WRobert Michael Boetticher Sr. is an American funeral director, best known for the planning and implementation of memorial services for celebrities and notable individuals. He was the lead funeral director and embalmer for the state funerals of George H. W. Bush, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, and has coordinated and directed some of the most visible funerals in recent history for a variety of well-known politicians, cabinet members, business leaders, entertainers and clergy.
WThe Concerned Officers Movement (COM) was an organization of mainly junior officers formed within the U.S. military in the early 1970s whose principal purpose was opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Very quickly, however, it also found itself fighting for First Amendment rights within the military. It was initiated in the Washington, D.C. area by commissioned officers who were also Vietnam Veterans, but rapidly expanded throughout all branches and many bases of the U.S. military, ultimately playing an influential role in the opposition to the Vietnam War.
WGI Coffeehouses were a consequential part of the anti-war movement during the Vietnam War era, particularly the resistance to the war within the U.S. military. They were mainly organized by civilian anti-war activists as a method of supporting antiwar and anti-military sentiment among GIs, but many GIs participated as well. They were created in numerous cities and towns near U.S. military bases throughout the U.S as well as Germany and Japan. Due to the normal high turnover rate of GIs at military bases plus the military's response which often involved transfer, discharge and demotion, not to mention the hostility of the pro-military towns where many coffeehouses were located, most of them were short-lived, but a few survived for several years and "contributed to some of the GI movement's most significant actions". The first GI coffeehouse of the Vietnam era was set up in January 1968 and the last closed in 1974. There have been a few additional coffeehouses created during the U.S. led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
WGI's Against Fascism was a small, short-lived organization formed within the U.S. Navy during the years of conscription and the Vietnam War. The group grew out of a small number of sailors requesting adequate quarters, but coalesced into a small formal organization with a wider agenda: a more generalized opposition to the war and to perceived institutionalized racism within the U.S. Navy. Although there had been earlier antiwar and GI resistance groups within the U.S. Army during the Vietnam era, 'GI's Against Fascism' appears to be the first such group in the U.S. Navy. The group published an underground newspaper as a means of spreading its views.
WLieutenant General Thomas H. Miller, was a United States Marine Corps Naval Aviator and test pilot. Miller saw active combat in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. As a test pilot, he set a World Speed Record in an F4H-1 (F4B) Phantom. He was the first American to fly the Marine Corps' new AV-8A Harrier jet, capable of vertical takeoff and landing, orchestrating its procurement for the Marine Corps and oversee development of the concept during his career. For this effort, Miller was known as "the father of STOVL aviation in the USMC."
WThe Movement for a Democratic Military (MDM) was an antiwar and GI rights organization during the Vietnam War. Initially formed in late 1969 as a merger of sailors from San Diego and marines from the Camp Pendleton Marine Base in Oceanside, CA, it rapidly spread to a number of other cities and bases in California and the mid-West, including San Francisco, Long Beach Naval Station, El Toro Marine Air Station, Fort Ord, Fort Carson and the Great Lakes Naval Training Center. Heavily influenced by the Black Panther Party and the Black militancy of the times., it became one of the more radical GI organizations during that era and was investigated in 1971 by the House Committee on Internal Security.
WWilliam Clark Norris was a major general in the United States Air Force who served as commander of the Third Air Force, U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), with headquarters at Royal Air Force Station Mildenhall, Suffolk, England.
WRoyce Pollard is an American politician who served as the six-term mayor of Vancouver, Washington. He served seven years on City Council and became mayor in 1996. He lost a reelection race to Tim Leavitt in 2010.
WThe United States Department of Defense estimated that approximately there were 18 Puerto Ricans missing in action in the Vietnam War, from a total of 2,338 people that were listed as Missing in Action. This total, with the exception of PFC. Jose Ramon Sanchez, does not include people of Puerto Rican descent born in the mainland of the United States.
WVietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) is an American tax-exempt non-profit organization and corporation founded in 1967 to oppose the United States policy and participation in the Vietnam War. VVAW says it is a national veterans' organization that campaigns for peace, justice, and the rights of all United States military veterans. It publishes a twice-yearly newsletter, The Veteran; this was earlier published more frequently as 1st Casualty (1971–1972) and then as Winter Soldier (1973–1975).
WVietnam Veterans of America, Inc. (VVA) is a national non-profit corporation founded in 1978 in the United States that is committed to serving the needs of all veterans. It is funded without any contribution from any branch of government. VVA is the only such organization chartered by the United States Congress and dedicated to Vietnam veterans and their families. The group holds a congressional charter under Title 36 of the United States Code. Its founding principle is, "Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another."
WCommencing with World War I, Puerto Ricans and people of Puerto Rican descent have participated as members of the United States Armed Forces in every conflict in which the United States has been involved. Accordingly, thousands of Puerto Ricans served in the Armed Forces of the United States during the Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War. Hundreds of them died, either killed in action (KIA) or while prisoners of war (POW). The Vietnam War started as a Cold War, and escalated into a military conflict that spread to Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1959 to April 30, 1975.