Thank You
VVA Chapter 17
Member
Robert serge
Robert serge
To all my fellow veterans friends and family my we all remember
> Date: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 06:24:44 -0800
> To: southern@lodelink.com
> From: southern@lodelink.com
> Subject: Rolling Thunder Town Hall Meeting
>
> It is November and everything is changing. The leaves are almost
> through changing colors, the weather is turning colder and it is
> getting darker sooner. Now that I have you thinking dismal, I want to
> tell you all about our last Town Hall Meeting in Alexandria Virginia
> for Rolling Thunder. I had done a NJ State meeting for them in the
> Spring and was asked if I thought we could put one on for them at
> their national Conference in November. Naturally I said yes and
> figured if worse came to worse, no one would show up and the meeting
> would be short. By the time of the meeting, a lot of interest had
> risen and others offered help to do the meeting with myself and Mokie
> Porter. As you all know, Rolling Thunder's main objective is the full
> accounting of our POW and MIA from Vietnam.
> Because of this, Grant Coates, chair of the Veterans Initiative
> Program volunteered to help and then there was Marsha Four, (National
> VP) who had the great idea of a table for the VI and membership which
> she volunteered to help at.
>
> I had no idea of what to expect and the weather wasn't cooperating
> either. We arrived on the cold windy and rainy afternoon and I
> thought we were in for it. As I walked into the hotel, it was like
> the clouds parted and the sun came out. I was greeted by the people
> of the hotel who could not do enough for us and then the president of
> Rolling Thunder, Gary Scheffmeyer came up to me and greeted us also.
> We went over the plans for the meeting and our table location with
> the people running the event. They were very helpful and they told us
> that while the meeting was going on, the table would be brought to
> the location of the meeting so attendees could stop by and get information.
>
> Mokie and her staff had assembled some three hundred packets with
> information and an additional couple of hundred Agent Orange Self
> Help Guides were brought just in case. Jim Porter, Mokie's husband
> was drafted unto delivering the supplies, the staff and then running
> two videos. Then he even filmed the Town Hall Meeting. Between, Jim,
> Grant Marsha, Sharon and Mokie, we had a very elite group to handle
> whatever could come our way.
>
> I started the conversation with information about Agent Orange and
> the two Videos that Jim showed laid the historic and disturbing facts
> about Agent Orange. We all took turns in speaking and in order to get
> the group to open up, both Marsha and myself told our family stories
> about our progeny. We then tried to get the attendees to tell their
> stories and at first, there were no takers. Then we asked for
> questions. It seemed like they were all in a trance and first thought
> they didn't believe a word we said. Then one by one questions started
> coming forward and then others from Rolling Thunder started telling
> their stories.
>
> Evidently we stirred something deep inside the Rolling Thunder
> membership that had not been brought to light before. We later
> learned that many said they felt like they were hit in the face with
> a board. We also found out that we were the first ever to be allowed
> to go over the one hour limit allotted for our session. Although many
> have been blaming themselves all these years for their children's
> illnesses. they never really connected our exposure to Agent Orange
> to their children. I can tell you all that that has now changed. We
> went beyond the one hour time limit allotted for us by about forty
> minutes and were told that our session was to important to stop. All
> of our literature was taken home. We were thanked over and over again
> for the information and were invited back again next year to their conference.
>
> Today I received an email from their Government Affairs head, (Tom
> Bender) and in it gave the many POW/MIA bills in both the House and
> Senate along with their recommendation for their membership to push
> their representatives to back these issues. The thing that surprised
> me was their push for the extension and continuation of the 1991
> Agent Orange Act and also the push for S-1602 for the Agent Orange
> screening, testing and treatment of our progeny and those of all
> veterans exposed to toxic substances. This bill needs to be pushed
> out of committee and also needs the House to adopt it along with the
> rest of the Senate.
>
> I also want to tell you all about Sharon Hobbs who also gave up her
> Saturday and I believe Friday too, to help out and answer questions
> about Agent Orange and its legislation. I have been told that we have
> gained at least ten new members, one AVVA member who wants to help by
> becoming a Service Officer and we have been alerted that Rolling
> Thunder wants to get involved with the Town Hall meetings and their
> Alabama chapter has contacted us so we will certainly let our state
> council presidents know so we can optimize the Town Hall meetings as
> much as possible.
>
> Herb Worthington
> National Chair
> Agent Orange/Dioxin & Other Toxic Substances Committee
> Vietnam Veterans of America
>
> To: southern@lodelink.com
> From: southern@lodelink.com
> Subject: Rolling Thunder Town Hall Meeting
>
> It is November and everything is changing. The leaves are almost
> through changing colors, the weather is turning colder and it is
> getting darker sooner. Now that I have you thinking dismal, I want to
> tell you all about our last Town Hall Meeting in Alexandria Virginia
> for Rolling Thunder. I had done a NJ State meeting for them in the
> Spring and was asked if I thought we could put one on for them at
> their national Conference in November. Naturally I said yes and
> figured if worse came to worse, no one would show up and the meeting
> would be short. By the time of the meeting, a lot of interest had
> risen and others offered help to do the meeting with myself and Mokie
> Porter. As you all know, Rolling Thunder's main objective is the full
> accounting of our POW and MIA from Vietnam.
> Because of this, Grant Coates, chair of the Veterans Initiative
> Program volunteered to help and then there was Marsha Four, (National
> VP) who had the great idea of a table for the VI and membership which
> she volunteered to help at.
>
> I had no idea of what to expect and the weather wasn't cooperating
> either. We arrived on the cold windy and rainy afternoon and I
> thought we were in for it. As I walked into the hotel, it was like
> the clouds parted and the sun came out. I was greeted by the people
> of the hotel who could not do enough for us and then the president of
> Rolling Thunder, Gary Scheffmeyer came up to me and greeted us also.
> We went over the plans for the meeting and our table location with
> the people running the event. They were very helpful and they told us
> that while the meeting was going on, the table would be brought to
> the location of the meeting so attendees could stop by and get information.
>
> Mokie and her staff had assembled some three hundred packets with
> information and an additional couple of hundred Agent Orange Self
> Help Guides were brought just in case. Jim Porter, Mokie's husband
> was drafted unto delivering the supplies, the staff and then running
> two videos. Then he even filmed the Town Hall Meeting. Between, Jim,
> Grant Marsha, Sharon and Mokie, we had a very elite group to handle
> whatever could come our way.
>
> I started the conversation with information about Agent Orange and
> the two Videos that Jim showed laid the historic and disturbing facts
> about Agent Orange. We all took turns in speaking and in order to get
> the group to open up, both Marsha and myself told our family stories
> about our progeny. We then tried to get the attendees to tell their
> stories and at first, there were no takers. Then we asked for
> questions. It seemed like they were all in a trance and first thought
> they didn't believe a word we said. Then one by one questions started
> coming forward and then others from Rolling Thunder started telling
> their stories.
>
> Evidently we stirred something deep inside the Rolling Thunder
> membership that had not been brought to light before. We later
> learned that many said they felt like they were hit in the face with
> a board. We also found out that we were the first ever to be allowed
> to go over the one hour limit allotted for our session. Although many
> have been blaming themselves all these years for their children's
> illnesses. they never really connected our exposure to Agent Orange
> to their children. I can tell you all that that has now changed. We
> went beyond the one hour time limit allotted for us by about forty
> minutes and were told that our session was to important to stop. All
> of our literature was taken home. We were thanked over and over again
> for the information and were invited back again next year to their conference.
>
> Today I received an email from their Government Affairs head, (Tom
> Bender) and in it gave the many POW/MIA bills in both the House and
> Senate along with their recommendation for their membership to push
> their representatives to back these issues. The thing that surprised
> me was their push for the extension and continuation of the 1991
> Agent Orange Act and also the push for S-1602 for the Agent Orange
> screening, testing and treatment of our progeny and those of all
> veterans exposed to toxic substances. This bill needs to be pushed
> out of committee and also needs the House to adopt it along with the
> rest of the Senate.
>
> I also want to tell you all about Sharon Hobbs who also gave up her
> Saturday and I believe Friday too, to help out and answer questions
> about Agent Orange and its legislation. I have been told that we have
> gained at least ten new members, one AVVA member who wants to help by
> becoming a Service Officer and we have been alerted that Rolling
> Thunder wants to get involved with the Town Hall meetings and their
> Alabama chapter has contacted us so we will certainly let our state
> council presidents know so we can optimize the Town Hall meetings as
> much as possible.
>
> Herb Worthington
> National Chair
> Agent Orange/Dioxin & Other Toxic Substances Committee
> Vietnam Veterans of America
>
No comments:
Post a Comment