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To: Veterans Retraining Assistance Program (VRAP)
 
WEB LINK -  http://benefits.va.gov/vow/education.htm
 
VRAP Applications Received 39,544
 
Date - July 26, 2012
 
Warning about potential VRAP scam
 
Please be aware of a potential scam targeting veterans who have either signed up or  have been approved for VRAP!
 
A veteran has reported receiving a call from someone named "James" who congratulated him on his VRAP approval.  He advised him that he knew the exact amount he was approved for and that the $8500 would be directly deposited into his account within 45 minutes of him giving his banking account number and routing number and paying $205 for the service fee.
 
This person is not affiliated with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).   VA will never charge you to access your benefits or ask you to provide private information over the phone.  If you do receive a call like this, please contact the Federal Trade Commission by clicking here. <http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/microsites/phonefraud/index.shtml>

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Sam's Veteran Membership Discount
 
While shopping at Sam’s yesterday, I learned that they have a discount policy for veterans. When a veteran establishes a new membership or renews one, the local Sam’s club will award them a $10.00 gift card.
 
Best regards,
Henry

 

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"Carved on these walls is the story of America , of a continuing quest to preserve both Democracy and decency, and to protect a national treasure that we call the American dream."  ~ President George Bush

SOMETHING to think about - Most of the surviving Parents are now Deceased.

There are 58,267 names now listed on that polished black wall, including those added in 2010.

The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized. It is hard to believe it is 36 years since the last casualties.

Beginning at the apex on panel 1E and going out to the end of the East wall, appearing to recede into the earth (numbered 70E - May 25, 1968), then resuming at the end of the West wall, as the wall emerges from the earth (numbered 70W - continuing May 25, 1968) and ending with a date in 1975. Thus the war's beginning and end meet. The war is complete, coming full circle, yet broken by the earth that bounds the angle's open side and contained within the earth itself.

The first known casualty was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth , Mass. Listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having been killed on June 8, 1956. His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who was killed on Sept. 7, 1965.


• There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Wall.

• 39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger.

• 8,283 were just 19 years old.

• The largest age group, 33,103 were 18 years old.

• 12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old.

• 5 soldiers on the Wall were 16 years old.

• One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock was 15 years old.

• 997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam .

• 1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam .

• 31 sets of brothers are on the Wall.

• Thirty one sets of parents lost two of their sons.

• 54 soldiers attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia . I wonder why so many from one school.

• 8 Women are on the Wall. Nursing the wounded.

• 244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War; 153 of them are on the Wall.

• Beallsville, Ohio with a population of 475 lost 6 of her sons.

• West Virginia had the highest casualty rate per capita in the nation. There are 711 West Virginians on the Wall.

• The Marines of Morenci - They led some of the scrappiest high school football and basketball teams that the little Arizona copper town of Morenci (pop. 5,058) had ever known and cheered. They enjoyed roaring beer busts. In quieter moments, they rode horses along the Coronado Trail, stalked deer in the Apache National Forest . And in the patriotic camaraderie typical of Morenci's mining families, the nine graduates of Morenci High enlisted as a group in the Marine Corps. Their service began on Independence Day, 1966. Only 3 returned home.

• The Buddies of Midvale - LeRoy Tafoya, Jimmy Martinez, Tom Gonzales were all boyhood friends and lived on three consecutive streets in Midvale, Utah on Fifth, Sixth and Seventh avenues. They lived only a few yards apart. They played ball at the adjacent sandlot ball field. And they all went to Vietnam . In a span of 16 dark days in late 1967, all three would be killed. LeRoy was killed on Wednesday, Nov. 22, the fourth anniversary of John F. Kennedys assassination. Jimmy died less than 24 hours later on Thanksgiving Day. Tom was shot dead assaulting the enemy on Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.

• The most casualty deaths for a single day was on January 31, 1968 ~ 245 deaths.

• The most casualty deaths for a single month was May 1968 - 2,415 casualties were incurred.

For most Americans who read this they will only see the numbers that the Vietnam War created. To those of us who survived the war, and to the families of those who did not, we see the faces, we feel the pain that these numbers created. We are, until we too pass away, haunted with these numbers, because they were our friends, fathers, husbands, wives, sons and daughters. There are no noble wars, just noble warriors..

Please pass this on to those who served during this time , and those who DO Care.

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In 1962 the U. S. performed a high-altitude nuclear test 898 miles from Hawaii (Starfish Prime in Operation Fishbowl). In Honolulu, streetlights were blown and microwave telephone links to the other islands were shut down. CAPT Marshall A. Hanson, USNR (Ret.), uses this example to start off his explanation of possible electromagnetic pulse (EMP) warfare in his article “Acting on Impulse” in the Jan-Feb issue of The Officer.

The Soviets also performed high-altitude EMP tests over Kazakhstan in the early 1960s, but theirs caused much more damage, including setting fire to a power plant. EMP data was shared between the two powers in 1995, which shows a significant level of concern in defense quarters.

The Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage (SHIELD) Act, H.R. 668, seeks to secure the U.S. electrical grid to allow for continued food production as well as sewer, water, and electrical utilites from the treat of EMP. However, the bill languishes in committee.

The SHIELD Act would empower the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to work with industry and others to strengthen our national grid from EMP threats. It is estimate that the cost of doing so would add only about 20 cents to the average taxpayer’s electric bill for a period of three years.

Both China and Iran have published military articles about the effectiveness of an EMP attack. And on May 2, 1999, the chairman of a Russian delegation told a U.S. Representative “If we really wanted to hurt you with no fear of retaliation, we would launch an SLBM (submarine-launched ballistic missile) and detonate a single nuclear warhead at high altitude over the United States and shut down your power grid and communications for six months or so.”

In addition to CAPT Hanson’s concerns, I would add the possibility of the loss of all unprotected computer chips from an EMP event. Think of what that would do. For example, all modern automobiles and refrigerators function through computer chips. We’d be back to WWII style living. Oh well, just another thing to worry about, I guess.

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