Re: Re: dreamer...kathe

[Guest guest]

Dreamer,

If you hijacked the group today you are well justified. Venting can't make the

situation better but sometimes helps with you handling it. It is terrible what

has happened to lots of veterans.

My husband, retired AF, has become bitter and our problems are not as great as

yours are. If you have seen the TV program " The Unit " that will give you some

inkling of what he did except that he was alone. This often put our whole family

in jeopardy and it was worse for me because I could not know any details. It was

not unusual for him to come home in the middle of the day, change into civies

and say " bye " take the car and go. I never had any idea where or when he would

be back. Sometimes just a couple days and sometimes a few weeks. I had no way to

contact him. Once things became so rough with him that he was talking in his

sleep so much I figured out what he was doing whereas before I only knew he did

things. I told him what I had learned and that others could know too so he

needed to get out of it for a while. He did, but only for a very short while. In

the 60s and 70s our phone and house and no telling what all was bugged so that

we did not dare have a normal conversation unless we were out in the open. I am

thankful electronics did not have the capabilities they do now.

He worked for a general in the pentagon and his orders came from the pentagon.

No locals knew anything about it. They promised him that he could retire as a

top officer. When we retired it was done in private in the general's office. No

publicity at all. And they had him down as a master sergeant. He was too

trusting and did not push to start with. Then they said the records were sealed.

When the records were unsealed after 20 years they were immediately destroyed.

So as far as the AF knew he was not into anything. He was exposed to agent

orange and we feel that is part of his problem, but he couldn't have agent

orange problems because he was " never where it was used " . Almost all his

military records exist no more. He has tried to get some help on this through

top military and politicians. Recently one Senator on the Armed Force Committee

would look into to it. But that went no where. The general he had worked for had

passed away and the many base commanders knew nothing. He tracked down one and

that looked hopeful but all that Commander said was that all he knew was that he

did other missions.

To give you an idea of how this effected us as a family I will say this. We

moved frequently and usually without notice. Set tours for others meant nothing

for us. We, our family was in an Asian country and one day he came in and said

we are moving. Household things were picked up in a day or two. We were in a

spot we loved and none of us wanted to go but the political situation was very

hot. We planed to stop over for a brief stay in Paris. We were taken to the

airport by a military bus that was transporting others who were leaving. It was

about a 3 hour drive and at the airport we expected about a 3 hour wait for the

plane. When we got off the bus someone from the embassy was there to meet us as

was usual. He said that we had to hurry because the plane was already loaded and

was being held for us. (What happened to the expected 3 hour wait) The man from

the embassy had the tickets and all so we never actually saw them. As we were

going through to have the passport stamped to leave the country my husband and I

had no problem. They stamped ours but would not let our 2 teen children through

saying our papers were not in order. With the political problems we did not know

if this was really bad news or just the usual hand out for a bribe. We had

anticipated needing bribe money so my husband had a few big bills in their

currency. We were all standing at the desk but a barrier was between our kids

and us. My husband did a gutsy thing. He took the two passports, and pushed them

sort of back to the man with the stamp with the bills peeking out. As he reached

for the bills my husband took the stamp and stamped both passports in a flash.

The kids scooted past the barrier and we ran to the plane. The plane took off in

seconds after we loaded and we were off.and found we were off to London, not

Paris. At the time my head was in a swirl but thinking I realized that had been

for our protection that things were changed. At least they looked after us in

that respect. I later learned that several of the men on the bus were there for

our protection.

We retired in 1980 and in the last 10 years or so my husband has post traumatic

stress syndrome that comes and goes. Sometimes it is really bad. Knowing what I

know now I think sometimes it effects me the same way. A few years back, maybe 5

years, he started getting e-mails that were very suspicious and frightening. The

e-mails were such that they contained information that no one should know. And

we were afraid it was from some of the old political enemies. He contacted the

pentagon and of course they knew nothing but somehow the e-mails were stopped.

He goes through phases of saying he is sorry he ever stuck with the military.

Fortunately we have TriCare for life and are now on Medicare so our medical

needs are fairly well taken care of. I hope these sort of things does not

totally deplete our military. There is a price from freedom and I'm thankful

that even as bad as it was many stayed in there.

Bvan Ombega (Betty)