Nguyen Tan Dung Quotes

It's hard for people sometimes to relate to me. They weren't in the military, they weren't injured overseas in Iraq, they weren't burned, they didn't go through 33 surgeries, or two and a half years in the hospital.

I am classified as a disabled veteran. The reason I'm disabled is because I have wounds and injuries that I got while on active duty... from parachute jumping to combat to gunshot wounds, all that stuff.

I was on Saipan when I got hit. Not too bad, but bad enough to hamper me if I stayed. I was hit in my left buttocks just below the belt line.

I'm missing an index finger.

I lost my spleen, I lost the hearing in my left ear, so I had a lot of internal organ damage.

It's a little strange when you have never been to war, and you eye-roll about a guy who's got shrapnel still in his body, as Chuck Hagel does.

I have spent the past ten years in just about every war zone there was.

For the record, I'm a Second World War veteran and served in the Pacific.

I've never had to spend any time in the VA hospital, so I really can't speak for those guys.

I did three tours in Vietnam. I guess a total of about almost two years.

I was a soldier in WWII. The last couple of months of the war I was actually in combat.

I joined the People's Armed Forces in 1961 to 1984, and I was also a soldier in the southern battle of Vietnam during the resistance against the Americans. I went to the battlefield in order to regain national independence.

For many of the brave men and women who have fought on the front lines, returning home means trying to navigate a complicated and bureaucratic Veterans Administration benefits system.

The POW camps of North Vietnam were packed with Air Force and Naval Academy graduates. The six midshipmen in my Naval Academy class of 1968 who served as liaisons between the Marine Corps and the Brigade of Midshipmen later suffered nine Purple Hearts in Vietnam, and one man killed in action.

I cannot say how touched and impressed I have been by the sight of these noble brave, and so sadly wounded men and how anxious I feel to be of use to them, and to try and get some employment for those who are maimed for life. Those who are discharged will receive very small pensions but not sufficient to live upon.

My father was a Vietnam vet, and he was Green Beret.

My dad was in the Second World War with General Patton. He won medals for bravery, but he came home quite damaged, so he was a handful. He told us some terrible stories, and I guess you'd say he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.

My father was a builder. During my high school years, I worked for him. One summer, I was working with a guy who had just come back from Vietnam and had been a tunnel rat. He wouldn't talk about the experience, but it sounded really scary to me.

We owe it to our service men and women and their families, who sacrificed so much for our country, to find out the answers they deserve and make care and treatment for them, their children, and their grandchildren a priority.

I shattered the heel in my good leg, and it was an extremely bad injury. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to snowboard again.

I broke my right ankle. Four ribs. One rib went into my liver. My spleen. My back in two places.

So many of our wounded warriors from today's wars are alive not just because of remarkable advances in technology, but primarily because of the extraordinary dedication and skill of our military and our VA medical professionals.

Our veterans should never be penalized for injuries they sustained in service to our country.

Going from toting a machine gun in Afghanistan... to using a bed pan, and I can't even put my own socks on - that was hard to kind of suck it up.

Obviously my dad served in the Korean War. He was a Master Sergeant when he was 18 years old.