division. During the war, he was nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor. As the papers made their way up the chain of command, the most important facts of his bravery in combat were omitted, and the medal was not awarded.

James Megellas is still living, as are some of the witnesses to what really happened.

Mr. President, you can right the wrong done by Army bureaucracy 70 years ago, and bestow the medal upon Mr. Megellas that he deserved and should have received.

You can enable all of us to honor Mr. Megellas while he and his surviving comrades in arms are still with us to receive the honor.

Please look into this. I am confident the facts will bring you to happy agreement and gratitude, on behalf of the nation, for this man's extraordinary bravery.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Larry Wines


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JAPANESE-AMERICAN "NISEI" SOLDIERS WERE THE MOST-HONORED US MILITARY UNIT OF WW II

...and to get there, they came from Japanese American Internment Camps

George Takei (of Star Trek fame) writes from personal experience of one of those camps:

"During my childhood, my family and I were interned in Rohwer prison camp in the swamps of southeast Arkansas because we looked like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor. My friends at Arkansas State University are working hard to make sure history is not forgotten. They just launched a wonderful website on Rohwer; I'm honored to provide an audio intro."

Check it out here:

http://rohwer.astate.edu

There's a photo of George Takei at the monument, at:

https://fbcdn-photos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/c0.51.539.539/s720x720/1395932_794104073952381_1747458094_n.jpg

The Guide's editor comments:

Manzanar, in the Owens Valley, at the foot of the eastern escarpment of the California High Sierra, is the most famous -- or infamous -- of the internment camps, thanks to the book and TV movie, "A Farewell to Manzanar."

I've been to Manzanar several times, going back to long before the National Park Service acquired and began developing the site to preserve and tell the story.

When winter climbs in the Sierra proved too uninviting due to fierce, subzero winds, I would often explore the ruins of the abandoned narrow-gauge railroad, or the tree-spotted site of Manzanar.

The latter brought discovery of ruins of gardens with hand-crafted fountains and waterfalls, drifted-in with the blowing sands of time. The concrete mortar still preserved the artfully-placed ceramic plates and other dinnerware used as ornamentation. The systems of elaborate miniature ditches that had conducted water through the fountains appeared from beneath the sand like the ruins of an ancient Roman or Egyptian settlement. But this one was all too close in time.

The ruined little gardens, the family gardens outside the vanished barracks of Manzanar, spoke poignantly of the humanity of fellow Americans subjected to tragic treatment -- due simply to fear-based thinking.

We have grown so much in so many ways. But fear-based thinking is still horribly present in our society.

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FINAL SALUTE TO THE DOOLITTLE RAIDERS... 

(from Politco)

[ photo: http://images.politico.com/global/2013/11/10/doolittle_raiders_328_ap.jpg ]

Known as the Doolittle Raiders, the 80 men who risked their lives on a World War II bombing mission on Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor were toasted one last time by their surviving comrades and honored with a Veterans Day weekend of fanfare shared by thousands.

Three of the four surviving Raiders attended the toast Saturday at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio. Their late commander, Lt. Gen. James “Jimmy” Doolittle, started the tradition but they decided this autumn’s ceremony would be their last.

“May they rest in peace,” Lt. Col. Richard Cole, 98, said before he and fellow Raiders — Lt. Col. Edward Saylor, 93, and Staff Sgt. David Thatcher, 92 — sipped cognac from specially engraved silver goblets. The 1896 cognac was saved for the occasion after being passed down from Doolittle.

Hundreds invited to the ceremony, including family members of deceased Raiders, watched as the three each called out “here” as a historian read the names of all 80 of the original airmen.

(Also on POLITICO: Stars and Stripes boots up for battle)

The fourth surviving Raider, Lt. Col. Robert Hite, 93, couldn’t travel to Ohio because of health problems.

But son Wallace Hite said his father, wearing a Raiders blazer and other traditional garb for their reunions, made his own salute to the fallen with a silver goblet of wine at home in Nashville, Tenn., earlier in the week.

Hite is the last survivor of eight Raiders who were captured by Japanese soldiers. Three were executed; another died in captivity.

A B-25 bomber flyover helped cap an afternoon memorial tribute in which a wreath was placed at the Doolittle Raider monument outside the museum. Museum officials estimated some 10,000 people turned out for Veterans Day weekend events honoring the 1942 mission credited with rallying American morale and throwing the Japanese off balance.

Acting Air Force Secretary Eric Fanning said America was at a low point, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and other Axis successes, before “these 80 men who showed the nation that we were nowhere near defeat.” He noted that all volunteered for a mission with high risks throughout, from the launch of B-25 bombers from a carrier at sea, the attack on Tokyo, and lack of fuel to reach safe bases.

(Also on POLITICO: WWII vet honored with long-overdue medals)

The Raiders have said they didn’t realize at the time that their mission would be considered an important event in turning the war’s tide. It inflicted little major damage physically, but changed Japanese strategy while firing up Americans.

“It was what you do … over time, we’ve been told what effect our raid had on the war and the morale of the people,” Saylor said in an interview.

The Brussett, Mont., native who now lives in Puyallup, Wash., said he was one of the lucky ones.

“There were a whole bunch of guys in World War II; a lot of people didn’t come back,” he said.

(Also on POLITICO: Meeting set over Iraq vet's gravestone)

Thatcher, of Missoula, Mont., said the raid just seemed like “one of many bombing missions” during the war. The most harrowing part for him was the crash landing of his plane, depicted in the movie “30 Seconds over Tokyo.”

Cole, of Comfort, Texas, was Doolittle’s co-pilot that day. Three crew members died as Raiders bailed out or crash-landed their planes in China, but most were helped to safety by Chinese villagers and soldiers.

Cole, Saylor and Thatcher were greeted Saturday by flag-waving well-wishers ranging from small children to fellow war veterans. Twelve-year-old Joseph John Castellano’s grandparents brought him from their Dayton home.

“This was Tokyo. The odds of their survival were one in a million,” the boy said. “I just felt like I owe them a few short hours of the thousands of hours I will be on Earth.”

(PHOTOS: 2012 Veterans Day observances)

Organizers said more than 600 people, including descendants of Chinese villagers who helped the Raiders and Pearl Harbor survivors, were invited to the final-toast ceremony.

The 80 silver goblets in the ceremony were presented to the Raiders in 1959 by the city of Tucson, Ariz. The Raiders’ names are engraved twice, the second upside-down. During the ceremony, white-gloved cadets presented each of the three with their personal goblets and their longtime manager poured the cognac. The deceased’s glasses are turned upside-down.

(This story, originally by the ASSOCIATED PRESS, Nov 10, 2013, at 7:28 AM EST, is on the Politico site with active links, at:

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/veterans-day-doolittle-raiders-99626.html?hp=r16

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VETERANS DAY ART...

The graphic montage that appears today on The Guide's home page (in the "full web edition," not visible in the mobile edition), was created by Laurel McCune Goodman. You can download it at:

https://fbcdn-photos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/s600x600/1394387_10200795381796774_146001141_n.jpg

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The Guide will return Tuesday with listings and extensive feature write-ups on live music performances, and more.

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