The VVA Veteran

The VVA Veteran is the bimonthly publication of Vietnam Veterans of America. http://www.vvaveteran Congress.

The VVA Veteran is a publication of Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc.® A veterans service organization chartered by the U.S.

12/08/2025

Larry Hilton joined the Marine Corps right after graduating from high school and in 1966 began serving a tour of duty in Vietnam as a Cannoneer with the 1st 155MM Gun Battery in the 3rd Marine Division. Hilton tells all in his new memoir, Vietnam Fire Mission. Here's Bob Wartman's review just posted on Books in Review II: https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2025/12/08/vietnam-fire-mission-by-larry-allen-hilton/

12/04/2025

Thomas Bragg's "Keeping It Lively" is a consise Vietnam War memoir of his tour of duty as an Army 1st Cavalry Division trooper and a tribute to his close war buddy, Eddie Lama, who did not come home from the war. Here's Bob Wartman's review, just posted on Books in Review II: https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2025/12/04/keeping-it-lively-by-thomas-j-bragg/

12/03/2025

"Cav Hat," VVA life member's Rex Gooch's new book, is a combination Vietnam War memoir, a history of U.S. cavalry units, and an appreciation of the esprit de corps of the men who have worn the distinctive Cavalry hat. Gooch served in Vietnam in 1971-72, flying Hueys with the Army’s D Troop, 3rd Squadron, 5th Cavalry Regiment. Here's Bob Wartman's review just posted on Books in Review II: https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2025/12/03/cav-hat-by-rex-gooch/

11/23/2025

Here's Episode 43 of “Dispatches,” our video web series. In it, Arts Editor Marc Leepson interviews Ron Osgood, a U.S. Navy Vietnam War veteran and an award-winning documentary filmmaker. They’ll be talking about his Emmy-winning film, “Just Like Me: The Vietnam War/The American War,” stories of Americans and Vietnamese who took part in the war; “My Vietnam, Your Iraq,” which highlights families of Vietnam War veterans whose children served in the Iraq War; and his latest, “I Do Remember,” a highly engaging personal film in which Osgood creatively tells the story of an unexpectedly eventful 1972 road trip that stars himself and his old, cranky Volkswagen van.

11/20/2025

Retired USAF Col. Robert L. Stirm, a former Vietnam POW whose airport homecoming in 1973 was the subject of a widely published Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph that came to symbolize the idealized homecoming of every Vietnam War veteran—died on November 11 at age 92.

The photo, tiled “Burst of Joy,” by Associated Press photographer Slava Veder, was taken on March 17, 1973, after Col. Stirm returned to the USA with 19 other POWs at Travis AFB in California. It caught the moment his 15-year-old daughter was about to leap into his arms with her sister, two brothers, and mother just behind her.

The F-105 Thunderchief pilot had been shot down over North Vietnam on a bombing mission on October 27, 1967, and held at the Hanoi Hilton.

It turned out that the family’s joy was short-lived as he and his wife, Loretta, were divorced the following year.

Full obituary at: https://www.navytimes.com/veterans/military-history/2025/11/20/airman-behind-famed-burst-of-joy-photo-dies-at-92/

11/19/2025

Coming Monday, November, at 9:00 a.m. Eastern: Episode 43 of “Dispatches,” our video web series. In it, Arts Editor Marc Leepson interviews Ron Osgood, a U.S. Navy Vietnam War veteran and an award-winning documentary filmmaker. They’ll be talking about his Emmy-winning film, “Just Like Me: The Vietnam War/The American War,” stories of Americans and Vietnamese who took part in the war; “My Vietnam, Your Iraq,” which highlights families of Vietnam War veterans whose children served in the Iraq War; and his latest, “I Do Remember,” a highly engaging personal film in which Osgood creatively tells the story of an unexpectedly eventful 1972 road trip that stars himself and his old, cranky Volkswagen van.

11/06/2025

Bob Mulholland, 1946-2025

Bob Mulholland, a longtime Vietnam War veterans advocate and Vietnam Veterans of America political adviser and government relations specialist, died October 19. He was 78. He served a 1967-68 in Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Division where he was wounded during the 1968 Tet Offensive.

A forceful and effective veterans advocate on the local, state, and national levels, Bob Mulholland was an active member of Butte County, California, Chapter 582; served as a delegate at many VVA National Conventions; and advised VVA national leaders on congressional political matters for decades.

“Bob was one-of-a-kind, a force of nature,” his wife Jane Dolan said. “Underneath his sometimes-tough nature he was many more things,” and “was especially immersed in helping and enjoying being with veterans.”

“We’ve lost a true friend and a fighter,” said Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.). “Bob Mulholland was a passionate advocate for his community.”

He “was always smiling; he was a happy warrior,” said former VVA Board member and California State Council President Jim Doyle, who had worked with Mulholland since the mid-seventies. “I never knew him to be angry, and I never saw him when he wasn’t smiling, regardless of the circumstances.”

11/03/2025

Here's Episode 42 of “Dispatches,” our video web series. In it, Arts Editor Marc Leepson interviews the long-time journalist and editor Philip Taubman and his brother William, an Amherst College Emeritus Professor of Political Science and Pulitzer-Prize-winning biographer. They’ll be discussing their eye-opening new book, “McNamara at War: A New History,” a first-rate, in-depth, cradle-to-grave biography of the controversial—to say the least--former Secretary of Defense who ran the Vietnam War from 1963 to 1968.

10/31/2025

Coming Monday, November 3, at 9:00 a.m. Eastern: Episode 42 of “Dispatches,” our video web series. In it, Arts Editor Marc Leepson interviews the long-time journalist and editor Philip Taubman and his brother William, an Amherst College Emeritus Political Science Professor and Pulitzer-Prize-winning biographer. They’ll be discussing their eye-opening new book, “McNamara at War: A New History,” a first-rate, in-depth, cradle-to-grave biography of the controversial—to say the least—former Secretary of Defense who ran the Vietnam War from 1963 to 1968.

10/15/2025

"The World's Most Dangerous Paper Route," a first-class documentary on the history of Stars and Stripes that contains a lot of material on the Vietnam War, is now available online. Find out where to look for it in Arts Editor Marc Leepson's just-posted review on Arts of War at https://vva.org/arts-of-war/the-worlds-most-dangerous-paper-route-an-uplifting-doc-on-stars-and-stripes/

10/04/2025

University of Kentucky Emeritus Professor of English Armando José Prats' 2024 book, "Imperial Wars," is an in-depth historical essay about Vietnam War films and their impact on American culture and the war in Vietnam. Hint: John Wayne plays a big role in Professor Prats' main thesis. Here's Dan Hart's review, just posted in Books in Review II: https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2025/10/04/hollywoods-imperial-wars-by-armando-jose-prats/

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The VVA Veteran is the bimonthly magazine published by Vietnam Veterans of America, the only congressionally chartered U.S. Veterans Service Organization that has worked since its beginnings (in 1978) on behalf of Vietnam War veterans and their families. Our founding principle is “Never Again Will One Generation of Veterans Abandon Another.”

Visit our on-line edition at http://vvaveteran.org/37-6/37-6_index.html, our Books in Review II web page at https://vvabooks.wordpress.com, and our Arts of War on the web page at https://vva.org/publications/the-arts