VIETNAM VETERANS OF AMERICA, INC

                                                 LZ WEBBER BENNINGTON CHAPTER 601

                                                 P. O. BOX 4146

CHAPTER OFFICERS - JOHN J. MINER - PRESIDENT - PHIL YOUNG -VICE PRESIDENT ADMINISTRATION - JAMES DAWSON - VICE PRESIDENT OPERATIONS - DENNIS GAUTHIER - TREASURER - BOB FRITZ - SECRETARY - TOM MCDONOUGH - CHAPLAIN -BRIAN VESPER - CHAPTER COORDINATOR - MIKE DIMONDA - JIM SWEET - BILL CANNAVAN - AT - LARGE BOARD MEMBERS - SUE COOK - AVVA ASSOCIATE CHAPTER LIAISON - BRUCE NILES - MIKE DIMONDA - JIM DAWSON - DELEGATES TO VERMONT STATE COUNCIL

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                                      ABOVE & BEYOND

                                                                     SEAY, WILLIAM W.*

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty. Sgt. Seay distinguished himself while serving as a driver with the 62d Transportation Company, on a resupply mission. The convoy with which he was traveling, carrying critically needed ammunition and supplies from Long Binh to Tay Ninh, was ambushed by a reinforced battalion of the North Vietnamese Army. As the main elements of the convoy entered the ambush killing zone, they were struck by intense rocket, machine gun and automatic weapon fire from the well concealed and entrenched enemy force. When his convoy was forced to stop, Sgt. Seay immediately dismounted and took a defensive position behind the wheels of a vehicle loaded with high-explosive ammunition. As the violent North Vietnamese assault approached to within 10 meters of the road, Sgt. Seay opened fire, killing 2 of the enemy. He then spotted a sniper in a tree approximately 75 meters to his front and killed him. When an enemy grenade was thrown under an ammunition trailer near his position, without regard for his own safety he left his protective cover, exposing himself to intense enemy fire, picked up the grenade, and threw it back to the North Vietnamese position, killing 4 more of the enemy and saving the lives of the men around him. Another enemy grenade landed approximately 3 meters from Sgt. Seay's position. Again Sgt. Seay left his covered position and threw the armed grenade back upon the assaulting enemy. After returning to his position he was painfully wounded in the right wrist; however, Sgt. Seay continued to give encouragement and direction to his fellow soldiers. After moving to the relative cover of a shallow ditch, he detected 3 enemy soldiers who had penetrated the position and were preparing to fire on his comrades. Although weak from loss of blood and with his right hand immobilized, Sgt. Seay stood up and fired his rifle with his left hand, killing all 3 and saving the lives of the other men in his location. As a result of his heroic action, Sgt. Seay was mortally wounded by a sniper's bullet. Sgt. Seay, by his gallantry in action at the cost of his life, has reflected great credit upon himself, his unit, and the U.S. Army.

American Forces Press Service, 17 July 1998

Pauline Harrison couldn't harness her emotions or fight back tears during ceremonies christening a Navy ship in her son's name.

Overcome with grief and sad memories, Harrison sobbed as a 950-foot-long cargo ship was christened the USNS Seay on June 20, 1998 at Avondale Shipyard in New Orleans.

Because the ship will be used to pre-position tons of Army equipment afloat, Navy officials decided to name the vessel in honor of a soldier. They chose Army Sgt. William "Bill" Seay, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry in action in Vietnam on Aug. 25, 1968.

Seay's name already graces five military parade fields, two tugboats, two officers barracks, a training center, a movie theater and a shopping mall. This new recognition has caused mixed feelings for his family.

"It refreshes the memory that he's gone, and that's painful. But God has reasons for doing things and we're not to question that," Harrison said later.

"It's a very sad thing, but I'm glad Billy hasn't been forgotten," said Seay's sister, Sarah Lee, who was 23 when her 19-year-old brother was killed. "When they do these things every few years, there's no way he can be forgotten. We try to see the positive side."

Seay had been a driver in the 62nd Transportation Medium Truck Company, 7th Transportation Battalion, 48th Transportation Group, near Ap Hi, Vietnam. While on a resupply mission, his unit came under intense rocket, machine gun and automatic weapon fire from a reinforced North Vietnamese army battalion.

"He didn't just defend. As enemy fire intensified, so to did his response," said Air Force Gen. Walter Kross, commander, U.S. Transportation Command, Scott Air Force Base, Ill., at the christening ceremony. Seay picked off a sniper. Then as grenades rained down on him and his buddies, he repeatedly rose from cover and, braving enemy fire, pitched the grenades back, killing several of the enemy.

"Painfully wounded, he continued to return fire and encouraged his fellow soldiers until he detected three enemy soldiers penetrating his position, preparing to fire on his comrades," Kross said. "Without thought for his own safety, in severe pain and with only his left hand usable, he stood and took them under fire, killing all three of them." Seay fell mortally wounded from a sniper bullet.

The Navy Military Sealift Command will operate the USNS Seay. The ship's roll-on/roll-off design enables fast, easy loading and unloading of up to 1,000 Army helicopters, tanks, trucks and other military vehicles. USNS Seay is 950 feet in length, has a beam of 105 feet, and displaces about 62,000 tons fully loaded. The diesel-powered ship has about 380,000 square feet of cargo space and can sustain speeds up to 24 knots.

The USNS Seay is the third of the four cargo ships being built by Avondale that are being named for Medal of Honor recipients. The first two honor Army Medal of Honor recipients Master Sgt. Gary I. Gordon and Sgt. 1st Class Randall D. Shughart, who died in Mogadishu, Somalia, in October 1993 while trying to rescue a downed Army helicopter crew. The USNS Shughart was christened on May 7, 1996, and the USNS Gordon, on July 4, 1996.

The fourth ship in the series is scheduled to be christened Oct. 2, 1998, in honor of Spc. Larry G. Dahl, who was decorated posthumously for throwing himself on a grenade to save his friends in Vietnam on Feb. 23, 1971.

                                                    POW/MIA REPORT

                              9U.S. AND CHINA SIGN POW AND MIA ARRANGEMENT

U.S. and Chinese officials signed a document Friday morning to formalize research in Chinese archives on Korean War POW/MIA matters.

Ambassador Charles A. Ray, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for POW/Missing Personnel Affairs, signed the arrangement with Major General Qian Li Hua, of the Chinese Ministry of National Defense.  The arrangement outlines expected cooperation between the U.S. and China in researching the archives, which may shed light on Americans who were missing in action or held as prisoners of war in camps managed by the Chinese. In seeking to account for the approximately 8,100 servicemen missing from the Korean War, Ambassador Ray’s office, the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office, has sought access to these archives for more than a decade.

The cooperation of the Chinese people and government has led to the recovery of the remains of Americans lost in the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the Korean War and World War II. This joint archival effort is expected to open more avenues of research to enable U.S. analysts to narrow their searches for the specific locations where American remains may be buried. The signing ceremony took place in Shanghai, in the same hotel where President Richard Nixon and Premier Cho En-lai signed their historic communiqué in 1972.

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News ReleaseAIRMAN LOST IN 1942 CRASH IS IDENTIFIED

The Department of Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that the remains of a U.S. Army Air Forces airman, missing since 1942, have been identified and will soon be returned to his family for burial.

He is Aviation Cadet Ernest G. Munn, U.S. Army Air Forces, of St. Clairsville, Ohio. He will be buried in May in Colerain, Ohio. Representatives from the Army met with Munn’s next-of-kin to explain the recovery and identification process, and to coordinate interment with military honors on behalf of the Secretary of the Army. Munn was one of four men aboard a routine navigation training flight that departed Mather Field, Calif., on Nov. 18, 1942. Their AT-7 Navigator aircraft carried about five hours of fuel, and when the plane did not return to base, a search was initiated. It was suspended about a month later with no results.

In 1947, several hikers on Darwin Glacier in the Sierra Nevada mountain range discovered the wreckage of the AT-7 aircraft. Fragmentary, skeletal remains found at the site were buried as a group in the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, Calif. Then in October 2005, other hikers in the Sierra Nevadas discovered frozen human remains, circumstantial evidence and personal effects of an aircrew member. Park rangers from Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks and a forensic anthropologist from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) recovered the remains. They were shipped to the JPAC laboratory in Hawaii and identified as Cadet Leo M. Mustonen, one of the four men aboard the AT-7 aircraft. In 2007, two other hikers found human remains near the 2005 discovery site. Among other forensic identification tools and circumstantial evidence, scientists from JPAC and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory also used mitochondrial DNA in the identification of a second individual from the 1942 crew, Cadet Ernest G. Munn.______________________________________________________________________________

VVA Press Release: VVA Calls for $5 Billion More for Health Care and Better Outreach

(WASHINGTON, DC) – In testimony before a joint session of the Senate and House Committees on Veterans’ Affairs, VVA National President John Rowan both praised and damned Congress for actions taken and not taken, and hit on legislation that, if enacted, could make a huge difference in the lives of veterans and their families.
"Congress deserves our thanks for the significant increases in appropriations for veterans health care in the current fiscal year, although you must exercise stringent oversight to ensure that the funding goes to where it’s supposed to go," Rowan said. "And we hope you will be firm in adding the $5.24 billion that VVA believes is needed for FY’09, part of which would enable so-called ‘higher income’ veterans to enroll in the VA healthcare system.
"Still, we remain staunch in our advocacy for the passage of an assured funding bill that would end the annual wrangling over veterans healthcare funding," Rowan said. "We have endorsed H.R. 2514 and companion legislation in the Senate, S. 331, and we again urge you to give these your consideration particularly now, at a time when the VA should be anticipating an influx of 100,000 new veterans during the next fiscal year."
Rowan also noted legislation introduced recently by freshman Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) to help returning veterans transition into colleges and universities and provide support to help them succeed in higher education. His "Supporting Education for Returning Veterans Act" would provide grants to institutions of higher learning to establish one-stop centers to provide services and support to veterans on campus.
Rowan reiterated VVA’s support for S. 1314, which would require the Department of Veterans Affairs to have line items in its budget for outreach, a significant failing of that department. "There are tens of thousands of veterans who remain ignorant of the services and benefits available to them because of their service to our country," Rowan said. "And most of them don’t get their health care at VA facilities."

Regarding an unacceptable situation faced by veterans who do get their health care at the VA medical center in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Rowan urged funding for an off-site parking facility and shuttle-bus service to transport VA workers to the VAMC, freeing up precious parking spaces for their patients. "This is no solution to the problems of infrastructure at that VAMC," Rowan said, "but it can alleviate a persistent problem."

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Phil Young has called me about the letter from the VA that those of us that are disabled each year is now only being sent to those that call them and ask for it. The number to call is 1-802-296-5177. I also looked up the tax law on property tax exemptions and under vermont statues Tittle 32 - Chapter 125: Exemption 3802 property tax para (11) sub-para ii it reads below:

PHIL’S KOFFEE KORNER

APPLICATION FOR VVA MEMBERSHIP

REMEMBER TO STAY LOW