Over the years the VFW and the American Legion have pulled some pretty ignorant $hit.

Back in the 70s and early 80s I was getting reports from Vietnam veterans about getting shabby treatment from the WW2 guys.

"The tours were a year! Big deal! I was overseas for three years! You didn't do squat!"

That sort of thing.

They also tried to block legislation to keep Merchant Mariners and WASP pilots from getting veteran's status which they certainly deserved.

About 15 years ago I got into it with a WW2 vet that called merchant seamen a bunch of cowards and I set him straight pointing out that the US Merchant Marine suffered a higher casualty rate then any of the services did.

He countered with "Some of them rifle companies took 80% casualties!"

"When a ship got torpedoed on the Murmansk or Archangel run the whole crew died, and that, my friend, is 100% casualties." I shot back and then pointed out survival rates for torpedoed sailors and a few other things.

For years if you were not in Double you Double you two, the big one or maybe Korea  you were treated like a red headed stepchild.

Granted this has changed over time but it's worth mentioning.

Oh yeah, then there was Captain Frank Parker, USA. He was involved in a heated discussion over the ownership of an Italian monastary called Monte Cassino and a few other minor scuffles He suffered silently with PTSD that went undiagnosed for decades. Frank was a pretty notable exception and a real scrapper and defender of veterans, period.

He defended them with a sense of tact that one does not see too much of these days. The term 'bull in a china shop' comes to mind.

I was not there but I heard that someone griped that the Vietnam vets served only a year's tour and he had spent three years overseas. Frank tactfully answered "Yeah, and you spent the whole three years in England sitting on your fat ass and filling out paperwork." Then he went on to say that a lot of Vietnam veterans spent WELL over 300 days in combat during that year they served. He pointed out that damned few of them spent that much combat time during the entire war and the fact that most of them never saw combat.

That shut a lot of people up and I'm sure things changed at least at that post. I'm proud to have had Captain Frank as a friend of mine.

I would imagine that members of the 442nd RCT faced a certain amount of crap in various remote areas here and there but I'm pretty sure they were met with open arms in Texas where they are heroes for relieving a TXNG unit that was surrounded. I say this because there's always one dope that doesn't get the word.

I'm sure both of these organizations have changed a lot but it's only fair to point out that while they have done a lot of good over the years that have had their moments over the years.

Actually almost all organizations have.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY