Boots on the ground

[BRlang]

Hi All,

I know some of you have done this before and might be able to help.

A CCK crew chief needs to get his DD-214 corrected to show boots on the ground in Viet Nam.

He has a letter from Reed Mulkey about a shuttle he was on, but Reed has passed and it seems the letter is not proof as it "has no seal" Could anyone help Dianna? Her e mail is direpeta(at)att.net.

Thanks

Bob

I was not able to copy and paste Reed's letter, too high tech for me so I am going to try to attach a PDF file.

IMG_0001.pdf

 

 Like this

[BRlang]

Here is what worked for me. I ordered all my records from St Louis. It took about 6 weeks to get the file. In it I found all my travel vouchers from my TDYs from CCK to TSN. Also were APRs from my A/C and NCOIC noting how many days TDY in RVN and also the number of Combat Missions flown. I put together a packet that included the Travel Vouchers for TSN shuttles, Pictures of me taken in Saigon with obvious Vietnamese signs behind me and the Performance reports that talked about my duty on RVN flights. I sent this to Randolph AFB with a request to update my DD214 and show my RVN service. They sent back a letter of acknowledgement and then a few weeks later I received a letter the I was instructed to use to verify my "Boots on the Ground". They would not update my DD214. I will send Dianna an email with this paragraph included but I wanted to put this process back out there in case anyone else is in the same situation.

 

BR

That should help, Thanks, Bob

[Graywolf88]

Seems that some VA Hospitals will accept some things, but other VAs want something else. The standards are not consistent. The VA I was using would only make a change if I had VEM or VN Cross on my DD-214. I had VSM on my DD-214. Had orders for both VEM and VN Cross, but they would not accept the orders. I had to go through the office of my Congressional Representative to get anything done. Took almost 2 years, but finally got a DD-215 with the other medals I had orders for. Took the DD-215 in to the local VA and it took them about 5 minutes to make the changes. Travel vouchers, orders, pictures, flight records, none mattered to them. They would not even look at the paperwork. They kept giving me handouts about flying off a ship or flying out of Thailand without landing in country. They refused to even look at travel vouchers or flight records which proved hundreds of sorties in country.  The only way to change it was to get a DD-215. I have heard of VAs in other parts of the country making the changes without a DD-215. Find out what the VA you have to deal with will accept before you get too deep into it. There does not seem to be any consistent standards.

Trying to get a DD-215 through without help is also very difficult and time consuming. Congressional representative from your district should assign a Constituent Representative to help. 

[BRlang]

For all of us Crew Members and MX folks and Crew Chiefs that were stationed at CCK, Okinawa or the Phillipines there needs to be a blanket way to get this fixed. There must be hundreds of us that spent over half our tour actually on Vietnamise soil. One problem we deal with is that lots of these people making these decisions were not even born when we were bouncing off dirt strips from the Delta to the DMZ or spending the night with their bird getting it ready to go again the next day. I saw a denial letter from the airforce that denied "Boots on the Ground" because they could not find any existence of the 345th TAS...Does the airforce not have access to google. This person presented a letter of commendation from an A/C complimenting him  "Crew Chief" for the excellent maintenance of his C-130 while in country. He was in the 345th. They turned the letter down because it did not have a "seal" and they could not find where the squadron existed. How many of us just walked away and dropped it all together. We had to put up with lots of crap when we came home and now they tell us we are all lying about what we did. I got my letter from the Air Force that I used for 'Boots on the Ground" however they would not give me a 215.......Now that I think about my Squadron (345th) sent one of the C-130s to Hanoi to get the POWs...One of my A/Cs , George Elwood flew it for the 345th....   

 

[Graywolf88]

Quote

 

Yeah, all that is true. Every one of us was in country TDY. None of the TDY crews or support were included in the numbers of American troops in Vietnam. We had 70 or 80 birds in country at times and there is no record of it. When we were under the 834th Air Division the records show that the 834th was sent to Ton Sun Nhut with no equipment and no personnel. It would have been real difficult to move all that cargo and pax around without any planes, crews, or support. Pretty much nobody cares now and you have to fight the system to even get listed with the VA so you can file a claim.