Veterans talk of group's
purpose, spokesman's ability
By Tom Harshbarger
Daily Forty-Niner
Vietnam veterans hoped their fighting days
were over when they left the military. It seems they may have one more
battle to fight.
The Veterans Group of Cal State Long Beach
is a racially diverse group of 30 to 40 on-campus veterans, not all of
whom served during the Vietnam era.
Some group members have, for four years,
filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Labor, alleging CSULB has
denied them certain equal opportunity considerations under the Vietnam
Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974.
Vets battle CSULB
Special Report
( Part 1)
|
The act classifies anyone who served in
the U.S. Armed Forces between Aug. 5, 1964, and May 7, 1975, as a Vietnam-era
veteran. It states that employers with $10,000 or more in federal contracts
or subcontracts must give these veterans affirmative action considerations
for hiring or promotion purposes, according to the Labor Department.
John Whittaker, an equipment technician
in the communicative disorders department and CSULB employee since 1978,
is the unofficial spokesman for the group. He is also one of the original
complainants in the group's first class-action complaint
against the university filed in 1996.
"We have a core group that we call the
action committee, and that's a group of six guys,"
Whittaker said. All the committee members are complainants in the original
case. "After that, we go to a larger group [of veterans] when we need multiple
signatures on letters."
The larger group is the Veterans Group
of CSULB, Whittaker said.
Whittaker is a noncombat Vietnam-era veteran
who earned a master's degree in psychology from CSULB
in 1975. Born in Long Beach and raised in Paramount, he was drafted in
1966 and served until 1968.
"We all have to find an excuse for why
we didn't go to Vietnam while we were in the Army,"
Whittaker said. "That's one of the curses that confronts
men of my generation who were in the Army and didn't
go."
Whittaker said that his high aptitude
test scores prompted the Army to train him as a personnel management specialist.
He served his time in charge of an office in Fort Dix, N. J., where people
leaving the Army were processed.
"I was in training for six months in a
two-year conscription," Whittaker said. "They spent
all that money training me and didn't want me to go
into combat, I guess."
Raymond Renaud, a member of the group
who fought as a paratrooper in Vietnam and saw many friends die, said Whittaker's
intelligence and self-control make him an ideal group spokesman.
"John has the ability to stand back and
detach himself," said Renaud, whose complaint launched
the initial Labor Department investigation in 1996. "I get emotional and
angry sometimes when I deal with this."
However, not all on-campus veterans said
they consider themselves group members nor would they identify with the
group's goals.
Troy Johnson, a professor of history and
American-Indian studies at CSULB, is a Vietnam veteran who retired from
the Navy after 23 years of service and has been here since he earned his
doctorate at UCLA in 1993. He said he supports the group and has even signed
one of their petitions, but he has met with action committee members only
once to plan POW/MIA Day, held on campus Sept. 17.
"I don't even know
if they meet [on a regular basis]," said Johnson,
who saw combat as a squad leader for a reactionary force. "I don't
think this is a formal group in the sense that an honor society or teachers'
group is that has elected officers. I don't know of
any meetings that they hold. I don't know if I'd
go if they did, but I probably would."
Johnson also said he has never felt discriminated
against at CSULB. |
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