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Why The VA Frustrates Veterans: Delay, Deny and Hope That I DieAs 60 Minutes on Sunday January 3, 2010 showed us: "Two Wars Are Slowing The Large Bureaucracy, Delaying Benefits." What follows below is the text of their video
( http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6050247n
). NY
State Senator John J. Flanagan Honors John Andrew Thorburn, Ra The
Rugged Man's Father
By
g
Saturday September 27, 2008 Hicksville
Long Island's Senator recently honored Ra The Rugged Man's
father for his service to the country during the Vietnam War. If you
remember, Ra touched on his father's wartime experiences in his song, Uncommon
Valor. SENATOR
FLANAGAN HONORS STONY BROOK VETERAN Senator
John J. Flanagan (2nd Senate District) recently had the opportunity to
host and congratulate Stony Brook veteran John Andrew Thorburn for
receiving the Conspicuous Service Cross for his service to the United
States during Vietnam War. The Vietnam veteran served in both the Army
and the Air Force during his seven years of service to the country. The
Conspicuous Service Cross is awarded by New York State to honor those
veterans whose service to the country was of high standard and honorable
demeanor. A recipient must have either received one of a select group of
high military honors or have satisfied some other criteria to receive
the honor. As
a member of the Army, Staff Sergeant Thorburn was a member of both the
101st Airborne Division as part of the Screaming Eagles and the Green
Berets before transferring to the Air Force in June of 1968. He
continued serving in the military while a member of the Air Force until
his retirement in 1970 due to injuries suffered while defending his
country. For
his service, Staff Sergeant Thorburn was issued a number of medals
including the Purple Heart, the Distinguished Flying Cross (Oak Leaf
Cluster), the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters, the Republic of
Vietnam Gallantry Cross, the Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal, the
Vietnam Service Medal, the Air Force Good Conduct Medal, Air Force Crew
Member Wings, the United States Army Good Conduct Medal and the United
States Army Silver Wings. "It
is my honor and privilege to pay tribute to Mr. Thorburn and to say -
on behalf of our state - thank you," said Senator Flanagan. "Men
and women like Mr. Thorburn are the true heroes of our nation and we
must always remember their sacrifice. This medal is one small way that
we as state can show that our appreciation and tell them that their
efforts will never be forgotten." I
came across some more information regarding Thorburn Sr.'s honorable
service to his country: Parrot
enlisted in the Army in 1964. He went into 101st Airborne and then
into Green Berets. He was stationed in Germany. He returned home after 3
years and then re-upped into the Air force. He volunteered for Vietnam.
He was into fields and skies of Agent Orange. Parrot was a helicopter
machine gunner. Their job was to save wounded soldiers in the field or
rescue them from perilous conditions; many times it was while the
fighting was still going on. It was "in your face combat". On
December 8, 1969 a fellow comrade came up to Parrot. He was about to go
on his last mission before heading home, a patrol needed to be rescued.
He was very nervous; he felt he would not make it back. Parrot said,
"Don't worry; I'll go for you, you go home". His comrade was
right. Parrot's helicopter was shot down, but not before he
distinguished himself by silencing the enemy and saving the patrol. He
lay out there for 3 days in pain, in and out of consciousness before
they found them. Their pilot was killed. When the rescue chopper landed,
they looked at Parrot and he could hear someone say "this one's
dead". Parrot had sustained major injuries. They picked him up and it
was excruciating pain. His hip was forced further up in the socket from
the impact of the crash and he had multiple injuries. John was in Saint
Alban's Naval Hospital for a year. He was in a full body cast for much
of it and gradual steps until he could walk with a cane. He received his
medals at the hospital; he received The Conspicuous Service Cross, Two
Distinguished Flying Crosses With Oak Leaf Cluster and two Citations for
Outstanding heroism and selfless devotion to duty, 4 Air Medals And of
course a Purple Heart. He receives 100% disability. John
has had 6 children. Two, Dee Dee and Maxx were born severely
handicapped. They were Microcephalic, (Small brain) they did not advance
mentally past 8 months old. Dee Dee was born in 1982, she was only
supposed to live a few days, but she did survive, the doctors then said
she would never be a teenager, Dee Dee died last month, she was 25 years
old. Max was born in 1991, he was worse than Dee Dee, he was also blind.
6 years ago Maxx died at the age of 10 unexpectedly. John and his wife
never put their children into an institution, they cared for them. Their
children could not speak or walk they could only laugh or cry...they
laughed a lot. John's daughter Lisa gave John his first grandchild,
Vincent, in 1991. Vincent was born with a rare muscle disease. He died
when he was not quite 6 months old. Parrot,
my brother was just diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer in one lung and
stage 3 in the other. Did I mention Agent Orange? During
the presidential debates, McCain and Obama both said they will take care
of the country's veterans. Lets hope so!!!
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Uncommon Valor: The Story of Staff
Sergeant John A.Thorburn and RA The Rugged Man (John's Son)
ARTIST INTERVIEWS By TSSCrew on December 20, 2007 at 1:08 pm Words By DJ Sorce-1
Graphics By P.
On
March 14th, 1970, during a Long Range Reconnaissance Patrol mission in
the Duc Lap area of the Quang Duc Province of South Viet Nam, a UH-1P
helicopter carrying Capt. Dana A. Dilley, Capt. Marvin R. Loper, SSgt
John A. Thorburn, and A1c David A. Carpenter was shot down by enemy
ground fire. Staff Sergeant Thorburn, along with fellow gunner A1C
Carpenter, suffered serious injuries. Captain Dilley lost his life in
the crash, and Captain Loper sustained broken bones in one of his feet.
An Army helicopter on the same operation was able to rescue the
surviving crew and bring them to Cam Ranh Bay, where they received
treatment for their injuries. Upon receiving treatment, they were
brought back to the U.S. Despite being badly injured, Thorburn
ultimately survived the incident. Thirty-six
years later, in a verse that would win him a "Hip-Hop Quotable" in
the October 2006 issue of The Source, Thorburn's son,
RA The Rugged Man, would retell what took place on that fateful March
night in the Jedi Mind Tricks' song "Uncommon Valor: A Vietnam
Story". The song was featured on Jedi Mind's most recent album, Servants
in Heaven, Kings in Hell. Spanning fourty-four bars and nearly two
minutes, RA's rapid fire, monotone masterpiece of a verse left people
breathless as he dropped lines like "Tail rotor broke, crash land,
American man, Cambodia, right in the enemy hand" over superproducer
Stoupe's haunting production. His vivid storytelling ability and
insight into his father's emotional state during the helicopter crash
made the song an instant classic. Over a year after its release, the verse stands as one of RA's finest moments as an MC. His verse is so good that The Crew's DJ Sorce-1 decided to talk to RA about what went into making the song. TSS is proud to present an in depth look at the genesis of "Uncommon Valor: A Vietnam Story".
Hicksville Vietnam War Era Memorial The
List of Names of those who served now totals 468. We are hoping that the new year will see a renewed effort on
the part of the many readers of HixNews in assisting us with the
addition of the many more names we feel are still out there. The
Project Team has been actively seeking broader distribution of the news
of this effort and has now entered into detailed discussions on various
fundraising efforts for the Memorial as well.
Memorial design is also being initiated. Site selection in Hicksville and the necessary approvals to
construct a Memorial are also pending. Memorial Qualifications:
A person must have been on
active duty in one of our Armed Forces during the Vietnam Era. The
person did not necessarily have to serve in Vietnam, because by being in
service at that time he or she faced the possibility of being sent to
Vietnam and was an integral part of strengthening our Armed Forces
during a time of war. Overall
qualifications include:
Even
with 468 names, we know there are many more that served who meet these
qualifications, but have yet to be identified by the Project Team.
Rough estimates indicate we should be able to collect between 2
and 3 thousand names. We have access to official records in
Washington, D.C. but have found that many people left Hicksville before
entering the service and show a different town or city as their home at
the time of entry. So, we need to continue this grassroots effort
and will also continue to use official records as a means of
confirmation of all personnel on the list.
Our
Project Team consists of the following members: ·
Ken Strafer, Founder (HHS
'62) ·
Joe Carfora, Master List
(HHS '62) ·
Carl Probst, Input Data,
Class of '59 & Others (HHS '59) ·
Tony Plonski, Input Data,
Class of '64 & Others (HHS '64) ·
Tommy Sullivan, Press
Release Editing (HHS '63) ·
Walter Schmidt, Hicksville
Local Coordinator & Town of Oyster Bay Veterans Services Officer
(HHS '65) ·
Joe Ingino, Veterans
Advocate, Hicksville & Long Island (HHS '67) ·
Jay Tranchina, Input Data,
Class of '64 & Others, plus local press contact (HHS 1964) ·
Bill Walden, Commander of
Hicksville VFW Post (HHS '65)
What we need each person reading this to do: Please
click on the following link and review the current list of names: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AmMG_lUq31y2dGRoZU9hTUpjY1dnN1VEZGFLQlFic0E&hl=en If
you know of someone who is not listed, please send their name to Joe
Carfora at jcarfora1@nc.rr.com.
Please use the information contained on the current list as a
guide for the data we need. Thank
you! The
Vietnam War Era Memorial Project Team Footnote extracted from www.vietnamwar.com:
During 15 years of military involvement, over 2 million Americans
served in Vietnam with 500,000 seeing actual combat. 47,244 were killed
in action, including 8000 airmen. There were 10,446 non-combat deaths.
153,329 were seriously wounded, including 10,000 amputees. Over 2400
American POWs/MIAs were unaccounted for as of 1973.
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