Our father went to veitnam and had 3 daughters when he returned. Our parents broke up when we were young therefore our father does not know what health problems we have as since the seperation we don't have much to do with hime. My sisters and I have all gone on to have children and have discovered that all his grandchildren have health probelms as well. We find it very difficult to find any answers to our questions as we get told our father has the information. As alot of vetrans are divorced I think to find out an accurate statistic that the study should be sent to the children themselves so that the true informtion is documented as some of the fathers do not know the information and put down other things. I also feel that you need to survey only the vetrans biological children, as I know of some vetrans that have put down information about there new partners children (that do not have anything to do with vietname) and not their biological children.

My father was an alcohlic, my mother suffered with bi polar illness, one of my chldren as a severe heart abnormality, I have been treated for depression several times, one son has redundant malfromed small toes, the other has asthma the fourth child is incorrigable - I guess dad must have done a sly tour of duty with out letting any one know - how else can these things be explained?.

I am not unsympathetic - I just seem that way - but I suggest these eggs may never get unscrambled.

I am the son-of-step to a vietnam veteran, who is on a disability support pension as a direct result of my fathers war service.

My father raised me from 2years old, which demonstrates that it is nurture not nature that effects the children of vietnam vets.

They say our fathers are models for GOD and we are our fathers sons.

I can remember being a child and being exposed to my dad being called a baby killer and a coward. I can remember being bullied because I was proud of my dad and being labelled as crazy and a trouble maker, making sure the bully ate his words (and some teeth).

If society put down our fathers, who we saw as different from "the average", what does that say about GOD and what does that say about us?

Yes problems are normal and there are other similar symptoms shown by other groups in society, but only one other social group demonstrates the same level of suicide (3x the national avareage), mental health issues (39.1) self esteem issues (21%), unemployment rate (15%) and overrepresentation in the criminal justice and mental health system and that group is indigenous Australians.

So because of my fathers war sevice I am part of a group who have as many barriers to accessing a reasonable quality of life as aborigines, without the social and advocacy services to make it a level playing field.

Shows how little our lives are worth within society because of our fathers war service.

I have started a website www.freewebs.com/posttoursonsanddaughters have a look and leave a comment.

To our fathers who say "Hournor the dead, fight like hell for the living" we say "we can, we will, just cover our backs"

For Glynis8;

Our Daughters Edited version

My kidneys were severely scarred plus my uretha was severely scarred..The doctor had to scrape as much of the scarring from my kidneys

Also my uretha is 1/4 the size of a normal persons which gave the doctor a nightmare of an operation,,

I was in hospital for approximately 3-4weeks with ongoing treatments the urologist had also told me at 16, he had a gyno look at me in one of the ops and I had endometriosis.

Nothing was done about this until I was about 25 & had an abnormal pap smear.

I went to see a gyno

I had a pretty bad case of endo which may require further treatment with tablets or implants about a year after the 1st op.

I had to go on a course of zolodex which is an implant in between the navel and pubic region.

It was supposed to shrink my ovaries to stop my bleeding, because if I'm not on the pill I bleed constantly and they don't now why.

So I was put me into menopause. it's a 6 month course & it should have stop any growth in my reproductive region. which it didn't.

I bled throughout the 6 months which amazed the doctor, he said he'd never heard of that happening it put me into menopause & I went onto hormone replacement therapy at 26 years old.

That was terrible to come to terms with because of my age

The Dr did a partial hymenectomy which was supposed to make the thrush go away ,thrush I still get

I had to go into hospital again for another laproscopy because the endo never left me

I also have hypertension which was diagnosed last year. I was 29,and now I am on coversyl tablets for the rest of my life.

I have relationship problems. I can't talk to anyone about myself because no one understands.

Also I possess all the symptoms of a diabetic..But No diabetes problems registers..I always have a teaspoon of sugar to alleviate my feelings...

Hi to all I,m trying to post a comment from Aussie 1 but do not seem to be succeeding. Willtry anoter way The real disgrace of the Vietnam and in fact all eras of conflict is that it appears governments and taxpayers seem to "conveniently forget" that the the "direct qnd indirect victims" are deserving of treatment and support by the country whose activities caused these consequences Take care Aussie1 terry

Hello from Terry. I returned from Vietnam on 14th September 1966. On that day and since my belief has firmly become that Australia's Greatest Enemies are in fact Australians who put personal and self interest before duty and obligations to all those who have suffered and continue to suffer due to their's or their forbear's honourable and dedicated service to Australia. To me those who hypocritically praise us in public and stab us behind our backs are cowardly and pathetic traitors. How long since any of them have been charged with treason? Perhaps the greatest disgrace is that many Politicians from all sides and more so Public Servants, who do not have the protection of parliamentary privilege have , in the past, been seemingly protected and totally immune from prosecution for such things as Deceptive and Misleading Conduct, Wilful negligence, deliberate lying in Public, improperly misinterpreting, reducing and erasing Veteran benefits and being allowed to get away with it. Many Heads of Veteran Organisations have got “too close” to Government or the Public Service and pushed their own “bandwagon” rather than look out for the welfare and support of the Actual Veteran, his/her widow/widower and the Orphans or dependent/suffering children. More of that in a later post .
In the meantime here are a couple of questions to think about and perhaps invite response.
Ques 1. Where do a great deal of the imported cashew nuts such as commonly found on Supermarket’s shelves at for example at Woolworths come from?

Ques 2. If it is true, as reported in detail by the Vietnamese Red Cross, that areas such as Bien Hoa province north of Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) still register dioxin (Acknowledged Carcinogenic by product of Agent Orange) levels in excess of 200 times the “permissable level” then why is Australia allowing the import of these products or any other products from areas (most of Vietnam's wooded areas and surrounds) from which agricultural products come or fish products from the corrupted waterways of particularly the Mekong delta? Take care Keep safe