Vietnam Combat Veterans Coalition
An Honor Organization Advocating For Infantry Combat Vietnam Veterans
Our History
Vietnam Combat Veterans Coalition is a non-profit, tax exempt veterans organization composed of infantry, combat veterans.
Vietnam Combat Veterans Coalition (VCVC) was founded in July 1979 because of the Agent Orange issue. One Vietnam combat veteran became very concerned that no matter how hard he tried to put the War behind him, a deadly chemical sprayed on him by his own government would not let it go away. The news in 1978 and into 1979 ran several articles about the increasing concern with Agent Orange. He researched for more information and contacted the VA and the regular veterans’ organizations but no one seemed to care. Frustrated and angry, he formed Veterans Coalition with nine other Vietnam veterans and they began to meet weekly at a local community college. The fledgling group exchanged information on Agent Orange and discussed the many issues Vietnam veterans had. They supported each other with claims against the VA and banded together on trips to the VA hospitals for evaluations and treatments. They contacted the press and got on TV shows and radio. They received much press coverage way beyond the scope of the size of the organization because they were combat veterans, and used to fighting against all odds.
In 1981, another Vietnam veteran joined up, and often only the founder and he bothered to beat their heads against the bureaucracy’s walls. So, when the leader was asked the name of the organization he would say ‘VC’ (Veterans Coalition), the other vet would say ‘VC’, too, but point to both saying ‘you know, VC, VC’, and laugh. The leader liked it and so they changed the name to VCVC, and then invented the full name as Vietnam Combat Veterans Coalition (VCVC).
The crossed rifles logo was invented as a symbol of the infantryman’s weapon, and that in the Marine Corps the enlisted ranks above a PFC have crossed rifles sitting below the stripes of rank.
The motto became ‘An honor organization advocating for the rights of infantry combat Vietnam veterans.’ VCVC strove to help each other out like we had to do in the War. We held in honor our service as individuals in the War and our behavior back here in the States. No one else seemed to care.
VCVC never had any membership dues because we felt we paid our dues in Vietnam already. All our members are combat Vietnam veterans who served their time in hell. We have no officer or lifer members because they have their own organizations to belong to, and we don’t need any lifer or officer lording over us like they did in the War. This is an organization of Privates, PFC’s, Corporals, and a few sergeants, the men who bled and died by the tens of thousands in Vietnam.
By 1984, VCVC was heavily involved in the Agent Orange Class Action Suit against the evil chemical companies who poisoned us with herbicides. We traveled to Washington every two months like a broken record to speak for our fellow veterans before the VA’s Herbicide Advisory Committee. We joined demonstrations with the Iron Bound citizens of Newark who were also poisoned by the manufacture of Agent Orange. We teamed up with Ralph Nader’s group who was briefly interested in the issue. We conducted seminars at many NJ colleges and high schools trying to educate the kids about what the government did to us. We attended and evaluated 90 percent of the NJ Agent Orange Commission’s meetings for 16 years waiting for answers. We were members of their Special Veterans Advisory Committee which met monthly to advise the Commission of Veterans’ concerns. We participated in state legislative hearings several dozen times in the 1980s to advocate for Vietnam veterans. Our so called controversial views advocating for Vietnam veterans brought us wide spread coverage in the papers and on TV. We wanted to help but didn’t want the bull shit and told them so. We attended funerals of fellow VCVC members who died many years after being poisoned by their own country in a far away War.
We found time to start the Mercer County Vietnam Veterans Memorial of men killed in action. Once we got the idea rolling, found the site, land, and resolution to build the memorial from the government, we turned the whole project over to two of our own members who then formed another organization totally dedicated to building the memorial. We had plenty of other work regarding Agent Orange to take our time.
We coined the concept and phrase “herbicide poisoning” years before others caught on. We read a library worth of material on herbicides stumbling over terms and words at every turn of the page, but did it to educate ourselves so we could discern the shit from the mud. The more we read the madder we became, and it often showed. In our own way, we know we contributed to moving the state and federal government to get off its ass and do something for Vietnam veterans. We would not let the issue die.
By the 1990s, many Vietnam veterans had dropped out unable to sustain the burden of apathy, betrayal, and abandonment by their own government and countrymen. Many died of rare cancers, heat attacks, accidents, or suicides and we logged in the names of local men on a growing list as a memorial to their memory.
We meet annually at the USMC Birthday/Veterans Day party on November 10th to band together as brothers and friends who fought America’s longest and most unpopular War for an ungrateful country. We meet monthly to discuss veteran issues and try to help one another.
We are a non-profit, IRS tax exempt organization which holds fund-raisers to help feed homeless veterans and provide food for a Christmas party and Memorial Day cook out for the homeless. Some Vietnam veterans don’t have a place to go to enjoy these holidays, so we try to include them when we can. We recognize the high price we individually had to pay to be called and American. We are proud of our service to our country in time of War, and haven’t forgotten even the least of our brothers. We didn’t compromise our souls in the War, and damn sure won’t compromise it back at home.