"When you're sleeping, you're healing".

I've noticed that things have been somewhat quiet on the Air Cav Site recently and on this site, too. I woke up this morning feeling a whole lot better than I have since Aunt Margie's attack and I concluded that it was because I've had a ton of sleep.

The title above came from Tim Jr when I was going through some really tough times during the chemo and radiation part of my cancer treatment. It's true. There's nothing like a ton of sleep when you've had the rug pulled out from under you.

For those of us who have experienced atrophy, sleeping is kinda like a double edged sword. More sleep means less exercise and less exercise generally slows the recovery from the muscle weakness that comes from so much time spent in bed over the past two years.

It's also true that the support of your friends is paramount to overcoming really difficult times. When the guys from the 11th Cav came to Shreveport to see me, I hitched a ride on an emotional high that only seems to come from that kind of brotherhood.

My visit with Ed Usrey lasted longer than any as he stayed at my townhouse and we spent several days together. It was great to see everybody and really enjoyable for me to talk with Lorin Bustin about the days of getting shot in the Chup Rubber Plantation.

I actually enjoyed seeing the pictures of the bullet holes in our OH6 that Lorin brought with him. That may be a somewhat weird method to use as a defining moment of our time together in Cambodia but it works really well. 

Yesterday, I had a long conversation with a great friend from my working days in the 80's. His name is Neil Rose and he's really a great American and a perfect example of what Immigration should be about. Neil and his family migrated here via Canada, after the Second World War. His family served as RAF pilots during the Blitz

To add a little bit to that support group, once again, the Red River Valley Fighter Pilot's Association injected a bit of soul in my spirit. I've mentioned how influential and supportive they've been to me in the past years and how wonderful it is to belong to an organization of Veterans who are so focused on things that are really American.

I have a friend there who's call sign is ZOO. Sound weird? It's really not when you add to it, Swede, Coke, Lurch, Load, Mom, Cracker and my own call sign: Fireball.

Between the well wishes from my buddies at the Cav site and all the guys at the Fighter Pilot's Association, I managed to pull myself out of the ditch and get back on track with my work to create the EveryVet.com organization.

All the above mentioned individuals are joined by a high school friend who is a retired Navy Captain and my next door neighbor from the Dixie Garden days. He an Equine Vet or, as we call him, a Horse Doctor.

The point I wanted to make about the entire group mentioned above has to do with their support of the concept of bringing all the Veterans together into one group. Support is coming in from people who aren't Veterans but are family members of Veterans. How's that for banding together? We sometimes forget those who stood beside us when we served and how important they were to us.

In any event, I wanted to say thanks to all and once again say that I'm getting closer to having the documents in place that I need to begin operations. Neil's attorney will undoubtedly help with that. Zoo and his gang are behind me. So are the guys from the 11th Cav.

I haven't yet made contact with the National Command Structure of the VFW, Vietnam Veterans of America, American Legion, Vietnam Helicopter Pilot's Association or a multitude of other Veteran Organizations but I'm real confident that they will do the typical "Veteran Thing" and come on board with the multitudes from their membership roles.

Thanks to all above for your continued support and encouragement to "Do Something".  It's really a great time to be an American and a Veteran of our Armed Forces.

Tim  

I feel like I'm surrounded

It's one hell of a reality check to wake up one day and realize that you are surrounded by the lowest form of humanity that our society can produce.  This has been going on in a lot of our larger cities for quite some time but it's finally caught up to me and it's been real close and personal. I'm pissed and I intend to do something about it.

For most of my adult life, I was in the field every day and on the road every week. I've been to every small town around the Ark La Tex and in most of the larger ones including Houston, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Atlanta, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Birmingham, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Portland  and Chicago. Until now, I never really felt a sense of fear or danger from the human garbage that roam our streets.

I'm just now getting to a point in my post cancer life where I feel like I can get back in the game and do something positive to make a difference. Despite that, I'm beginning to wonder if we've reached a point where that's going to be almost impossible to achieve without some super human feat of strength that I don't have. It's frustrating and concerns me a great deal as I know I will need some help getting things organized to a point that will really make a difference..

I know that the courts don't like the phrase "The Straw That Broke The Camel's Back" but recently, I met the straw.

It wasn't Aunt Margie's attacker, it wasn't the guy that robbed the bank where I used to do business, it wasn't the thief that's been syphoning my gasoline nor was it the guy that was caught attempting to burglarize my neighbor's storage room.

It was a neighbor who lives on the street adjacent to mine. She's given me a sense of being surrounded and with that,  became the one that places her in the position as: "The Straw that broke the camel's back".

You may wonder how a woman could do that to me instead of some Trevon looking, hoodie wearing gangster. Sometimes you don't have to be carrying heat to cause fear. Some carry a mental state of mind that is as dangerous as anything I can think of.

Remember the Hitler Brown Shirts? Only history has been able to clearly identify groups like that as the most dangerous kind of group. You have to look for them, be on the look out and be Ever Vigilant for the signs that they are here and near.

I am informed enough to know about the specific break ins in my neighborhood and comfortable enough with that information to realize that my feelings aren't feelings that are made from some emotional sense of things. These are hard core facts that have already been reported to the cops and then presented to those of us who are property owners here. That's evidence and again, not something that can be classified or considered to be anything other than the realities that exist here.

With all the information available to us in today's world of information, I ask myself, "How in God's name can so many people ignore so many warnings and so much evidence"? Even the Europeans make fun of us now. Despite the thousands of miles that separate us from them, even they know how bad things are becoming over here.

It's times like these when I wish I had already spent the time and energy to move forward with my efforts to organize every Veteran in the entire Country into one really huge voting block of 22.7 million Veterans and probably two or three times that number when you add their families..

If "We the People" really makes any sense and the power of the vote is really the determining factor that we the people have to insure our laws are laws that protect the good ones from the bad ones, then shame on me for not accomplishing more than the thoughts of getting all that done.

I hear complaints on the television news every day. I read it in the newspaper and see it on the net. I see statistics regarding a number of things that happen here every day, every week and every month, year after year after year. I see organizations that are seditious in nature. I don't understand how they can exist after they have proven to be so anti American and so committed to the destruction of our Country. I plan to change that and I'm going to need a lot of help.

I've studied the American Revolution and paid careful attention to the interferences of many politically and economically motivated foreign powers that came to this Continent and this Country during it's infancy.

Long before the Brits invaded New York, the Acadians, who we refer to as Cajuns, were being deported and enslaved from North America. They are now my in laws, my first cousins and my dear friends from my birth to this day. If Rule Number 1 is "Don't piss off the Aircraft Commander", Rule Number 2 is "Don't screw with my Family".

If you do the math you will see that there's been a whole lot of pushing and shoving long before Paul Revere made his ride. Nothing has changed except "time".

It seems that we have been a target for everyone from a British King, the Spanish, the French, the Germans, the Japanese and now the lone individuals who simply walk in or fly into the Country. I conclude that it's easier to simply walk in than to show up in New York harbor with an invasion fleet. With that conclusion I say: "Thank God for our military".

With so many problems and such a fine system of democratically elected choices from the people, how in the hell did we end up with so many enemies here that are still free to roam the streets?

I say it's due to the fact that we are still a relatively young Country and aren't yet finished with the formation of things that are needed to insure a continuation of the things that made America a great nation of freedom seeking men and women.

I also say that it's time to clean house and time to do it in a real clear manner and in Plain English. This politically correct garbage is part of it and I plan to knock the politically correct methodology off the map. Study your cuss words cause you'll need them later.

As an example of that, try to remember "The War Powers Act" or "The Civil Rights Act". Those are pretty simple phrases and most of us remember them. If you do, how about "The Shame on Your Ass Act"? That would make our founding father's proud, especially those that served in the military.

As an example of the "Shame on Your Ass Act", try to see a law in place that had real teeth in it that addressed those who did anything to weaken or dissolve our Country. I'm talking about the Country that says we are One Nation Under God. If you try to undo that, you would be guilty of violating the Shame on Your Ass Act and you would be deported immediately and deported with prejudice.

The great thing about NOT running for any office surrounds the fact that I don't have to do a damn thing that's politically correct. I can call an Asshole an Asshole, a Raghead a Raghead and a God hater a God hater and that's exactly what I intend to do. I could care less about the ACLU or any other group that doesn't like the way I think or the way I write. Instead of one preacher here who says: "God Damn America", I will say God is going to Damn YOU for taking him out of the focus we've always had for Him".

Having said these things I will close by saying that I am not ready to begin as I don't have the proper legal papers filed yet but when I do, I'm going to start asking for donations to help me get the computers bought and a staff built.

I hope that EveryVet.com hasn't been taken but that's not going to be my department anyway. We will figure it out and we will get it done. I'm firm in my conviction that it needs to be focused upon the Veterans because any way you look at it, we are always the ones that have to clean up the messes that these pieces of garbage leave behind. Whether it's fighting or dying, the military always ends up being the main tool that solves the really big problems.

Thanks for putting up with the rambling.

Tim














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More shock, rage, adrenaline and vengeance.

I've written several posts to my buddies on the Air Cav site about a recent situation that has literally knocked me down and out but I thought I needed to explain it here so you won't have to wonder why I've been missing and gotten away from my work to continue building the Every Vet site. I have a bit of sad news that will explain it all.

My dear Aunt Margie, one of my Aunts that took care of me when I was a diaper wearing baby, was attacked by a mid 20's black perp as he forced his way into her house to rob her. She's 86 years old, a full sixty years older than the perp. She's in the hospital now, in real good hands, being taken care of by one of her sons with another one coming in tomorrow.

She's suffering from 3 broken ribs and is covered from  head to toe with bruises and contusions that resulted from her being knocked down and dragged from her front door, down the hall to her bedroom and then thrown into a closet like a piece of baggage. She's been the angel of my life since my momma died and the Aunt that lives closest to me.

I don't think she will ever be able to return to her home but despite the loss of her entire Universe, I'm thankful that she wasn't killed, raped, tortured or any number of other things that the dregs of society have proven to be capable of doing.

For those of you who are familiar with Shreveport, be advised that this happened close to the corner of Youree Drive and Southfield. To my cousin Andrea, this is not far from our old house on Atlantic and even closer to Uncle Charles and Aunt Grace's old house.

For those of you who have been reading these posts for a long time, you might remember the stories I told about the 7 McInnis Uncles that served in World War II. My Aunt Margie married my Uncle Parker. Uncle Parker took care of momma while I was still living in South Louisiana and he was always there for her. Aunt Margie helped me through those times right after momma died and she's very dear to me.

In any event, I've personally interviewed everybody anywhere close to her house including some wonderful neighbor's that have checked in on her regularly. My hopes that a camera was mounted on the old post office building were false hopes. It's no longer occupied by the post office and the cameras are gone. I went across Youree Drive and interviewed every store owner in a small mall there to see if they had cameras. No luck.

I guess I over did it yesterday and between the emotional upset and all of the physical effort and strain of walking from store to store, I ended up going home a complete physical and emotional wreck.

The shock from this took me back to that day in December of 1970 when I heard the words "They killed Dan and Blick". The shock was the same and so was the emotion that came with rage, adrenaline and vengeance to kill. I never wanted to kill anybody as badly as I wanted to kill him at that minute.

Unlike that day in 1970, Major Wulff was no where around but Tim Jr and Kristin were. So was Steve Dupuy, Ronnie Hunt and two neighbors of mine. Tim and Kristin sat me down and defused a really bad situation that was only further complicated by the fact that the perp is still on the loose and I didn't have a target to kill or at least torture to a point where he would have wished he was dead.

Despite those horrible thoughts, I rested well last night thanks to Kristin. She found some meds that I had in my medicine cabinet and had me take a double dose to knock me out. I felt good enough today to renew my investigation and go back through the neighborhood to talk to neighbors.

I'm very pleased to know how many detectives and police officers showed up at her house when she managed to get in the 911 call. Even though she'd been locked in the closet and had 3 broken ribs, she managed to find an old shotgun barrel which she used as a pry bar to open the door and escape from the closet that the perp turned into her prison cell.

I will not do anything illegal but I am having a difficult time doing nothing. I can easily visualize myself using that shotgun barrel as a tool to break his every rib in his body and then use it like a baseball bat to totally destroy his crotch. I know that thinking about those kinds of things aren't illegal but I honestly don't see anything wrong with that. I know it would be illegal but so too are his crimes against my Aunt and our entire family. I think I'll make a deal with my family that has an "IF" in it. That deal is as follows:

IF he is caught and sentenced to jail long enough for every living McInnis family member to live out the rest of their lives without fear of him being on the street, I will do absolutely nothing.

I'll even go one better than that. If he gets life without chance of parole until he's the same age as Aunt Margie is now, I'd be willing to do nothing at all and let the law take its course. That would be roughly 61 or 62 years in prison and I think that's more than fair. I also don't care if it isn't fair because I get to make the rules on what I'm willing to do and not do.

I know my Big Brother will not be happy with this but I want to say something about that now.

Everybody in our family, you and Tommy Mayeaux included, talked me out of going to San Antonio to kill the son of a bitches that killed our sister in the hit and run car wreck that took her life after 9 days of suffering. I've regretted that decision every day of my life and wish I had gone anyway.

I guess there's just a point in some people's life where things are so horrible that law and order doesn't apply and emotionally, the only thing that brings peace is a pile of dead perps. They are still on the street and I'm still over here wondering why and the hell I didn't go over there and kill both of them.

In any event, I needed to say this to everybody so they would understand that I'm really okay and will be back to work on the Every Vet project but I'm really upset about the situation here and how my town has fallen into the same pit that produces names like Trevon Martin.

Before you close the blog, look at the top of the page and see where it says: "The new neighborhood watch". That's no longer a joke.   






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Research work for Every Veteran

Researching the various histories of the Armed Forces has been more fun that I ever imagined it would be. I initially thought it was going to be something that was closer to a really long and tough homework assignment than one that would provide so much entertainment.

I haven't made it through the Coast Guard yet but my study surrounding the Civil Air Patrol proved to be a pretty mind bending experience. Their performance during World War II was pretty much of a shocker to me as I had no idea at all that they were so active in combat operations against Hitler's U Boat fleet when they operated off the East Coast of our Country.

I've already done a ton of research about anti-submarine warfare (ASW) patrols that the Navy took part in when they were using Lockheed PV2 Harpoons to drop depth charges on the UBoats when they were sinking our supply ships as they were en route to the various resupply ports that were used during WW II.

I recall one study that covered an area of operations that ranged as far north as Iceland and as far South as Rio. I don't remember the exact range the the PV 2 had but I do recall that extra fuel tanks had been mounted to the aircraft and that it could fly very long distances. I actually found two old fuel cells that was used on a PV 2 during that time. That was just a lucky find as I was involved with the restoration of two Harpoons in the 80's, both of which were combat veterans with ASW time during the war.

One was from a base in New Jersey and the other had a stencil on it that identified it as the property of a base located in Jacksonville, Florida. If curiosity has you wondering what a PV2 looks like, go to google and type Lockheed PV2 in to their search engine and you can see a picture or two.

I haven't made it far enough to discover which kind of aircraft the Civil Air Patrol used when they were doing the ASW work but at this point, nothing would surprise me.

In any event, as I  continue to research the various histories of each Branch of Service,  I continue to be surprised and somewhat awed by the things they did during such tough and horrible times. I remember reading a number of quotes from that idiot ass Hitler where he talked about our "American condition". He mentioned everything from a decadent life style and went all the way to into his typical race relations.

I had to laugh a little about that last one when I managed to get in a personal visit to the airfield of the Tuskegee Airmen in Alabama. I no longer wondered why he stopped talking about the race relations side of that because I knew then that he was aware of them and how much ass they had kicked as fighter pilots serving as bomber escort's in Europe.

They shot down lots and lots of pilots from his "Superior Race" and wrecked his logic to focus on race in America as a tool of Propaganda. I further wondered how much of an effect Jessie Owens had on him when he kicked every German's ass in the Olympics. Apparently, kicking his ass in the First World War wasn't done to a degree that was sufficiently strong enough to convince him not to screw with those Americans.

I also remembered reading excerpts from Tojo's Diary when he was in jail as a war criminal just after we dropped the second bomb on Japan. He was nuts and didn't have a clue what the realities would be like if you really pissed off America.

Admiral Yamamoto told him and everyone else he could tell, that the consequences of attacking Pearl Harbor could be horrific and do nothing more than "Awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve".

 When I connect the dots from all the accounts of the Revolutionary War to every struggle we had from that time forward, I continue to marvel at the American Military Man and Woman. Let's not forget the WASPs who did such a fabulous job as pilots during those days. Even our women kicked their asses.

In any event, I sometimes wish that I had the money to afford a staff of people to help me pour over all the documents and stories of our military. On one hand, I fear that doing it myself will delay a start up date for Every Veteran dot com. On the other hand, I know that I can't press ahead with my efforts to make contact with Every Veteran in the Country if I don't know what the hell they did, who they were, who they are and what they want to see within the Veterans Affairs department of the Veterans Administration.

I'll figure out a way to get it done and along the line somewhere, I will publish a step by step strategy to make all of these things fall into place as a result of some well documented and historically demonstrable facts from each Branch. Just hang with me, I'm peddlin as fast as I can.

The Civil Air Patrol

The more I look into the history of our Armed Forces, the more surprised I become with all of the things that I did not know. If you want to talk about a really great outfit, the Civil Air Patrol is certainly one that ranks among the key players in the history of our National Security.

I previously mentioned adding the Coast Guard to the list of people to contact as possible members of the proposed "EveryVet.com" site because so much has been said and written about the Army, Navy, Marine Corp and the Air Force with so little said about the Coast Guard. Now, with a little study under my belt, please add the Civil Air Patrol to the list.

Now that I have looked further into things, I found a great web site for the Civil Air Patrol that includes a section dedicated to their history. Anybody that patrolled our shores and sunk German U Boats during World War II, is to me, as qualified as one can be to stand tall among all or Every Veteran in the Country.

For those of you who have read my previous posts under "You Should Have Seen This Coming", you may recall my Uncle Earl talking about his experiences with the Coast Guard when he hunted U Boats in the Atlantic. During dark, cold nights and heavy seas, I'm sure it was just as tense as the experiences many of us had while flying Nighthawk Gunships in Vietnam or flying with the Hunter Killer Teams in Cambodia.

After I discovered the CAP Site, I contacted a friend of mine from Alexandria, Louisiana who serves with the Civil Air Patrol. You can see his name and location when and if you go to the CAP web site and maneuver around their site and look into their "Locations". I'm sure that you will agree, after reading their history, that the 58,000 men and women who serve the CAP are most deserving of contact and inclusion to our group.

Thanks to Tracey Breithaup, pronounced "Bri-tup", CAP Alexandria, Louisiana.

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Veteran Brain Teaser/Delimma

I can't believe that I'm writing another post so soon after I finished the previous one. One of the reasons I started thinking about another post this soon was due to the number of supporters that commented positively about the last post.

The other reason came during a dinner conversation with Melissa that suggested how careful we must be to stay focused on Veteran Affairs and not focused on political issues.

As I thought about that statement, I began to think about the differences between "Policy" and specific attacks against any political figure.

I became more and more comfortable with that thought when I realized that there were many voters in Congress who may or may not have voted the way you wanted them to vote. When I thought about that, I knew that taking on Policy did not necessarily mean that you had to take on every single Senator or Reprentative in Congress.

That brought me to thoughts about the methodology that might be used to canvas the entire Veteran population of the U.S. to find out what they thought about any given issue.

I thought about the many polls I've seen on the net and how they formed a question or statement about any given issue, how they reported the total number of people polled, the percentages of those who thought one way and the percentages of those that thought another way. I was pretty happy with that and wondered how much it may cost to put that capacity into a web site.

As I continued to wander around my emails, I found one from the Red River Fighter Pilot's Association that threw another curve ball my way. The subject line contained a title regarding Lt. Colonel Terry Lankin's situation. You may remember him as the Officer who refused to be deployed because the President refused to produce the records of elligibility required by the Constitution.

I didn't get  into the specifics of it but I did read one very interesting quote. Inside the article, he made a statement that explained "Why my vow to defend the Constitution demanded that I sacrificed my career". From that, I wondered what the vote would look like if you had the capacity to poll every Veteran in the U.S. and ask his thoughts about it. That brought on two challenges instead of just one.

If staying out of political issues like Melissa suggested was one challenge, I felt that issues like Lt. Colonel Lankin's was another challenge or maybe an opportunity that certainly qualified itself as one that contained a Veteran in need.

While considering Lankin and the possibilities that he may have been exposed to combat experiences like we were and therfore have the mind set of a combat veteran, I began to mentally associate him with many of the guys that came back from Vietnam and made career decisions that weren't according to Hoyle.

I was one of those guys. I actually told my old boss that HE was fired as my preferred vendor instead of ME resigning as a Manufacturer's Representative of his company. I cited the fact that I came to be his Rep as a result of his National Sales Manager asking me to consider them as my preferred vendor. I'm just as guilty as the next guy who did something off the chart and it may well be that Lankin was right in what he did. I'll have to dig that up in the Oath.

I wondered how many guys remembered the specifics of the Oath they took to Defend the Constition. I'm one of the guys who did not remember the specifics of the Oath and instead, simply took it to heart that anything that threatened the Constitution, threatened me and I would defend it to the death.

From all these thoughts came other visions of how important a "Brain Trust" would be to an organization such as the proposed "Every Vet" site.

As if there weren't enough thoughts running around in my head, I began to think about any negative effect that might come from the readership if they thought this process was becoming one that was laden with problems instead of opportunities.

Nobody wants to get involved with problems but there are often times where situations appear to be problematic, but in effect, through careful analysis, prove to be more of a stimulant to solve a situtation instead of making it into something that you describe as a problem.

It's hard for me to remove the emotion that comes with some of today's situations but it isn't impossible. The VA has provided me with tons of information that comes during sessions where many Veteran's thought processes are discussed.

One memorable appointment probed the difference between making emotional decisions and decisions that are based on evidence.

Another appointment suggested that we considered changing the way we feel about something by changing the way we think about it. I took that to mean we should open our minds and consider as much evidence as we could when making our conclusions.

Having thought about that, I decided to look into the details of our Oath and the organization that Ed Usrey suggested that I look into. It's called "Oath Keepers" and I intend to look into it before I go any further into the needs I have to get help from the Brain Trust that most of you belong to.

I'll sign off with that as I've already taken a coke break, edited this post and figured that this is enough for one night. If you kept reading this far, thanks for the ear and please consider looking into Lankin's story and the Oath that we took..  

174th Assault Helicopter Company and the Red River Valley Fighter Pilots Assn.

Day before yesterday, I made contact with one of my friends at the 174th Assault Helicopter Company web site. I'm not a member there but am connected with them as several of my friends from flight school served with them in Vietnam.

Fred Thompson, Bruce Marshall and Bob Gentry were 3 of my classmates in 5th WOC who graduated and flew with the Sharks and Dolphins. Bob unfortunately was killed in action in Vietnam.
Fred and Bruce were both wounded in action but survived their wounds and made it home to have a productive life after the war. 

As a great loss to all of us, Fred passed away in 2008 from cancer. Bruce is still kicking and doing well in retirement but I haven't had much contact with him in recently.

As a coincidence, I met one of the crew chiefs from the 174th through their web site. Mel Lutgring (SP?) wasn't living far from me at the time and I somewhat luckily managed to meet him and his brothers at a camp site in the Kisatchie National Forest. It was a very neat visit/meeting and nice to have, among my friends, other guys from other units.

Howard Modjeski, another classmate from flight school, was honored by the 174th many years ago in recognition for the actions he took as a Medivac Aircraft Commander that evacuated Fred and Bruce when they were shot down. The 5th WOC class of 70-05 at Wolters was all over the 174th and is held in very high regard by their group.

As another coincidence, I am a member of the Red River Valley Fighter Pilot's Association.  Through them, other men that flew out of Xuan Loc and Tay Ninh at the same time that we did, remain connected. Time, distance, career and circumstance has a way of separating us but nothing can disconnect us completely. It can't be done. We are forever connected and that connection is one that lasts a life time.

Post chemo therapy and radiation effects will change your life and as a result of that, I haven't been as good with the contacts as I used to be. I hate being off the grid because of those things but when your health returns enough to pop your head up and reconnect with everybody, it's somewhat like a welcome home.

In any event, one of the points I'm trying to make here has to do with the many men who I consider to be great Americans. Knowing them and being connected to them through the various web sites of the many military organizations, is really an honor and a privilege that only comes with membership in "The Band of Brothers".

I say that because I've been having thoughts of trying to connect all the Veterans from all the Branches of The Armed Forces. That includes those from the Coast Guard, Army, Navy, Marine Corp and the Air Force.  To me, it doesn't make any difference if they were Vietnam Vets or just finishing their first hitch. My goal is to get in touch with all 22.7 million of them. The purpose of my wishes to contact all of them focuses on maintaining and improving the life of our Veterans.

In the same sense that the NRA has always been considered to have a very strong voice in Washington, I think that it's way past time for us to do the same thing.

As a past president of the Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 192 in Alexandria, Louisiana, I realize that there are many military organizations that work hard to improve Veteran's Affairs. The VFW and American Legion have to be added to that list as they are also among the front runners to improve and at least, maintain the level of care that we now receive.

It's going to take someone alot stronger and smarter than me but somebody has to start the ball rolling. That's what I intend to do and that's why I'm trying to reconnect with so many of the Veterans that are available through the net..

I have received a boat load of encouragement from all the guys at the VA hospital including some of the staff. Even though my audiences have been small, I've been asked to continue speaking to other Veterans about this and have been invited to one Veteran's home to share my experiences from my fight with malignant brain cancer.

I was somewhat surprised to receive that invitation as it came from the father of the Veteran who is now going through the battles of fighting Glioblastoma in her brain. Yeah, that's right, HER brain. I've been so wrapped up in being a "gunship/scout pilot" I had inadvertently forgotten about the incredible role that is filled by the women in uniform. Shame on me for that.

Shortly after I received that invitation I began to wonder about the many other Veterans across the Nation that needed counsel and comforting while facing the inevitable death sentence that comes with a biopsy that is classified as "malignant".

I recalled the appointment I had where the Chief of Staff told me that my biopsy was malignant and that the typical life span of Veterans who contracted Glioblastoma Multiform Grade 4 brain cancer, was 3 to 12 months.

I can only say thanks to Guy Kinnebrew for supplying the statistics that showed me and Tim Jr the information where 95% die during that time frame. That's when I started my trek to hit the 5% list. It wasn't until much later that I realized the importance of that information as it came from an old high school friend who just happened to be in the administration side of the VA.

I wondered where the counselors were but soon moved away from that curiosity when I was introduced to some really great counselors at the hospital.

The more I thought about that, the more I realized that everybody knows how bad it is when budget cuts prevent the purchase of badly needed medical equipment or the replacement of critically important doctors or staff members that retire.

I experienced that first hand when I was sent to Debakey Medical Center in Houston for my brain surgery. The VA here didn't have the machinery or the ability to let LSU Medical Center do the surgery. The VA would have been required to pay for LSU to do the surgery and since they budgetarily couldn't do that, I was transferred to Houston.

Don't misunderstand me, I'm more than happy with the results but I have always had the lingering thoughts that surrounded the budgetary reality that the VA couldn't "afford" to pay the LSU Med Center to do the surgery. To me, I've always felt that something was bad wrong with the budget situation coming out of DC.

I wondered to myself: "How in God's name can we be sending money over seas or to non U.S. Citizens, while so many things that are needed for our Veterans here, are left unfunded". Over time, I found the answer.

I concluded that the only reason it wasn't corrected and put into it's proper position to fund the current needs of today's Veterans, was due to the fact I hadn't done anything to change that.

It's easy to complain about it but sometimes very difficult to have solution based conversations that result in a plan formulation to correct the problems. I finally got tired of all that and decided to get off my ass and do something about it. That's how the concept of  contacting all Veterans was hatched.

In any event, I wanted to re-write the previous post I made about these thoughts and send them along to Jim McDaniels at the 174th, Curt Lambert with the 11th ACRaviation site and "Coke" with the Red River Valley Fighter Pilot's Association.

Please consider this as Food for Thought. As this continues I will post more later. Thanks.

Tim Butler, Former Chief Warrant Officer Aviator, Fireball 28, Blue 28, White 8.