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Help - This Vet Has No Cib - Cab Award

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carlie

Question

This vet has no CIB - CAB award.

Does this info from his 201 prove (as PTSD stressor) for combat vet?

13F10 - Asst Mach Gunner 14 Aug 1968

and

16F10 - Asst Mach Gunner 14 Feb 1969

along with

Designation:

VN Counteroffensive Phase V

VN Counteroffensive Phase VI

Tet/69 Counteroffensive

Unnamed Campaign

I have scanned these forms and will try to upload them here.

Thanks for any and all responses.

carlie

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His 201 file just shows that he was an assist. machine gunner, unit of assignment was artililary. Really his record only shows that he had basic combat training which everyone even the army starts out with and that he was assigned to a artililary unit. The asst. machine gunner only comes into play like on guard duty or to defend the perimeter if a ground attack is made. It reads like his main duty was a light truck driver. As far as the counteroffense awards, there are no orders made for these, if your unit was included in a certain operation, then everyone assigned to that unit will get credit for these counteroffense awards wheather or not they actually were at the event. Artiliary units normally operated within a base camp or fire base, not on their own or by themselves. The army doesn't have a mos for asst. machine gunner. In Vietnam they didn't even have a mos for machine gunner, everyone was 11B__. I don't know or ever heard of artililary soldiers in the Marines or Army doing any combat operations. They had to always be availble to do fire mission 24 hours a day whenever needed by someone who made contact with the enemy. This soldier is going to have a hard time having the VA letting him in.

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i am helping a vietnam veteran do a claim for ptsd. he served with the 101st, 327th infantry reg, 1st batt at danang, vietnam oct 1971 to jan 1972. on thanksgiving 1971 a helicopter crashed after it left danang on its way to phu bai and killed all 34 soldiers on board. many who died were his friends. he had to go search for them so he saw some dead out in the field and on base when others were brought back. he says this is one of his stressors. it can be verified everywhere. what do you think ? will the va consider this a stressor ? thanks for your time.

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My 2 cents:

I think it is "catch 22" that the VA requires proof of stressors in war. The bottom line is that, in war, things dont always go right, there is no perfect record keeping, and often people who actually saw the stressors were killed. Just because I may lack the expertise and resources to prove the sun rose ten years ago, does not mean that people ten years ago were not warmed by the suns rays.

Of course, my opinion that this requirement is outrageous does not matter. In order to win the benefits this Veteran deserves, may I humbly suggest a "buddy statement" ..by looking up one or more of the buddies the Veteran served with. Hey..maybe the buddy is also trying to get benefits, and also needs this Veteran to sign a buddy statement in his behalf. Of course, I dont know if it is possible to locate these buddies.

Edited by broncovet
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My daughter helped some vets in the same unit to get awards and at the same time these vets found each other and they all could corroborate specific stressors.

One vet gave a buddy statement to VA with his C file number in it and told the VA he gets SC for PTSD for the same event the others were trying to prove.

The awards they all got also helped considerably-I know I ran this by you all before- but it involvd fact that my daughter is proficient in Vietnamese-one of best Vietnamese linquists in the country-one vet had saved a 3 page document he found in Vietnam with names and SS numbers of the men in his unit at a specific maneuver.

It was in Vietnamese with an official stamp and he thought it was a hit list for them all -for decades.

My daughter translated it and it was commendations from the Vietnamese as to their extraordinary bravery during this maneuver.

They all got awards they never knew of for decades.

And they all got PTSD SC.

It is amazing how-once a vet does take the time to find buddies (and it is a lot of work sometimes) how buddies can be found and often their buddy statement for VA comp is one thing but more important is that the comradery is still in tact and they often continue to keep in touch with each.

The internet has made it far easier to find buddies than it used to be.

It can mean an award letter that might never come without the statement.

The buddy must be able to show VA he was in same unit, same time and place and to give eye witness account that puts you on the scene of the stressor.

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  • HadIt.com Elder

Carla, was he qualified w/the machine gun? If I recall correctly, machine gun qualification, back then, was done in AIT. Non-Infantry didn't receive training in the M-60 or the 50 caliber. Not positive on that, as memory is failing these days.

As for records, he can find reports on the crash, company rosters and the daily logs and journals, which should document the incident, names of deceased, injured, etc.. The problem I see is many claim to have friends in crashes or other incidents, they recall hearing about or seeing, especially when they could receive $2673, or more, a month, from the VA. Documenting stressors is really easy thru the National Archives, is faster than waiting for the JSRRC, and traveling there is the best way to do it. One merely needs to pick a time period and start researching. Each command kept daily logs and journals and once you locate an event, near where you served, you just keep checking the logs and journals, down to the company level. The archivists are extremely helpful. A claimant can save a year's wait by going to the archives themselves. If he doesn't remember he can find one thru the archives.

I was looking for orders, for the Vietnamese Jump Wings we were awarded, after a jump for pay, in Nov '65, and found most of my platoon had been awarded Bronze Stars, when they returned to the states, at their new commands. I stayed for another year so no BS. Had I returned w/them I'd probably have one, not that it matters, cuz to me it just cheapens the award. As a footnote, no orders for Vietnamese Jump Wings were found because foreign awards generally aren't carried in our records, except for large unit type awards, which would be confirmed as General Orders.

The campaigns you listed were just general campaigns and are carried as stars on the VSM but don't relate, in any way, to combat.

pr

Edited by Philip Rogers
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