The VVA Veteran

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.

06/02/2026

Author Joe Houlihan and 'Dispatches' host Marc Leepson share a laugh remembering Roger Altman's classic film "M*A*S*H," and whether every Houlihan really is a "Hotlips."

05/25/2026

Here’s Episode 48 of “Dispatches,” our video web series. Arts Editor Marc Leepson interviews the actor, director, and screenwriter Paul Sanchez, whose film and TV credits include “Born on the Fourth of July,” “Cast Away,” and “Navy SEALs,” and Oliver Stone’s “Platoon,” in which he played Doc, the medic. They’ll talk about “Platoon” and “Platoon: Brothers in Arms,” the 2018 documentary Paul wrote, directed, co-produced, and appeared in that tells the story of the making of the Academy-Award-winning Vietnam War film through the eyes its actors, including Charlie Sheen, Johnny Depp, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, John C. McGinley, and Keith David.

The staff of The VVA Veteran honors and remembers those who lost their lives in service to America every day of the year...
05/25/2026

The staff of The VVA Veteran honors and remembers those who lost their lives in service to America every day of the year--and especially today, Memorial Day.

Diane Carlson Evans, 1946-2026Diane Carlson Evans, the former U.S. Army Vietnam War nurse who led the long fight to buil...
05/22/2026

Diane Carlson Evans, 1946-2026

Diane Carlson Evans, the former U.S. Army Vietnam War nurse who led the long fight to build the Vietnam Women’s Memorial in Washington, D.C., died May 20 at 79.

“It is with a heavy heart to learn of the passing of Vietnam Veteerans of America life member and trailblazing Army Captain Diane Carlson Evans,” said VVA National President Tom Burke.

“Diane was a true American hero, volunteering at age 21 for the Army Nurse Corps and serving a life-changing 1968-69 tour of duty as a combat nurse in the operating and recovery rooms at the U.S. Army’s 36th Evacuation Hospital in Vũng Tàu and the 71st Evac in Pleiku.”

A founding member of Eau Clair, Wisconsin, VVA Chapter 5 in 1983, Diane Evans went on to “spend a lifetime working as a forceful veterans’ advocate,” Burke said.

That advocacy—and her personal experiences in the war and after coming home—led to the idea of a memorial at The Wall in Washington to honor the American women who served in the Vietnam War.

Diane Evans’ many awards include the Presidential Citizens Medal in 2025 and the VVA Lifetime Achievement Award.

She received the VVA award at the 2022 National Leadership Conference, following the publication of her acclaimed memoir, "Healing Wounds," which dealt with her service in the war, her emotional turbulence after coming home, and her fight to get Women’s Memorial built.

“I feel peace,” she wrote near the end of the book. “The grace I used to pray for when the causalities came in has been showing up more frequently. Prayers have been answered. Faith restored. Joy permitted. Guilt quieted.”

Coming on Memorial Day, Monday, May 25, at 9:00 a.m. Eastern: Episode 48 of “Dispatches,” our video web series. Arts Edi...
05/22/2026

Coming on Memorial Day, Monday, May 25, at 9:00 a.m. Eastern: Episode 48 of “Dispatches,” our video web series. Arts Editor Marc Leepson interviews the actor, director, and screenwriter Paul Sanchez, whose film and TV credits include “Born on the Fourth of July,” “Cast Away,” and “Navy SEALs,” and Oliver Stone’s “Platoon,” in which he played Doc, the medic. They’ll talk about “Platoon” and “Platoon: Brothers in Arms,” the 2018 documentary Paul wrote, directed, co-produced, and appeared in that tells the story of the making of the Academy-Award-winning 1986 Vietnam War film through the eyes its actors, including Charlie Sheen, Johnny Depp, Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, John C. McGinley, and Keith David.

The late Mike Holden was drafted into the Army in 1967 and became a Staff Sergeant after finishing Shake and Bake School...
05/21/2026

The late Mike Holden was drafted into the Army in 1967 and became a Staff Sergeant after finishing Shake and Bake School at Fort Polk. He went on to put in a 1968-69 combat-heavy Vietnam War tour of duty with the 1st Infantry Division’s 2nd Battalion of the 16th Infantry. He tells all in his memoir, Told to Go, which his son Kyle put together following his father's death. Here's Harvey Weiner's review, just posted on Books in Review II: https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2026/05/21/told-to-go-by-j-m-mike-holden/
Photo below: a 2nd/16th RTO in-country

James R. Smither, a military historian at Grand Valley State University, has spent years collecting oral histories from ...
05/15/2026

James R. Smither, a military historian at Grand Valley State University, has spent years collecting oral histories from veterans, including many from former 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) troopers who fought in the bloody Vietnam War Battle of Fire Support Base Ripcord in 1970. Those interviews are at the heart of his new book, "The End of the Rope: The Ripcord Campaign and American Disengagement in Vietnam." Here's Ed Mann's review, which we just posted on Books in Review II: https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2026/05/15/the-end-of-the-rope-by-james-r-smither/

Philip Caputo, 1941-2026Philip Caputo, the acclaimed journalist and novelist best known for his best-selling Vietnam War...
05/09/2026

Philip Caputo, 1941-2026

Philip Caputo, the acclaimed journalist and novelist best known for his best-selling Vietnam War memoir, "A Rumor of War," died May 7 at 84 of complications of esophageal cancer.

Caputo joined the Marine Corps after finishing college in 1964 and served a 16-month tour as an infantry lieutenant in the Vietnam War. Soon after his discharge, in 1968, he went to work as a general assignment reporter, and later as a foreign correspondent, at The Chicago Tribune, winning a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting in 1973. Among other foreign assignments, Caputo covered the end of the Vietnam War in April 1975.

"A Rumor of War," his first book, came out in 1977, and since has earned a place near the top of the American Vietnam War literary canon. To call "A Rumor of War" the "best book about Vietnam is to trivialize it,” the novelist and screenwriter John Gregory Dunne wrote in his review in 1977. “Heartbreaking, terrifying and enraging, it belongs to the literature of men at arms.”

A Rumor of War has been published in 15 languages, sold more some two million copies, and remains in print today.

Caputo went on to write two other memoirs, five general nonfiction books, and ten novels. His latest book, "Wandering Souls," came out late in 2025. Two of short stories in the book deal with the aftereffects of the Vietnam War and contain flashbacks to wartime action.

In addition to the Pulitzer, Caputo’s other honors include the VVA Excellence in the Arts Award, which he received at the 1989 National Convention. His January 2026 interview for The Veteran’s video web series “Dispatches” is archived online at https://vvaveteran.org/videos/index.html

Vietnam War veteran Lee Rebsom's novel "Brothers No More: A Vietnam Odyssey," is a sem-autobiographical tale that focuse...
05/07/2026

Vietnam War veteran Lee Rebsom's novel "Brothers No More: A Vietnam Odyssey," is a sem-autobiographical tale that focuses on the Vietnam War stories of three brothers who grew up on a ranch in North Dakota and all wound up fighting in the war. Here's Tom Werzyn's review, just posted on Books in Review II:
https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2026/05/05/brothers-no-more-by-lee-rebsom/

The big Hollywood producer Steve Starkey's new coffee-table book, "On the Set of Forrest Gump", is--as the title suggest...
05/04/2026

The big Hollywood producer Steve Starkey's new coffee-table book, "On the Set of Forrest Gump", is--as the title suggests--an inside, street-level Hollywood look at how the famed film was made. Starkey, who produced the movie, includes dozens of stills that have never been in print in this book, including of the startlingly realistic Vietnam War battles scenes of the much-admired Tom Hanks movie that went on to receive six Academy Awards. Here's Arts Editor Marc Leepson's review just posted on Books in Review II: https://vvabooks.wordpress.com/2026/05/04/on-the-set-of-forrest-gump-by-steve-starkey/

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