Dusty's Guest Book

One of my Catholic groups likened the nurse (Compassion) holding the wounded soldier to Mary in the Pieta. In my heart - I have called her, Dusty.

Many of my students end up buying Shrapnel in the Heart to reread your poem as well as the other letters and stories.

Now I can send them to this web site.

Thank you for your service - both during the War and after - it will not be forgotten.

She had risen to CWO2 through the US Army Intelligence branch and served a total of 3 tours. Her training was a rarity for a woman of those times including sharp shooting on three different weapons, counterintelligence/ espionage, interrogation as well as being an expert and pioneer in polygraph techniques.

During one interrogation she was shot in the arm by an explosive device being removed from the prisoner. She refused the Purple Heart in order to stay in Vietnam and continue her career. She was sited as "responsible for reorganizing the entire Security Branch" and her records are impeccable. Before the TET offensive she had been billeted to a downtown Saigon hotel where she resided as well maintained an "office" inside the hotel.

When the TET offensive hit in 1968 the SO was on tour in Saigon bringing with them the NFL hall-of-fame members. The NFL players were staying at the same hotel as my mothers. As the hotel went under siege the football players were caught in the lobby. It is rumored that my mother, who was armed, brought them all to safety on an upper floor as well as secured the area with return fire. She was denied the Silver Star due to her gender. Attempts to obtain these records and posthumously award her this have been thwarted.

In 1972 she was separated involuntarily from service due to pregnancy with no benefits or retirement. The Army offered an abortion as well as adoption, but this also included a demotion. She refused. I was born in August of that year at Dewitt Army hospital at Ft Belvoir, VA. I was born with several teeth already set. Throughout my childhood I was plagued with neurological pains throughout my legs. Numerous testing revealed no answers for the pain and could provide no relief. This lasted for twelve years.

After the Army my mother began a private investigation firm that was primarily based on employment polygraph applications. In 1988 Reagan outlawed polygraph for these purposes and my mother lost use of her only usable training through the military. We eventually lost everything and became homeless. In 1985 new teeth aside from my already existing permanent teeth began emerging. Throughout Junior and Senior high school I studied music and became one of the top male vocalists in the state. Performances included the White House, Kennedy Center, and the Maryland Rennasaince Festival. After completing one year of College at Shanandoah University my 8 year classical vocal career was ended due to my diction. My teeth continued to come in until 2001, 13 total.

In 1991 my mothers health both mentally as well as physically was deteriorating. I eventually got her to a VA hospital in Martinsburg, WV. She was deemed 25% disabled with PTSD and COPD. This would began a horrible spiral downward filled with malpractice, misdiagnosis, cross-medication and threats of benefit deduction. Her “Separation Designation Number“ (SPN) 595, which is a secret pregnancy discharge code was beginning to thwart any compassion from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

She recently died in January 2002. One week before her death she complained of hallucinations. After complaining to her doctor he acknowledged that it was due to the high dose of epilepsy medication she was on reacting with other psychoactive drugs. She didn't have epilepsy. Nor was she diagnosed with it. She had "essential tremors" as they put it, and would not confirm that they and the grapefruit size tumor in her stomach were caused by Agent Orange.

Although vast research links Dioxin with many forms of cancer including stomach lesions, no treatment or advisement was given with reference to Agent Orange based on the VA not confirming or denying that this lethal “Agent” was the cause of her health abnormalities. After her death I immediately asked for an autopsy and was denied due to lack of funds. In trying to have her buried traditionally at Arlington National Cemetery I was refused based on achievements and time served although at least the Purple Heart speaks for itself. Again her “SPN” number was again rearing its ugly head. I was forced to cremate my mother in order to have her placed there.

It took a bombardment of letters and 18 days for Arlington and government officials to redact their position yet agree to lesser terms. Even though it was a full-honors burial it was the final slap in her and my face. In addition to that the body and any chemical trace had been destroyed. The Santa Clara Coroner's office is unsure if the blood sample request was carried through.

Currently the DAV with power of attorney and in an act of negligence has improperly filed burial benefit claims. With repeated attempts to retain copies of my mothers veterans file I have been unanswered and I have been recently told by the VA that they mysteriously can't find my/ her records. My feelings are that the VA in not diagnosing her Agent Orange exposure as well as not treating her properly for damage from this chemical, was negligent in their actions. In fact the use of this chemical weapon with or without full knowledge of its effect on the human body is an act at least of negligence which responsibility lies on the shoulders of the United States of America. Thanksgiving of the year 2002 I had my extra teeth extracted. In February 2003 my 3rd set is emerging. Our nation is at a critical moral point in its history. We are criticizing other governments for the use of chemicals on its own citizens yet we haven not begun to acknowledge or compensate for our misfortunes of the same caliber. As a child of 2 Vietnam Veterans it should be the obligation of this government to set up non-biased testing of all veterans children. Determine these effects and compensate those effected. Our bloodlines have been disrupted chemically and there is no value that can be placed on such an enormous disaster.

Many, Many issues surround my mother and the disregard that this nations government has not only shown to its soldiers and heroes but its female soldiers and heroes. When you think of it, in a time of war my mother not only served her country greatly but she also saved a life with an act of bravery. That life is mine. I will continually fight for her honor and for those rights that have been trampled. The entire Department of Veterans Affairs is negligent on many levels as well as the DAV, the US government and Dow Chemical and until these injustices are heavily compensated for including public acknowlegement I will maintain that the rights of my family and future family have been violated by our government.

I was surfing the net for ideas on gifts, etc to help celebrate National Nurses Week. I ran across this wonderful site and fell in love with the poetry. We are a small rural hospital and due to budget constraints have been trying to find something "special" and inexpensive to present to each of nurses on nurse's day. I would like, with your permission, to include your poem "Hello, David", in a book of poems that we will be putting together in house to present to each one.

With the situation oversees I thought this poem would be very appropriate. The front of our "homemade" booklets has a patriotic theme, and will be intitled, " A Tribute to our Nurses......Our Everyday Heros".