Well, we had our protest

[1CAVCCO15MED]

Monday, about 100 graduates of the Salem VA Hospital PTSD program gathered at two entrances to the hospital. The guy who organized it is Zack. He got the permits and got the ball rolling for all of us. It was very interesting. That morning the local Roanoke Va TV news showed up. There were these two guys there with their VFW hats and all their pins. They cornered tne news girl. Nobody knew them and Zack didn't want our protest hijacked. He went up to them and the news girl and told them he was the one who got the permits and he didn't know them. They left. Then the VA hospital employees union rep showed up with a sign saying all the wards need more help. Same thing, Zach thanks them very much but we want to stay focused on our reason for being there. We had signs and flags and most of the cars going by tooted their horns in support. At 2 PM we had a scheduled meeting with Administration. Bob, the PTSD program director was there and an assistant to the chairman or something like that. It seemed the VA hospital director was on vacation that week after canceling all days off for the staff of the PTSD program. I told Bob and the Assistant to the assistant or whatever he was that I did appreciate them being there but the idea of the Director taking the day off showed a lack of respect. The secretary went out of the room and in about 15 minutes the Director showed up. There were about eight of us in the room and we were going around the table voicing our opinions and telling what Salem meant to us. More than one said it had saved their lives. Now I knew some of these guys and let me tell you , it was no exaggeration. One of the guys was telling about this when the Director, Dr. Lemons came in the room, and started shaking hands and talking quite loudly. Zack spoke up and said, "Excuse me, but you do not have the floor. Sit down and wait your turn." And he did. We met for two hours and it was quite heated at times. Lo and behold, they hired a new counselor just that day. Amazing coincidence! Lemons vowed he did not want to close the program and supported it totally. Nah. But we did get them to hire back up to their staffing of a couple of years ago which is half what it was ten years ago. So, it was a mixed success. We save the program but did not get any commitment to expand it. I guess every time they lose a person we are going to have to go back there and demand they be replaced. That's OK, we got nothing better to do.

Here's the deal, There used to be twenty of these inpatient PTSD programs. Now there are six. They were wanting to cut it down to eleven patients at time down from fifteen. This at a time when many more needs are being created in Iraq. Do the math, six six weeks programs that admit eleven at a time. That is eleven a week admittable in the whole US. How long would 250,000 Iraq veterans have to wait for help?

[xgrunt]

Tuskeegee VA did a a 4 Million dollar restoration on a bldg for the PTSD In-Paitient Program and then 6 mos later made it out patient. The VA is counting on the fact that the services by doing at front"counseling" will knock down the need for the programs. As for Nam vets well the book title said it best"Waiting for an Army to Die."

[SuperScout]

Great start for what might become a national groundswell of support. If there's one thing that I continue to support and lobby for, it's the entitlement program for veterans, one of the few, if only entitlement programs that has constitutional legitimacy. As veterans, we must continue to pressure Congress, and to inform the public, of the moral and legal obligation to take care of veterans that genuinely need help. I suspect that as the US forces return to the US, and are released from active duty, there will be many more knocking on the doors of PTSD help clinics. Thanks for your part in taking this giant step!

[phuloi]

God bless you and the other 99 or so participants for lighting a fire that will,with ALL our help,continue to burn...(Apologies to "Torch and Zippo)

[Andy]

There?s a poem by Tennyson called, ?The Charge of the Light Brigade?. Years later Kipling wrote one titled ?The Last of the Light Brigade?. Several years ago when our local VA hospital was thinking about closing two of it?s wards someone printed the two poems, posted them side by side at the hospital and all over the place. At the end of Kipling?s work was written the words, ?That?s us?! If you have a chance read them, I?m sure there on the internet. Tell me what you think. In our case the decision was made not to close the wards, however some staffing was reduced.

Stay healthy,
Andy

[MORTARDUDE]

The Last of the Light Brigade


There were thirty million English who talked of England's might, There were twenty broken troopers who lacked a bed for the night. They had neither food nor money, they had neither service nor trade; They were only shiftless soldiers, the last of the Light Brigade.



They felt that life was fleeting; they knew not that art was long, That though they were dying of famine, they lived in deathless song. They asked for a little money to keep the wolf from the door; And the thirty million English sent twenty pounds and four!



They laid their heads together that were scarred and lined and grey; Keen were the Russian sabers, but want was keener than they; And an old Troop-Sergeant muttered, "Let us go to the man who writes The things on Balaclava the kiddies at school recites."



They went without bands or colours, a regiment ten-file strong, To look for the Master-singer who had crowned them all in his song; And, waiting his servant's order, by the garden gate they stayed, A desolate little cluster, the last of the Light Brigade.



They strove to stand to attention, to straighten the toil-bowed back; They drilled on an empty stomach, the loose-knit files fell slack; With stooping of weary shoulders, in garments tattered and frayed, They shambled into his presence, the last of the Light Brigade.



The old Troop-Sergeant was spokesman, and "Beggin' your pardon," he said, "You wrote o' the Light Brigade, sir. Here's all that isn't dead. An' it's all come true what you wrote, sir, regardin' the mouth of hell; For we're all of us nigh to the workhouse, an' we thought we'd call an' tell.



"No, thank you, we don't want food, sir; but couldn't you take an' write A sort of 'to be continued' and 'see next page' o'the fight? We think that someone has blundered, an' couldn't you tell'em how? You wrote we were heroes once, sir. Please, write we are starving now."



The poor little army departed, limping and lean and forlorn. And the heart of the Master-singer grew hot with "the scorn of scorn." And he wrote for them wonderful verses that swept the land like flame, Till the fatted souls of the English were scourged with the thing called Shame.



O thirty million English that babble of England's might, Behold there are twenty heroes who lack their food to-night; Our children's children are lisping to "honour the charge they made --" And we leave to the streets and the workhouse the charge of the Light Brigade!



(Rudyard Kipling 1891)

[MORTARDUDE]

The Charge Of The Light Brigade

Half a league, half a league,

Half a league, onward,

All in the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

"Forward the Light Brigade!

Charge for the guns!" he said.

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"

Was there a man dismayed?

Nor though the soldier knew

Someone had blundered.

Theirs not to make reply,

Theirs but to do and die.

Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon in front of them

Volleyed and thundered;

Stormed at with shot and shell,

Boldly they rode and well,

Into the jaws of Death,

Into the mouth of hell

Rode the six hundred.

Flashed all their sabers bare,

Flashed as they turned in air

Sabering the gunners there,

Charging an army, while

All the world wondered.

Plunged in the battery smoke

Right through the line they broke;

Cossack and Russian

Reeled from the saber stroke

Shatttered and sundered.

Then they rode back, but not,

Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,

Cannon to left of them,

Cannon behind them

Volleyed and thundered;

Stormed at with shot and shell,

While horse and hero fell,

They that had fought so well

Came through the jaws of Death,

Back from the mouth of hell,

All that was left of them,

Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?

O the wild charge they made!

All the world wondered.

Honor the charge they made!

Honor the Light Brigade,

Nobel six hundred!

( Alfred Lord Tennyson 1854 )

[PHO127]

Wear your Psyco Vets hats and Tees at the protest. I went to the store last week with my bro wearing the Psyco Vets T and the Coonskin Cap you gave me. Talk about priceless.

[phuloi]

Read these years ago with little comprehension,but now I REALLY understand.Thanks,Andy.And thanks,Larry for posting them.Got sumptin in me eye..

[ArtySgt]

You guys did good, thanks to all of you. Wish I could have been there, surely I do.