Well, last month was not kind to our extended family, as not only did we lose Fred, but two of our chapter brothers also lost a brother and also another chapter member lost his mother. Too each of our extended families are thoughts and prayers are with you all. To Bruce Niles, David Therrien, and Andre Fonteneau and Fred’s family also. Looking ahead for July is one of our most important events which is our 3^rd annual motorcycle ride and picnic on July 28^th. I know a lot of you will be there to cook and help out in getting the bikes signed up and on the road by 10:30 AM and then we wait for them to come back. Also we will have a group of people who again will put on a show for us with songs of the 50's and 60's, can’t wait. Please take care over the July 4^th holiday.

Your Chapter President

John J. Miner

     This month we have one new member to report on and he is Peter Walsh, welcome aboard and Welcome Home. We also have a couple of members who have sent in there renewl for this year and they are Francis Locarno and Patrick Mulhall. Once again thank you both for your continuing support of what this chapter does in our community, state and nation.

     Also three of you have just gone to life membership and they are William Parks, Gerald Albert and Dennis Gauthier. Once again thank you for your continuing support.

     Please check your member ship card as July we have a few of you who are due and also a couple from June are past due. Your support really helps us continue the fight for veterans rights.

Membership Chair

Bob Buck -Scholarship Committee

Place and date: Republic of Vietnam 7 August 1971

Entered service at: Fargo, North Dakota

Born: 25 February 1946, Fargo, North Dakota

Citation:

1st Lt. Hagen distinguished himself in action while serving as the team leader of a small reconnaissance team operating deep within enemy-held territory. At approximately 0630 hours on the morning of 7 August 1971 the small team came under a fierce assault by a superior-sized enemy force using heavy small arms automatic weapons, mortar, and rocket fire. 1st Lt. Hagen immediately began returning small arms fire upon the attackers and successfully led this team in repelling the first enemy onslaught. He then quickly deployed his men into more strategic defense locations before the enemy struck again in an attempt to overrun and annihilate the beleaguered team's members. 1st Lt. Hagen repeatedly exposed himself to the enemy fire directed at him as he constantly moved about the team's perimeter, directing fire, rallying the members, and resupplying the team with ammunition, while courageously returning small arms and hand grenade fire in a valorous attempt to repel the advancing enemy force. The courageous actions and expert leadership abilities of 1st Lt. Hagen were a great source of inspiration and instilled confidence in the team members. After observing an enemy rocket make a direct hit on and destroy 1 of the team's bunkers, 1st Lt. Hagen moved toward the wrecked bunker in search for team members despite the fact that the enemy force now controlled the bunker area. With total disregard for his own personal safety, he crawled through the enemy fire while returning small-arms fire upon the enemy force. Undaunted by the enemy rockets and grenades impacting all around him, 1st Lt. Hagen desperately advanced upon the destroyed bunker until he was fatally wounded by enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire. With complete disregard for his personal safety, 1st Lt. Hagen's courageous gallantry, extraordinary heroism, and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty, at the cost of his own life, were in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon him and the U.S. Army.

NAVY PILOT MISSING FROM VIETNAM WAR IS IDENTIFIED

SOLDIER MISSING IN ACTION FROM WWII IS IDENTIFIED

Milton, Vermont - June 9, 2007

Dave Schagnon gave 7 1/2 years of his life to his country serving two tours in the Navy during the Vietnam War. On Saturday his community had a chance to give something back to him -- a new roof. "I've been trying to get a new roof on it but it costs a lot of money, money I didn't have," Schagnon said.

The Service Politics Institute is a non-profit organization that brings volunteers, policy makers and non-profit leaders together to work on different community projects. "We're going to be giving him a pitched roof, we're also going to be giving him a garden, his wife has always wanted a garden and paint the exterior of his house," said SPI executive director, Sarah Suscinski.

For this project, Service Politics partnered with Chapter 829 of the Vietnam Veterans of America to not only help a veteran but also to find out what the state can be doing to help better serve veterans' needs. "The cost of the war has to include the cost of caring for the warriors. This is a local example of what we can do to help people on a human level with our own efforts," said Congressman Peter Welch, who pitched in on the project.

Ten year-old Michael Bourne was one of the volunteers from the Dream Program lending a helping hand in the garden. "We'll be putting lettuce, tomatoes, herbs. I want to make his life awesome," Bourne said.

And so does Schagnon's friend Marcus Murphy. Murphy says in life there are two kinds of people. "Those who need a little help and those can help a little, and it could change overnight, which one you are," Murphy said.

"It's just so fantastic. I've never seen anything like it." Schagnon said. He says he'll never lose another night of sleep knowing he has a stable roof over his head.

We have received a check from Wal-Mart for $500.00. Which is pictured below. Also Dennis Gauthier came up with a idea about bottle and cans. So I stopped down to Willy’s and asked them and they agreed to take bottle and can in the name of Bennington Veterans Honor Roll. So save up your cans and tell your friends to take them down there and drop them off and tell them who they are for.

I want to thank very much Bob Fritz and Fred Kellum and Amy and her husband for the work they did at the car show in Manchester. They took in about $400.00 in donations and sales of t-shirts. Our next event with be the July 28^th motorcycle ride.

By DANIELLE TRUSSONI

Published: June 18, 2007 Sun Valley, Idaho

IN the spring of 1999 I went to Vietnam. I was a tourist, though my trip was not a post-college vacation involving tanning oil and beach chairs and oozing hangovers suffered under the shade of palm trees. I traveled to Vietnam as the daughter of a veteran, a man who had spent a lifetime dealing with his experiences in the war. Making the journey to Vietnam was important for me, but at the time I couldn’t quite formulate how.

In the weeks I spent in Vietnam, I went to the places my father had seen action, mostly in the south, in Cu Chi and Tay Ninh, areas not far from Ho Chi Minh City. The region was so thick with foliage one would never suspect that in an effort to expose the Vietcong by destroying their environment, the United States sprayed about 19.5 million gallons of Agent Orange and other toxic herbicides over the jungles of South Vietnam. As I traveled the region, I knew about Agent Orange, just as I knew that an environmental cleanup effort was still under way, and yet it was hard to believe. The foliage was lush and green, seemingly untouched by the noxious chemicals of the war.

I had seen a video of the C-123 cargo planes swooping low, just above a blanket of crenellated canopy, the fusillade of white clouds fanning out, pretty as powdered sugar. The chemicals worked through the top layers of foliage, moving down to the rice paddies and sinking into the red soil. In the video, the defoliant appeared almost tonic, like cool talcum powder falling from heaven.

My father walked in the wake of those planes. He remembered the defoliants’ descent over the jungle, slow as snow. He recalled the white coated leaves, the way his throat burned when he breathed the humid air, the strange discoloration he found when he blew his nose. He remembered bathing in a bomb crater, dead birds floating on the surface. Last year, after five years fighting throat cancer that he and his doctors attributed to exposure to the dioxin in Agent Orange, my father died. He was 61.

During my trip, I visited a museum dedicated to remembering what the Vietnamese call the American War. Exhibits on the effects of Agent Orange make up a significant part of the permanent collection. There were numbers and charts and statistics, run-of-the-mill data, but there were also pictures of babies born of parents exposed to Agent Orange. Their deformities were gruesome, making them appear bestial, inhuman. Years after my trip, these are the images I remember most vividly.

Today the federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in Manhattan, is scheduled to hear oral arguments against Dow, Monsanto and 35 other companies that manufactured Agent Orange and related herbicides used during the Vietnam War. In addition, 16 appeals by American veterans will be heard, as well as an appeal by a group that represents Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange.

The veterans and the Vietnamese are seeking the reinstatement of lawsuits dismissed in March 2005 by Judge Jack Weinstein of Federal District Court in Brooklyn. The plaintiffs are asking the court to acknowledge that Agent Orange has damaged the lives of thousands of people in both the United States and Vietnam.

One of the Vietnamese civilians taking part in this appeal is a woman named Dang Hong Nhut, who lived in Cu Chi during the war, the very same part of Vietnam where my father spent his tour. After losing numerous babies to miscarriage and deformity, Dang Hong Nhut sent a biopsy abroad for analysis. The results showed that, years after the war, her body still retained traces of dioxin. In a television interview, she said: "It doesn’t matter if the companies won’t admit their crimes. What really counts is that people see that a crime took place."

It has been eight years since I went to Vietnam, and I am just starting to understand that my trip was less about changing the past, an impossible pursuit by any stretch of the imagination, and more about taking the time to understand and recognize the mistakes of the Vietnam War. Perhaps now, after 40 years, the victims of Agent Orange will finally get such recognition.

Everyone enjoy your 4^th of July and celebrate safe.

Your Newsletter Editor - Joyce Miner