The landing of Apollo 11 on the moon and astronauts walking on it on July 20, 1969, is typically known as the greatest achievement of mankind. The world was a different place back then.
The quest for moon landing domination began in 1961 with then-President John F. Kennedy; a so-called “space race” with the Soviet Union, which had apparently embarrassed the United States after sending the first cosmonaut to outer space in 1961. Meanwhile, in the same year, Kennedy was escalating U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War (which had begun in 1955) with the intention of preventing the expansion of Communism. The number of troops sent to Vietnam in 1961 are as follows: May, 400 American Green Beret Special Advisors; October, 200,000 men from six divisions of the military and more than 16,000 special advisors. Cost of war by October 1961: $1 million per day.
By 1969, Apollo 11 was ready to launch, captivating audiences around the globe. It was surely one great leap for mankind. Meanwhile, in 1968, the Vietnam War racked up its highest annual U.S. casualty count at 16,899; by the end of 1969, close to 50,000 U.S. military service members had died in the Vietnam War. Total U.S. death count by 1975, when it officially ended: 58,318. The death toll of Vietnamese fighters and civilians varies widely from hundreds of thousands to over 3 million, depending on the source. The exponential impacts of exposure to 18 million gallons of Agent Orange, however, take a back seat to the casualties of violence. The cost of the Vietnam War: $141 billion, according to a 1975 New York Times article. Calculating for inflation today, estimates show it would be close to $1 trillion in 2019. But hey, we made it to the moon. Too bad Kennedy never got to see the culmination of his efforts for both feats, an insight surely we would all learn and gain from today.
Flash forward, 50 years later, when we celebrate the accomplishment of the moon landing, even as our country seems to be in another state of disarray. While we do currently still have wars being waged over efforts to stop terrorism — Brown University’s Costs of War Project estimates that at least 480,000 people have been directly killed by violence over the course of these conflicts, more than 244,000 of them civilians — we now have the iPhone, humankind’s greatest achievement in technological obsession, along with social media to air our grievances about the atrocities of war and the pride we have in landing and walking on the moon first. Meanwhile, suicide and overdose death rates continue to rise, cancer diagnoses continue to alarm millions and the country is about as polarized as any living person remembers it to be. But hey, we still have freedom of the press and the Kardashians?
Despite its contributions to the historic Apollo 11 mission, parents in Simi Valley have been fighting for a full cleanup of Rocketdyne for decades. A nuclear reactor at Santa Susana Field Laboratory had a partial meltdown in 1959, 60 years ago this month, but it was also the birth place of the rocket boosters for Apollo 11 and other spacecraft. Though parents have come together to voice their concerns over the unusual number of rare pediatric cancers of families living near Rocketdyne, it apparently now takes the Kardashians to push the federal government to clean up the site. Kourtney and Kim have added it to their list of causes for press conferences.
Understandably, no good deed goes unpunished, but really, why would celebrity take precedence over human suffering for attention? In this day and age, most people would agree, “we will take what we can get.” Sometimes, it just feels like a circus.
Moving forward into the next generation of achievement, there is so much to learn from the past. But what is most critical? What is the accomplishment of humanity in light of so much suffering and death?
Hope. Hope is our greatest accomplishment since the dawn of man. Without it, certain grief, sorrow, even death. With it, tremendous potential to change the mindset where we instead focus on living our best lives, together.
While passing HR299 it is a good thing and it will help many Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans, In is a sad state of affairs when something becomes Political when it shouldn’t. The latest example is the passing of HR299, The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019.
Here we have a Bill that is suppose to help Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans who may have been exposed to Agent Orange. Yes it has been signed into law and will take effect on January 1, 2020 and it will help some Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans but it won’t help others that were going to be helped after the Procopio Ruling was handed down.
We have the Leadership of Congress and the large VSO running around patting themselves on their backs for passing of the Bill. However there are some groups missing, both Military Veterans Advocacy and Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Association are missing from all of the Media dealing with HR299. These are two of the groups that have worked the hardest and always stayed on course with the Bill, yet the Leadership in Congress and the large VSOs are ignoring them. Could this be because of the fact that they are the two groups pointing out the major problem with HR299, that will limit the Procopio Ruling just because of the word “Offshore” in HR299.
We are the ones that haven’t changed the way we feel about this issue. In the last session of Congress we were pushing HR299 and the Big VSOs had a problem with the funding, well until it appeared that there was no stopping the Bill. They were fighting against it, if you don’t believe it check last year. They were against the Pay For. They fought it for the longest time until it appeared it was going to pass the House, then they came out for it. Why would they do that? Was it so they could take credit for it, or is it something else?
Then this session of Congress after the Procopio Ruling was announced, the VSOs decides to start supporting HR299 when in fact HR299 was no longer needed. But the VSOs decided that they need to “PROTECT” the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans by putting in the Geographic Points. It doesn’t take a Legal Expert to see that by defining the Geographic Points and calling them “Offshore” will limit the Procopio Ruling. My question is, didn’t they have their Lawyers read the Bill and the Procopio Ruling, I don’t think so. They just wanted to show they are going to “PROTECT” the Blue Water Navy Vietnams and now it is going to hurt those that are covered under the Procopio Ruling. The Procopio Ruling states that “Offshore” is farther out than the Geographical Points known as the Territorial Seas.
Could the actually reasons why they would not change the wording be due to money. Are Congress and the large VSO working together to make sure that the cost of the Bill doesn’t go any higher. Or are the two groups working together for other reasons, like I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine.
Now it gets even worse. On July 1, 2019 Secretary Wilkie of the VeteransAdministration decided to issue a Stay. In the VA statement, Secretary Wilkie states “VA is dedicated to ensuring that all veterans receive the benefits they have earned,” Wilkie said in a statement. “We are working to ensure that we have the proper resources in place to meet the needs of our Blue Water veteran community and MINIMIZE THE IMPACT ON ALL VETERANS FILING FOR DISABILITY COMPENSATION.” To me he is saying, just so we don’t impact other Veterans we are just going to delay The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans, AFTER ALL THEY ARE USED TO IT.
My feeling is if it that important for the Leadership of Congress and the Big VSOs to leave Blue Water Navy Association out of everything, then fine, I hope they remember to take the credit when early next year when Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans find out that just because their ship was just outside by a couple of miles the Geographical Points that they are no longer covered but they would of been covered if Procopio Ruling, had S1195 passed or just changed the word “Offshore” in HR299.
If they think we are going to give up they are wrong. We will Continue the fight for veterans rights.
The leadership of both Blue Water Navy Association and Military Veterans Advocacy will be Washington DC the week of July 29, 2019
Mike Yates
National Commander
Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Association
commander@bluewaternavy.org
702-769-4973
Continuing the fight for veterans rights