Combat Veterans’ Groups at the VetCenter. Do they really help?

Agreed....First thing first...Attendance!

I think that is great and a strong encouragement. Thank you

SSgt Richard Kensinger - I try to connect with younger veterans but they seem to be very introverted.

Sp-4 Olaf De Koning - I have been in various groups at the VA and it has helped me quite a bit. Sometimes I feel a bit guilty because the times I was out in the field with the 4th. Infantry Division carrying the M-60, we did NOT get into enemy contact. My MOS was 11-Bravo but after 4 months in-country, a Captain with two Silver Stars was sent to the Base Camp to head up a Supply and Transport facility. He liked and needed me because I had been placed into the 4th. Division's Supply and Transport Battalion due to my experience in civilian life. A couple of months later, they changed my primary MOS to 71-C (Sp-4 clerk/typist). But I knew infantry and had gone through "Tigerland" at Ft. Polk prior to going to Vietnam during the 1968 Tet Offensive. The other side of that "combat" coin was that we got hit with 122mm rockets all the time, one such rocket destroyed a fourth of the hooch seconds after we got into a sandbag bunker. THAT was not "peaceful" Base Camp activity either!

MAJ Ken Landgren - I find this also in my research. I believe they feel to vulnerable to reveal their inner world.
Rich

SSgt Richard Kensinger - You might be on to something. Generally speaking the young veterans I meet at the VA Hospital have PTSD. They could be struggling with it, while us older veterans, we are past that wretched state.