OK, OK, I’m off of my short lived vacation. Happy to report that my Dad is doing much better and who knows, he may just kick this thing. There has been a lot of improvement’s in the field of treating cancer.
I apologize to all of you for not keeping my Veterans & Military Column up. Over Memorial Day week I seemed to really have a bad bout with my old arch enemy ,the PTSD. Although I’m still having some small Anxiety problems I am much better now and on the mend. My attitude is much improved and I want to personally Thank and acknowledge my good friend Dr. Robert Peterson of our BlueNC clan for his much needed advice over the past few days and getting me kick started! You now, I think it may have been Lance that one time told me, and this was after I had misunderstood what Robert had said ,that he & I probably had more in common than I realized. Well, Lance you were right and I have never regretted one day of having Robert as my friend!

Robert helped me to open up my eyes (and gray matter) and consider the total and complete picture of how things are in the world these days. Folks, even as I sit here writing I have to admit I have not done
Justice with my articles on veterans & the Military. Well, I guess you might have to say that officially I laid to rest the demons of the past. Thirty five years after it’s end I have laid to rest all of my issues concerning the Vietnam War. Except for the POW-MIA Issue and that has been my lifeblood so I doubt
I lay it down soon as long as 45 North Carolina Natives are still missing and unaccounted for and 2 of those are from N.C.’s 11District! Yet Charles Taylor, to the best of my knowledge has never once pressured for a answer to the fate of Larry Carl Jamerson of Rosman (Taylors home county) nor about the fate of John Hunter Crews III of Asheville.I will tell their stories at a later date mabie.

I know for a fact because I belong to “Operation Just Cause” , “POW-MIA Freedom Fighters & the National League of Families. They have no record of him pushing a inquiry!

Now it is the correct time for me to start pushing ahead with the up to date Facts of what is happening in Iraq & Afganistain. I have almost ignored it. Again, I apologize for that! I owe all of you better work than what I’ve been putting out! We have current retirees from the Military ,for example, I have 1 here I am working with who has Service Connected Injuries yet the VA tells him he makes too much money to receive help. Now, this fellow was a Command Master Chief in the Navy. Basically, that means you have all the stripes on your sleeve that can possibly be sewn on. These are the guys like the Sgt. Majors in the Army you see the troops in the movies refer to as god. And this man gave his country 30 of the best years of his life and then your going to tell him he isn’t on welfare so he cant get his benefits!

I have also underwent a major change of attitude in my thinking process. As you know, and I guess this is mostly due to my upbringing in the home of a WWII veteran I was never much for anti-war protesting when we have troops in the field although I have always supported free speech. Well, after a long afternoon in the hammock with legal pad in hand and Looking out over the mountains I have decided mabie this isn’t really so bad. We are not against the troops like they did things during Vietnam. Just the leadership that put them in harms way. Evedentely ,the leadership, No, Not the General’s & Commanders but our politicians ,the ones in D.C. who are really in control haven't ever read the scriptures. Because a second grader can read the parts where it tell us there will always be wars & rumors of wars! And that is one book I do believe in.

What else changed my mind? Well, through my job, which is a volunteer job without any payment I deal daily with vets & current Military Personnel. I am rather like a civilian recruiter and also in Public Affairs. I'm my 29 MAY 06 issue of the Army Times the question is asked on page 45 ,What is the true measure of a hero? The story is called “The Faces of the Fallen”. Eleven pages that connect a picture with a name of the fallen. Here I sit and just wish I could remember what it was like to be 20,21! But I must tell you those 11 pages of pictures and names of Army & Marine Personnel KIA truly humbled
Me as much as anything humanly possible ever could!

Well, Now the task is at hand, it is all on my shoulders and the torch was passed to me. I now have the responsibility to preserve the memories, sustain the history and report the truth no matter whose feathers get ruffled in the process. It is that simple.
Daniel Siler – Joint Veterans Advocate / PAO
American Legion Post 192
Graham Co. Veterans Service Office
136 Elliott Drive
Robbinsville,NC 28771
H– 828-479-1086 , O-479-1562
viper2niner@yahoo.com or daniel.l.siler@usarmy.mil