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WHAT DO THESE AMERICAN
CELEBRITIES HAVE IN COMMON...
John Fogerty, (John Ritter,) David Crosby (Stills
& Nash as well), Neil Young, Anita Baker, James Brown, Stevie Wonder, Lou Gossett, Jr,
Whoopi Goldberg, Mike Farrell, Oliver Stone, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, surviving Doors
members, Country Joe, John Sabastian, Ritchie Havens, Bonnie Raitt, Kris Kristofferson,
Ed Asner, James Ingram, Linda Ronstadt, Frankie Vallie, The Four Tops.
Do you remember the music special that HBO put on July
4, 1987. The non-profit music special was dedicated to Welcoming Home Vietnam Veterans.
The event's list of entertainers is very impressive. The music event was a fund raiser for Homeless
Veterans and other veterans charities.
Jodie L. Talley, daughter of the events' executive producer, Joey
Talley, who also founded the successful non-profit veteran aid foundation, Welcome Home, Inc.
Dear Jodie,
What's the possibility of HBO doing another non-profit WELCOME
HOME music event again? Maybe there can be Corporate Sponsorships. If health allows, your
mother can make a special appearance. The vets can learn some good stories about how she did the first welcome
home event. (And how even back in 1987, good people cared... )
Back in 1987, HBO did the impossible by organizing and producing the first
non-profit WELCOME HOME event. I strongly feel, HBO would get even more support this time...
especially now that there is an internet. At least advertising would be less expensive.
I'm sure entertainers from all arts would be willing to donate
some time. Their are probably many Country Western entertainers, who are just looking for an organizer.
This event can also be a fund raiser for Homeless Vets.
Maybe even the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) could help...
------------------------------
Thank you for your email, Jack, and for sharing about Robert Pierce. And, sure, feel free
to send around my email if you like.
I was speaking with a vet from New York yesterday, and he was asking how a person can get a copy
of the show--a really fair question that has been laying on my heart for years. I told him how you never see these kind
of mega shows, like Live Aid, on DVD because the legalities of clearing all the music and performances are overwhelming, very
difficult to secure, and very expensive, and who could do it? My mother talked about it for years, but the work and
finances it would require was always too much. These days she is not in as good health, and so trying to create even
any Internet memory of the events, any kind of written record was left up to me. So, I'm working away at it fast as
I can. I want to create a complete transcript of the events (both of them, and all 12 hours) and post it at the website,
but it will take me a little while to do that. Plus, the only show copies are in New York (HBO vaults), and my mother's
office in California. As I told the gentleman in New York, I'd love to see the events copied to DVD and placed at least
in museums and with appropriate memorials all over the country so that folks can go and view the events when they please,
and such a move would be much easier than trying to sell something on DVD, which would involve all the legalities, licensing,
and profit problems. Where would any profit ethically go? You know? Well, maybe my emails and bit of work
will encourage anyone with a recorded copy to make bootlegs. :) Off the record, I'm all for that! =)
Well,
I promise to do everything I can, because they were phenomenal shows, and all should have access to them somehow. I
think I'll save any emails I get from folks to compile with a plea to HBO to help out. CEO Chris Albrect is a great
guy and really cares about the cause, then and now. So, here's hopin'!
Thanks again!!
All
the best wished,
Jodie atlantahistory@comcast.net <atlantahistory@comcast.net>
--
Jodie Lind Talley
History Department
Georgia State University
PO Box
4117
Atlanta, GA 30302-4117
PH: (404)323-3997
Campus PH: (404)651-2250
Campus Fax:(404)651-1745
Dear
Jodie,
Can I send your email around? Many vets did not want to go to Branson,
because
they said it was for a (high) profit. I remember HBO's 1987
Special for Vietnam Vets was a fund raiser
for Homeless Vets. It had some
great entertainers. I'll never forget it.
Jack
My buddy, Robert Pierce was from Fort Gaines, Ga. He died while on a
patrol that he
exchanged duties with me on. Around August 16, I'll be
visiting his grave site for the first time in
Fort Gaines.
http://home.earthlink.net/~memorial_of_honor/memorial_of_honor_024.htm
Robert died trying to save another Marine's life. He was a great hero for
your
state of Georgia.
----- Original Message -----
From: <atlantahistory@comcast.net>
To: "John Cunningham" <proudcapmarine@earthlink.net>
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2005 1:38 PM
Subject: Re: HBO Welcome Home events for
Vietnam Veterans
Thank you, Jack, for your kind e-mail. I was a kid when the shows were
first
in production, and that lasted from really about age 10 to about 16,
and it was a long hard fight in those days,
as you can imagine. No so OK
to be a Vietnam vet even in the 80s! Our home was totally centered on vet
issues
for many, many years more, it took over our family life, eventually
the stress led to my parents divorce, but I did
not care. The events were
too, too important, (I still feel that way) and those shows mean so much
to
me, and I did not even serve in the military. =) I am SO glad
whenever I hear someone was made happy
by them. I only wish every single
vet had been able to be there or at least see it.
I'm also saddened
that some group of unknown folks just made all this
profit several weeks ago putting on what they call the first
welcome home,
recently in Branson, MO. These Operation Homecoming folks. Heard of
them?
It was a very, very small show, but they charged vets about $75 a
ticket just to attend! (The real Welcome
Home was free to vets, of
course, and HBO opened their signals for free to all.) I just learned
that
these unknown producers are making even more money from having sold a
"documentary" to TV channels and all over the
place. It flies in the face
of history and decency, being dishonest about welcome home history and
profitting
so. Ah well. I will do my best to add on to my existing
place-holder website whenever I have a few moments
time,
http://www.welcomehomehistory.com, with transcripts, pictures, memories and
whatever I can for the sake of vets, their families,
and history. I would
have done so earlier, but I was just too young before and would not have
anticipated
the Operation Homecoming folks.
Well, thank you, Sir, now as always, for your service to this great nation
and
for your kind response. If I can answer any question at any time, I
will be happy to do so.
Very humbly
yours,
Jodie atlantahistory@comcast.net <atlantahistory@comcast.net>
--
Jodie Lind Talley
History Department
Georgia State University
PO Box 4117
Atlanta,
GA 30302-4117
PH: (404)323-3997
Campus PH: (404)651-2250
Campus Fax:(404)651-1745
Back
in 1987, I watched that HBO Special and it brought warm tears to my
eyes. It made me feel proud when
being a proud Vietnam Vet was not
cool.
I donated my copy of the event to the Montrose, NY VA Hospital
PTSD Unit.
I wanted to share its warmth.
Jack Cunningham
Combined Action Program
http://home.earthlink.net./~americans_who_lived_as_peasants Tomorrow, I'll pass around this email to my mailing list.
*****************************
----- Original Message -----
From: <atlantahistory@comcast.net>
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2005 1:06 AM
Subject: HBO Welcome Home events for
Vietnam Veterans
WHAT: Announcing a new book documenting the definitive Welcome Home
events
for the Vietnam Veterans
WHO: Author and historian, Jodie L. Talley, daughter of the events'
executive
producer, Joey Talley, who also founded the successful
non-profit veteran aid foundation, Welcome Home, Inc.
WHERE:
Available for shipping or inexpensive downloading at http://www.lulu.com/content/131932 **Please do peruse and/or freely download the original event program
at: http://www.welcomehomehistory.com/WELCOME_HOME_Program WHY: Because every Vietnam vet, family member, and American concerned
for vet
causes will want to know about these phenomenal events, which, for
entertainment industry legal reasons, could not simply
be widely released
on video/DVD (and the same is sadly true for LiveAid, FarmAid, the G8
events and other such
shows.)
"Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans:
A Historic Reunion,
A Superstar Tribute"
(From
the front cover of the Welcome Home event program, 1987)
On July 4, 1987 the definitive Welcome Home events
for the Vietnam
veterans took place in Washington DC, airing on cable network HBO and
including a vast number
of celebrities, musical entertainers, and renown
vets in a 5-hour+ extravaganza that even Congress declared as the official
Welcome
Home day for the vets-a long time coming, but never too late.
The event raised consciousness about ongoing vet issues
and also raised
millions of dollars through the associated 501(c)(3) foundation,
Welcome Home, Inc., for veteran
causes. In terms of entertainment, the Welcome
Home show was a mega-event not unlike sibling productions Live Aid, Farm
Aid,
and Comic Relief, though arguably more powerful and certainly more
historical.
"As benefit concerts go," wrote the
New York Post, "'Welcome Home' was
a more unified and successful event, in terms of both its music and its
message,
than such well-intentioned spiritual brethren as 'Live Aid' and
'Farm Aid'."
This book remembers the events
themselves and captures the lives and
times of the people, the generation, made them happen. It also included
original interviews
with Peter Fonda, Jon Voight, Senator Chuck Hagel, HBO
President/CEO Chris Albrecht, and others.
Author Jodie
L. Talley, daughter of Welcome Home producer Joey Talley,
originally researched this book as an award-winning thesis project
at the
University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) to document the historic
tribute and to honor the Vietnam vets
for whom the events were produced.
The work includes many of the poignant words spoken to vets in love,
reconciliation,
and celebration, which every vet deserves to hear. For
more information, please see http://www.welcomehomehistory.com.
Talley is currently a historian and documentary filmmaker at Georgia State
University
in Atlanta, Georgia.
--
Jodie Lind Talley
History Department
Georgia State University
PO Box 4117
Atlanta,
GA 30302-4117
PH: (404)323-3997
Campus PH: (404)651-2250
Campus Fax:(404)651-1745
BY VIRTUE OF AUTHOR’S INTERVIEWS:
Actors Jon Voight and Peter Fonda, U.S. Senator and Vietnam vet Chuck
Hagel, HBO president Chris Albrecht, executive producer Joey Talley, Ricky Hirsch (step-father and guitar player for Greg
Allman, Cher, and others), Allman Brothers Band tour manager Wayne Sharp (for info on Lamar Williams).
BY VIRTUE OF
SECONDARY SOURCES:
Poet Laureate of the Vietnam veterans Steve Mason, Boomer author Annie Gottlieb, Boomer author Bruce
Pollack, African-American Vietnam vet historian Wallace Terry, Vietnam vet musician Jim Wachtendonk, Vietnam vet Memorial
designer Maya Ying Lin, memorial activist Jan Scruggs, Oliver Stone, and more.
ORAL HISTORIES INTERVIEWS/SUBJECTS STILL
UNDONE
John Fogerty, (John Ritter,) David Crosby (Stills & Nash as well), Neil Young, Anita Baker, James Brown, Stevie
Wonder, Lou Gossett, Jr, Catherine Bach, U.S. Senator Tom Daschle, U.S. Senator Bob Kerrey, Max Inglet (Vietnam vet who wheelchaired
across the US), GRAMMY Awards (and Welcome Home) director Ken Ehrlich, Whoopi Goldberg, Mike Farrell, Ricardo Montalban, Martha
Raye, Herbie Hancock, HBO chairman Michael Fuchs, Oliver Stone, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, surviving Doors members, Steve
Bauer, Buffy St. Marie, Country Joe, John Sabastian, Ritchie Havens, Joe Walsh, Hoyt Axton, Kevin Cronin (REO Speedwagon),
Bonnie Raitt, Amanda McBroom, Nils Lofgren, Kris Kristofferson, Ed Asner, Harry Dean Stanton, AP reporter Bob Brewin, football
star Rocky Blier, Blake Clark, James Ingram, Linda Ronstadt, Frankie Vallie, The Four Tops, Lamar Williams’ relatives,
and other family and friends connected to the story whose amazing (or mundane) lives fill out the history and narrative.
Other
Relevant Individuals:
VVA VP John Terzano, author Thomas Whiteside, Roy Disney, Colonel Leo K. Thorsness U.S.A.F., Ron
Kovic, General Roland Cinciarelli, activist Maude DeVictor, Vietnam veteran Congressional members related to story (Lane Evans,
Leon Panetta, David Bonior, Thomas Carper, David Skaggs, Robert Mrazek, Bill McCollum, John Spratt, James Jeffords, Martin
Lancaster, Martin Frost, James Florio, Charles Pashayan, William Lipinski), Tom Brokaw.
*************************
*************************************************************************
Hi Kevin,
You received 213 visitors on just one day for your website. This
month you will easily break your monthly record for visitors.
I'm sure many of your visitors are taking a couple of minutes to email President
Bush, asking for the funds to be released early. (I'll keep sending out the email.)
Jack
Office of Congressman Scott Garrett, NJ-5
Tammy, thanks for your help. The internet works, but things like this really need politicians and government
officials in position, who really care. (This is another disgrace for New Jersey.)
Thanks again!!
CAN THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY START SOME WORK ON THEIR FLOOD PROBLEM NOW?
Adjusting the curbs is a good start...
Since the area was called a federal disaster, maybe FEMA can get involved. They
were looking into it.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, July 13, 2005 10:46 AM
Subject: FYI - State Funds
Dear Mr. Farley:
Just wanted to provide an update on the funding situation - Mr. Girardet
with the NJDMAVA just advised me that the State funds were rec'd on Monday. The VA is reviewing the request submitted by this
office and is in the process of preparing a response. Once I know more I will contact you further. Thanks in advance for your
time and attention - Tammy
Respectfully,
Tammy D. Happe, Western District Coordinator
Office of Congressman Scott Garrett, NJ-5
Western District Office
93 Main Street
Newton, NJ 07860
Phone: 973-300-2000
Fax: 973-300-1051
-----------------------------------------------------------
It's a disgrace when something like below happens to the honored
memory of America's Veterans. After reading how vandals desecrated these veterans' graves, learn how a State desecrated
the memory of veterans by burying them in a known flood area of the State's Veterans Memorial Cemetery.
In 1995, the State of New Jersey knew the area was flooded, yet they buried 40 to 50 honorable veterans in the flood plain.
These World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam Veterans are still under water days after it rains. See the
pictures and read the current status of this disgrace at: http://home.earthlink.net/~new_jersey_veterans_cemetery
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Vandals destroy veterans' burial area
By: Patty Yauger, Herald-Standard
BULLSKIN TWP. - The Green Ridge Memorial Park Veterans Circle has served for several
decades as the final resting place for many soldiers that have defended their country in time of war.
As the nation prepared last week to celebrate its independence and pay tribute to
the men and women who have bravely served, vandals entered the cemetery and desecrated the veterans' burial area.
"It's
pathetic that someone would do something like this," said Don Burkholder, president of the Connellsville Veterans Commission.
"These are the men that fought so bravely to make sure these kind of people are able to enjoy freedom and democracy.
"For
them to turn around and do something like this is unthinkable."
The incident, according to state police trooper Robert
A. McGraw, took place between 9 p.m. June 30 and 9:30 a.m. July 1. The damage included spray-painting derogatory words about
veterans on a walkway and placing an "X" on a plaque that dedicates the area to the soldiers.
Since then, workers at the
cemetery have been able to remove the pink paint from a concrete area, but the marker will have to be disassembled and taken
elsewhere to be refurbished.
Although the cost to make the repairs totals a mere $50, Burkholder said the disrespect shown
to the deceased war veterans cannot be calculated.
"Why would someone want to destroy a memorial?" he said.
To assist
the police investigation, Burkholder said, the Connellsville Veterans Commission has posted a $1,000 reward for information
that would lead to an arrest and conviction of those responsible for the vandalism.
Burkholder speculates that the damage
was done under the cover of darkness and out of the sight of those traveling along Route 119, where the cemetery is located.
No other damage was incurred at the cemetery.
"Hopefully someone will come forward and report the person or persons that
intentionally targeted the veterans area," he said.
Richard Brooks, president of the corporation, said approximately 1,900
veterans have been laid to rest in the cemetery.
"What is disturbing to us is that someone would single out the veterans,"
he said. "We obviously owe them a great debt of gratitude. We certainly wouldn't be where we are today if it were not for
our veterans."
The vandalism follows a series of similar incidents taking place in Uniontown where several flags and flagpoles
have been destroyed.
Joe T. Joseph, Department of Pennsylvania Americanism chairman and American Legion Post 51 member,
said that over a period of two weeks in June 17, flags and poles were slashed and bent and had to be removed.
The Legion
post had placed 850 American flags and 50 POW/MIA flags along city streets.
"This is a terrible showing of patriotism on
their part," Joseph said of the vandals.
The Uniontown veterans' organization is offering a $500 reward for information
relating to the incident.
Burkholder, meanwhile, said he is saddened that anyone would target a cemetery or a symbol that
represents the nation at any time of the year.
"It's senseless," he said.
Anyone with information is asked to call
McGraw at 724-439-7111.
DURING THE VIETNAM WAR, ANTI-WAR
PROTESTORS DID THE SAME THING. SEE SOME PICURES AND LEARN
THE DETAILS AT:
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Please help out below by writing an email letter to President
George Bush to please release the federal funds earlier. This disgraceful problem belongs to the State of
New Jersey, however the federal Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has agreed to match funds with the State of
New Jersey to correct the disgrace to American Veterans.
The above is taken from a letter from
United States Congressman Scott Garrett of New Jersey to the Federal Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
Learn More Details At:
A
HONORABLE, DISABLED CAP VETERAN OF THE VIETNAM WAR BATTLES THE
STATE OF NEW JERSEY OVER THE LEGAL MALPRACTICE OF ONE OF
THEIR VICE-CHAIRMAN OF ATTORNEY ETHICS.
-----------------------------
THE WAR IN IRAQ
There are more official Marine Corps pictures at:
 |
Caption:
Cpl. Kenneth L. Bryant, a squad leader with Weapons
Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, helps an Iraqi soldier during physical training at Camp Delta. The camp is run
by Marines and their Iraqi counterparts with Company D, 505th Battalion, Iraqi National Guard, as part of a Combined Action
Program (CAP). (USMC photo by Sgt. Jose E. Guillen)
Photo taken 08/01/2004 by Sgt. Jose E. Guillen
click on photo to open photo document and see photo information |
There are more official Marine Corps CAP pictures at:
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A
HONORABLE, DISABLED CAP VETERAN OF THE VIETNAM WAR BATTLES THE
STATE OF NEW JERSEY OVER THE LEGAL MALPRACTICE OF ONE OF
THEIR VICE-CHAIRMAN OF ATTORNEY ETHICS.
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