The government told us we weren't spies, but then they trained us to lie about what we were doing in the event that our aircraft was shot down and we were taken as prisoners.We were supposed to tell our enemies that we were in their air space to observe their weather conditions. HA!
Upon enlisting in the Air Force in 1971 I was sent to the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, CA where I learned Chinese Mandarin. After several other training programs (including additional Chinese language instruction, radio telecommunications/audio recording school, and POW, water landing, and jungle survival schools) I was shipped off to Okinawa, Japan. From the base there I flew as a crew member aboard RC-135 reconnaissance missions along with other Chinese, Vietnamese and/or Korean linguists to locations in and around North Vietnam, China, and Korea. Once we arrived at our destination we flew in a continuous oval orbit, listening to, recording, and translating various radio transmissions broadcast from our target country languages into English. We flew those oval patterns for 12 full hours and received mid-air refuelings from KC-135 tankers as needed.
We were certainly not invited to those locations, and so we were not welcomed guests. As such, we were sometimes chased away by fighter aircraft or otherwise encouraged to leave the area. At other times,extremely turbulent weather or mechanical failures (such as the breakdown of one or more of our four engines, engine fires, leaking oxygen from the cabin, loss of hydraulics, etc) forced us to make the dangerous 2, 3, or 4 hour flight back to our home base in Okinawa.
After suffering in silence for nearly 40 years, I was finally diagnosed by the VA with PTSD caused as a result of several close calls while flying on those missions. Now, so much of what has happened to me over the years finally makes sense including: drinking and smoking to excess, having a great deal of difficulty sleeping, anxiety attacks, depression, having been fired from multiple jobs, etc. It really kind of pisses me off that no one from the VA ever reached out to me during all that time since my discharge. The only reason I made my way into the VA system at all was because my private health insurance became way too expensive to afford. I applied for and was accepted for VA health care due to my low income back in 2004 - and it was a couple of years after that when I learned that they had diagnosed me with PTSD. In fact, I discovered it all by accident when I requested a copy of my records and read the diagnosis for myself. They didn't even have the balls to tell me that they had diagnosed me with PTSD; I had to pry into my medical records to inadvertently come across it!
Now for the real kicker: the reconnaissance missions we participated in and the intelligence we gathered were highly classified - I was investigated beforehand and given the highest security clearance available. Many of our missions were conducted smack-dab inside the Vietnam combat zone for which we received monthly combat/hazardous duty pay. Perhaps due to the highly classified nature of our work or for some other reason, no mention was ever made on my DD214 of where I performed my duties or exactly what I did. That means that there's no mention of my having worked in the combat zone anywhere on my DD214.
I've since learned that there are PTSD treatment programs and other benefits within the VA system available only to "combat" veterans. Since my DD214 does not accurately reflect my service as a "combat" veteran I have written to the appropriate offices in the VA to have it corrected. They've written back to me and told me that since no records were ever kept of the specific flights I flew on then they cannot amend my records. I've even shown them the orders awarding me my permanent wings for having flown the initial 10 combat missions (their words, not mine) as well as my pay records that reflect my combat pay for each of the nearly 30 months that I flew those missions. Still, they refuse to correct my DD214. Am I wrong to consider myself a "combat" veteran? Maybe I am...
Lastly, I was able to apply for and am receiving service-connected disability payments for my PTSD. My award letter states that I was able to satisfactorily prove my combat participation to them for the purpose of granting me the award. The VA, however, still refuses to amend my DD214 which continues to prevent me from getting free treatment for PTSD at Veteran Service Centers. They say it's because they are only authorized to treat "combat" veterans who have their combat duty clearly reflected on their DD214s.
I'm sorry for posting such a long introduction on this forum. It helps me at times just to be able to vent my frustrations!
