Veterans' experiences: From then to now
From the jungles of Vietnam to the halls of the White House, soldiers returning from duty have seen the public response to their service change drastically.
For one troop, it took 39 years before their daring rescue mission was recognized and honored with the Presidential Unit Citation, presented by President Barack Obama in 2009.
Raymond Tarr of Kittanning, who served in the Army from 1969 to 1971, was a 20-year-old Sheridan tank loader serving in Alpha Troop of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment on March 26, 1970, almost 48 years to the day of the publication of this story.
Tarr said a First Air Cavalry infantry company was pinned down after “walking into a bunker complex with a battalion-sized North Vietnamese unit, which just surrounded them immediately.
“They were in the jungle, the helicopters couldn't resupply them, couldn't get the wounded out, couldn't bring in reinforcements, they were running out of ammunition, the situation was dire,” he said.
With dirt raining down from bombing close by, Tarr's company rode to the rescue of the 100 men.
“We got in and we got the guys and I will never forget the looks on their faces,” he said. “And being young, we thought we'd get in and get the guys and get back out, but no. We lined up the armored vehicles and attacked the North Vietnamese.
“That was a real gunfight,” he said. “My platoon sergeant was killed in action and my platoon leader, who was a lieutenant, was hit. My company commander was wounded.”
Tarr said the company was surrounded and at dusk broke off contact with the enemy and extracted.
“It was a big deal, I knew it was a big deal and we talked about it for a few days and then I'm like 'let's just move on with life,'” he said.
In the 1990s, Tarr said Alpha's Commander John B. Poindexter discovered that no medals had been awarded for the battle, and pushed for the citation.
“This is the highest decoration you can get as a unit,” Tarr said. “I didn't do anything. I didn't frag any bunkers, I didn't save anybody's life, I was just part of the soldiers.”
A few months later, Tarr's service ended when a rocket-propelled grenade slammed into his tank in Cambodia, leaving him with life-long injuries and earning him a Purple Heart.
After several hospital stays in other facilities, Tarr eventually made his way back to the states, to Walter Reed Hospital before being sent to the Butler facility.
Tarr said he spent one month as a patient at the then-VA Medical Center in Butler, and after being discharged was offered a temporary position in the dental clinic.
“I didn't know anything about dentistry,” he said. “But they trained me and I worked there for 30 years.”
Tarr worked as a dental assistant and then as lead dental lab technician making dentures, before retiring in 2000.
“They really brought home a seriously injured veteran and made something out of him,” he said. “It is a miracle I'm sitting here today, and the VA helped me out, they treated me well and still do today.”
<b>Returning home</b>But the experiences of other veterans returning home from Vietnam were different.In 1968 nearly 550,000 American troops were involved in the conflict, with 16,592 killed in action. More than 58,000 active military members would lose their lives by the time the United State's involvement ended in 1975.The deadliest week of the Vietnam War for the U.S. was during the Tet Offensive, Feb. 11 to 17, 1968 — 543 American soldiers were killed in action and 2,547 were wounded.Carl Martini of Butler, who has worked as a housekeeper for the now-VA Butler Healthcare facility for more than 20 years, served in the Army between 1963 and 1969, and was in Vietnam in 1966-67.When he returned to the U.S., Martini said, soldiers were expecting to be welcomed, but instead arrived to protests and slurs.“When I got off the aircraft there were 20 or 30 people protesting the war,” he said. “Soldiers arrived back and people were spitting on them, calling us baby killers and dope heads. It was very unpleasant.”Martini said soldiers would not wear their uniforms in public and felt left behind by the government they had fought and died for.“We didn't want anything to do with the VA or the federal system,” he said, “There was such a stigma from society.”But Martini said the mindset of the public has changed.“Now our nation is starting to honor our service and I think they really realized how bad our Vietnam veterans were treated when we came home,” he said.In November 1983, Butler County officials dedicated a monument to those who lost their lives in the Vietnam War between 1965 and 1971. It included 60 names of Butler County natives.Martini, who has two sons and a grandson currently serving, said veterans are treated differently now.“Today, we thank them for their service,” he said. “People are showing some gratitude for our veterans today, and I am elated by that. It is a great feeling to thank these guys for serving our country.”“Everyone in my department, everyone is a veteran,” he said. “And we serve veterans. We treat them not as patients, but as a brotherhood. We treat them as family.”
<b>Veterans today</b>Today's soldiers have been involved in several conflicts, including Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as many in other countries. Soldiers' experiences have changed drastically in those 50 years — from the tools of war to how those soldiers are treated when they come home, as well as benefits afforded for their service.Ben Knight, who served in the Army from 2003 to 2009, with three tours in Iraq, said the attitude of the public “was extremely different especially after the attacks on New York City.”“I would say the attitude in America was patriotic and supportive of the troops even if the cause wasn't necessarily supported,” he said. “The support for our soldiers now is overwhelming.”He said while deployed care packages were a usual occurrence and the soldiers shared the camaraderie of “doing something for the country.”“The War on Terror was being fought away from American soil,” he said. “We were addressing terrorism at the doorstep of the bad guy.”He said it was routine that, when they were in uniform, strangers would purchase meals and drinks for returning soldiers, and he was “never chastised for my perceived actions overseas like our older brothers of the Vietnam era.”Knight was honorably discharged from the Army with plans to attend college and become a nurse. But he said “trouble acclimatizing to civilian life” led him to some “negative habits that I developed, the use of alcohol to numb or distract me from things going on in my life.”He was able to utilize VA inpatient drug and alcohol rehabilitation services through the domiciliary and “restructure my thinking and my life in order to build this person you are talking to today, who is no longer using substances to cope with the past,” he said.Knight, a yoga instructor who volunteers with the VA, said he is an avid user of VA services, which were “instrumental in my return” including medical care and mental health services.He said volunteering his time is a way to give back not only to the organization, but to the soldiers.“This is my attempt at giving back to the community of veterans,” he said. “I want to be a leader of soldiers that went down that wrong path who are now attempting to find recovery from PTSD and substance abuse. That would in no way, shape or form be possible without the assistance of the VA.”Knight said he is studying massage therapy at Butler County Community College and will be graduate in the spring.
<b>VA history</b>VA Butler Healthcare has been there for many returning soldiers, and has seen many positive changes.Today's Veterans Health Administration originated during the Civil War as the first federal hospitals and domiciliaries established for the nation's volunteer forces, according to the organization's website.VA Butler Healthcare has been attending to veterans since 1947 — providing comprehensive care including primary, specialty and mental health services — as well as health maintenance plans, management of chronic conditions, preventive medicine needs and social support services, according to the organization's website.The VA Butler Healthcare facility, also known as Deshon General Hospital, located in Butler Township, was not intended to be a veterans hospital. It was originally built as a 500-bed tuberculosis sanitarium, according to a Butler County Historical Society report written by Alysha Federkeil and Dylan Vamosi.The U.S. Army Medical Department took over the facility as a soldiers' hospital in October 1942. The building was renamed the Deshon General Hospital in honor of Col. George Durfee Deshon, who helped to create legislation that reorganized the medical department in 1908. After much construction work, the Deshon General Hospital received its first patient Dec. 7, 1942, the historical society's website states.The hospital served the Army as a general medical and surgical hospital, with a specialty center for soldiers with hearing impairments.Following the conclusion of World War II the Army closed the hospital in 1946. The Veterans Administration opened operations there in April of that year and bought the facility in 1948. The VA hospital primarily treated TB patients, the historical society's records state.In 1965 a nursing home care unit was added to the hospital and dental services were offered beginning in 1967, the historical society's website states.Surgical services were discontinued at the facility in 1969, and the Butler facility began to focus on rehabilitation. Veterans were given the opportunity to learn a trade and get their GED.The Vietnam War necessitated the development of a prosthesis program. By the 1990s the medical center was functioning as a primarily outpatient clinic, the historical society's website states.The VA Butler Healthcare grew to a 90-acre campus, including a 60-bed Community Living Center which was completed on June 11, 2014.The 56-bed domiciliary provides residential rehabilitation for veterans suffering from substance abuse, homelessness and behavioral health issues.In September 2017 the original building was closed, and the Abie Abraham VA Health Care Center opened two miles from that facility, at 353 N. Duffy Road.The new facility was named after a local World War II veteran who survived the Bataan Death March and volunteered at VA Butler Healthcare for more than 20 years. It was built to be more conducive to the center's focus on out-patient services for the 35,000 veterans who live in the five-county service area, VA officials said.Also in 2017 the VA renamed the Community Living Center for Sgt. Joseph George Kusick, a Vietnam War soldier from Bruin who died Nov. 8, 1967, while serving with an Army Green Beret special forces reconnaissance team in Laos when they were shot down by the Viet Cong.Currently VA Butler Healthcare offers services at the Abie Abraham VA Health Care Center, Sergeant Joseph George Kusick Community Living Center and Domiciliary in Butler, as well as five VA community-based outpatient clinics in Armstrong, southern Butler County (Cranberry Township), Clarion, Lawrence and Mercer counties.The old facility houses the administration offices and the community living center.
<b>Changes</b>Dawn Staph, administrative coordinator for primary care, has been with the VA for nearly 30 years and noted progressive changes over the years.One change is how veterans apply for care. What used to be done on paper applications at each facility is now computerized and secured through a national database.“If they were to go to another VA, they will be able to have access to the medical care they have received at other facilities,” she said.She said veterans can now continue with a single provider through a “patient aligned care team” that helps manage that care, keeping the same doctor throughout the process.She said the VA hospital also has moved to more preventive medicine and managed care, and has worked to lessen wait times for appointments.“We have expanded so many services over the years,” she said, including specialties such as eye, ear and dental care.She said mental health programs also have expanded, helping soldiers readjust to civilian life and preventing veteran suicide.Also available is telehealth, where veterans have access to doctors via webcams, phone and other technologies.Teddy Davis, a nurse manager in the Community Living Center who has also been with the organization for 30 years, said the move from inpatient care to outpatient care has allowed programs to expand while decreasing the need for inpatient wards.“It has gone from seven units to now having just 60 beds,” she said. “Our goal is to try to keep the veterans at home if we can. I believe that care now is more patient-driven than it used to be.”“The VA is a wonderful place to be, it really is,” she said.
