Khe Sanh Veterans Association Inc.

Red Clay
Newsletter of the Veterans who served at Khe Sanh Combat Base,
Hill 950, Hill 881, Hill 861, Hill 861-A, Hill 558
Lang-Vei and Surrounding Area

Issue 46   Spring Summer 2000

Health Matters

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By Joseph Olszewski
Alamo, California

In late February 1968 I stepped on a mine on Hill 558 near Khe Sanh. That evening my left foot was amputated on the USS Repose. The doctor who performed the surgery said he could have saved my foot, but I would probably walk better and be more active with a prosthesis as every bone in my foot was shattered. I was twenty-four years old at that time.

That year I was also married in Arlington, Virginia and my wife and I flew to Northern California that same evening to begin our married life.

After all the Physical training (PT) in the service and all those long patrols in 'Nam, I did absolutely nothing, exercise wise, between the ages of twenty-five and thirty. During this time period, I concentrated on my family, my career and my sixteen-year-old house.

By the time I reached thirty, however, I began to feel the physical effects of non-exercise. I was gaining weight, I was frequently tired, my career was growing and so was the pressure. At the time, I remembered how good I felt after running those three-mile treks through the woods at Quantico, Virginia during my OSC/Basic School training days. So I began to jog down Danville Boulevard in Alamo, California. At first, not very far. Just a block or two every other day or so. Then I began to count the telephone poles that I passed. Today ten poles passed, tomorrow fifteen, next week twenty. Pretty soon I was driving the distances I jogged so I could track the mileage I was covering. From Arbor Lane (where my now forty six-year old house is located) to Rudger Road is exactly one mile. From Arbor Lane to Entrada Verde is exactly a half a mile. Thus, this loop from Arbor Lane to Rudger Road to Entrada Verde was a three-mile jog.

I ran this route for a good ten years. Then I started to get cocky. First, I started timing these runs always trying to cut a few more seconds. Then I started training for and running in the various 10K races that became so popular throughout the country in the 80's. At first, I didn't want other runners to know that I was an amputee, so I always ran in sweat pants or jogging suits. Soon I didn't care what I looked like or what other runners were thinking and I would run in shorts, a knee wrap to hold my prosthesis tighter and long knee-length socks. By the time I reached my early forties, running in 10 Ks just wasn't challenging enough. I thought about marathons, as that was becoming popular. I watched a few and even began training for one, but I knew I didn't have the time to devote to it and my body started telling me something once again. In short, it was telling me if I trained for a marathon either my knees or hips were going to pay a big price.

At that time, I belonged to the Big C Health Club in Concord, California. It's a great club with great guys. "Boots" Erb was one of the managers. Both he and his father were starting quarterbacks for the University of California at Berkeley. The owner was Ken Hoffman who was a homebuilder and at one time was co-owner of the Seattle Seahawks. Both "Boots" and Ken were avid handball players. I watched a little, but at first it didn't interest me since you have to be ambidextrous. Until you get your off-hand as coordinated as your right hand, you're dead meat on a handball court. Thus, my workouts consisted of lifting weights, doing sit-ups and light running on treadmills.

One day I was sitting in the steam room with my wrapped leg (water does tremendous damage to prostheses, so I always sat in steam rooms with my knee-length sock and a knee wrap on my left leg) when one of the premier handball players in the club asked me what was wrong with my knee. I said my knee was fine, but my left foot refused to grow back. He laughed. I laughed. The next evening I was learning handball. This great handball player, Kit Davilia, who I met in the steam room, was a former Army airborne trooper. On one jump he broke his right foot and had to have some of the bones fused. He could identify with me and we became immediate friends.

He talked me into trying handball. It's hard. It's real hard. You have to be able to use both hands as effectively as your strong hand. This alone takes about a year. Then, there's great pain in your hands as the ball is hard and it takes forever to toughen your hands to develop calluses to absorb the punishment. When you're a new player, nobody wants to play against you. You get good at handball by playing against players who are better than you. That's how you improve. So, everybody looks for somebody better to play with. I could only get games with "Kit" and the sixty-year-olds who didn't care who they played against. Little by little, I improved and started getting gainer with some of the better players.

Clubs like The Big "C" sponsor both racket ball and handball tournaments. After two years of being a novice player, I decided to try playing in tournaments. In tournaments you play at your level. The lowest is "C" level, the next is "B" for the better-than-average players and finally "A" level where the real men live. I played m "C" level tournaments for years. I actually won one of two games, but never could improve enough to be the best "C" level player. One problem I had is that with the prosthesis I never had that quick last-minute adjustment to the ball. When handball players are good they can hit the ball with a little flick of the wrist, which causes the ball to hop to the left or the right when it hits the floor. That little hop is hard to adjust to when you don't have one ankle.

All these tournaments have awards and perks associated with the event. There's t-shirts, free beer served after an evening's rounds and at the end of the tournament there's an awards party. That's when they hand out the trophies to the winners of each level. For about five years I played in a lot of tournaments, but only for the camaraderie. The guys I played with regularly were big party types and always encouraged me to play in tournaments even though I could never improve. I played, got my T-shirt, got beat and went to the post-tournament party. This went on for a good eight years.

After one tournament the great guys I played with felt sorry for me. They always admired my devotion and would kid me about my prosthesis. If I missed a shot, for example, they would shout: "Hey, Joe, you were a foot short on that shot." I remember one tournament game that I won. They gave the loser a T-shirt with wording on the front that read: "l lost to a one-footed handball player.'' It was great fun and the camaraderie was similar to what I remembered in the Corps. After this one tournament, however, they had a little surprise for me. They made a special presentation to me at the awards party. They waited until all the "A," "B" and "C" players received their awards and then they called me to the podium. "Kit" gave a little speech about how I always kept playing, but never won anything. Therefore, he and "the guys" thought that it was about time I received something to recognize my devotion. It was small, wrapped in a nice package and somewhat heavy as it was in a silver frame. When I opened it and read it, I laughed. Everybody laughed. It was a cartoon and the message they were trying to tell me was: "Keep trying, at least you're good entertainment." I loved it. I've always kept it in my office.

Recently, my company moved its headquarters from San Francisco to Pleasanton, California where most of us drive to work. Since I have handicapped license plates, I'm one of the few employees who use the handicapped parking slots. Whenever one of my fellow employees asks why I'm parked in the handicapped slots, I just show them this cartoon. Some laugh, some just walk away and a few need a little "hands on" feel-up to be convinced. It's great. I love it.

Today, at the age of fifty-six I no longer play handball. It punishes your wrists and forearms and after time it's simply too painful. I also never found that quick step. I still jog, but only on a treadmill.

What do I do now for entertainment and challenge? Well, I write articles for Red Clay. This is one sport that you get better at with age and nobody cares if you're an amputee.

No more T-shirts,
No more beer,
All I want is a Red Clay cheer.

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Agent Orange Update:
Prostate Cancer

There are several medical conditions determined to be related to Agent Orange exposure. Congress has declared that any service member who served in Vietnam during the war time era (February 28, 1961 through May 7, 1975) was exposed to Agent Orange, and such exposure may have caused several types of cancer. Diagnosis of any of these conditions will be considered "service connected" by the VA.

Veterans and survivors may be entitled to compensation for such diseases as lung cancer, multiple myeloma, Hodgkin's disease, lymphonia, and as of November 1996 prostrate cancer. If a Vietnam veteran is ever diagnosed with prostrate cancer, even if it is many years after service, it will be considered a service connected disability and compensation may be paid. Compensation can range from $0 (non-disabling) to around $2,000 (totally disabling). The degree of disability is determined by such factors as urinary frequency, leakage, and impotence. For example, daytime voiding interval of less than one hour or awakening to void five or more times per night will result in a rating of 40%. Awakening to void twice per night is rated 10%. Continual urinary leakage or incontinence requiring the wearing of absorbent materials, which must be changed more than four times per day will result in a 60% rating. If the pad must be changed less than twice a day, the rating is 20%. A small special monthly compensation is paid for impotence. The symptoms must be medically documented -- usually by a physical examination at a VA medical facility. The veteran files a claim on VA Form 21526 (Claim for Compensation or Pension). It must be accompanied by DD Form 214 showing Vietnam service and any medical evidence establishing the diagnosis of prostate cancer.

If the veteran has already completed that form in the past, it is not necessary to do so again. A brief letter requesting reopening the claim will suffice. Here is a suggested format for that letter: "This is to amend my original disability compensation claim to include prostrate cancer as per new Agent Orange regulations. Medical records showing the diagnosis are attached." The claim should be submitted to the VA Regional Office serving the area where the veteran resides. To obtain a claim form or to get the address of the VA, call 1-800-827-1000. Help in completing the form is available from many veterans' service organizations or from the VA. Other veterans' benefits may accrue as a result of a finding of service connection. They include insurance, medical treatment, and vocational rehabilitation. Survivors of Vietnam veterans who died of prostate cancer may also be entitle to benefits from the VA. An un-remarried surviving spouse may be entitled to a monthly payment of Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC). The current rate is $861. Dependent Educational Assistance may also be available for college attendance. The rate for full time attendance is $485 per month.

VA Response to November 24, 1999, "20/20" Segment on PTSD Ratings:

On Wednesday, November 24, ABC's newsmagazine 20/20 broadcast a story whose premise was that veterans lie in order to receive benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). VA Undersecretary for Benefits Joe Thompson and Dr. Laurent Lehman, the associate chief of psychiatry and PTSD programs, were interviewed for the story.

The story had a definite slant, and the interviewer, Jay Schadler, had a definite point of view. During an interview of more than an hour -- taped in March in Mr. Thompson's office -- Schadler asked over and over about the appearance that veterans are on a VA "gravy train." The implication is that a number of veterans have discovered ways to cheat the system and fraudulently receive benefits for PTSD, "up to 3,000 per month tax free" (his words).

To be fair, 20/20 acknowledged that PTSD is real, and that thousands of veterans are receiving benefits legitimately. But Schadler insisted on what he called the "common sense" approach that far too many veterans are receiving benefits in error. He even went on to question why Vietnam veterans are still coming to VA for PTSD claims 25 years after the war.

Throughout the interview, Mr. Thompson and Dr. Lehmann tried to educate Schadler about the claims process, and about how PTSD affects veterans, but Schadler stuck to his premise that this was an enormous rip-off. He even interviewed a VA claims representative who indicated that he had personal knowledge of hundreds of claims that had been allowed improperly.

PTSD is a medical condition. We know that Dr. Lehmann was interviewed, and we know he gave compelling information about the nature of PTSD and other mental health issues VA deals with. Nothing he said made it to broadcast.

VA's Position:

20/20 managed in this shoddy piece, to undo years of hard work by VA and by veterans' advocates to recognize PTSD and to encourage veterans to come to the VA for help. With this one story, ABC may have re-stigmatized veterans and scared them away from the help they need. That is tragic, and the network's news division should be ashamed. Dr. Leahman patiently explained the diagnosis and treatment of these veterans to the interviewer, but to no avail.

Mr. Thompson explained that the process of reviewing claims for service-connected disability does not encourage a situation in which lying is rewarded. He was ignored.

Near the end of the interview, Mr. Thompson summed up his concern. He said that as a Vietnam veteran he had seen a number of negative labels unfairly assigned to Vietnam veterans. "Please don't add 'charlatan' and 'fraud' to the list" he said. Unfortunately, that plea never made it on the air.

The resulting story showed what could happen when a producer and a reporter are closed-minded and care only about how a broadcast can be made to fit their pre-conceived notions

The VA assures all veterans, their families and their advocates that its commitment to the treatment and compensation for PTSD is ongoing. We encourage all veterans who need help to come to the VA. We will continue to process all claims for disability in accordance with the law, while showing the measure of concern and compassion the American people expect to be afforded the country's defenders.

From "Tundra Tom"
* 5th Rounds On Me * Tracer
One Of The Original FNG's Guns Alpha 1/9 1965

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