John McCorkle is the NEW Chaplin's Corner Webmaster johnmccorkle@verizon.net
John L. McCorkle
707 West College
Jacksonville, IL 62650
johnmccorkle@verizon.net
W Phone: (217) 473-1904
H Phone: (217) 243-8282
Unit: C-2/5,E-2/5
Arrived: Aug 1971 Left: Mar 1972
Platoon Leader-1542 1st Platoon Rank: O-2
Latest News from John McCorkle
Friends,
I am forwarding an
email I received from a gentleman named Lonny Branch. Lonny served in the same
unit I did in Vietnam as a Medic. For those of you who do not know, our Medics
were some of the bravest soldiers ever. We did not serve together, however, as
I got in-country long after he had served. You can see from his email we are
asking for prayers for his brother, John, who is going through some tough times
medically right now. I assured Lonny that I knew a bunch of prayer warriors who
would keep John in their prayers. Thanks in advance for your help.
Saved
to Serve,
from
Cavalry to Calvary,
John
McCorkle
To the men and their ladies of
Charlie and Echo companies, 2/5 Cav, First Air Cav (Airmobile):
It
is a privilege to serve as the “unofficial” Chaplain for our unit. I
plan on posting information relative to issues that affect all of us.
Since my return from Vietnam I became involved in Point Man
International Ministries which is a Christian outreach developed by
veterans, for veterans. I have attached below some more information
about Point Man.
I would love to have your input regarding
information to be posted on this page. You have my contact information,
please give me a call, email or whatever at anytime. Perhaps your
ladies would like to talk with another woman. My wife Lynnda will make
herself available. Her cell phone is (217) 370-4337 and her email is
lynndamccorkle@msn.com. We want this page to be a service to you. We
will not force ourselves on you, but will make ourselves available to
be of whatever assistance we can.
Saved to Serve,
from Cavalry to Calvary,
John L. McCorkle
C & E Companies, 2/5 Cav
’71-‘72
2 Corinthians 1:8-11
For
we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came
to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so
that we despaired even of life.9 Yes, we had the sentence of death in
ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises
the dead,10 who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver
us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us,11 you also helping
together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on
our behalf for the gift granted to us through many.
NKJV
The Apostle Paul
Pointman A.D. 57
FOR THE WIVES
News from the HOMEFRONT - “What’s a Woman to Do?”
Does this sound familiar to you?
“My
husband is a Vietnam vet and I am proud of him. I support him in his
efforts to deal with his memories, his anger and his pain, but frankly,
do the children and I have to live with the war every day of our lives?
When I married my husband, I knew he had fought in Vietnam, but I
wasn’t prepared to have our children and I trained to be soldiers to
fight the enemy. I am not even sure who the enemy is.
I love my
husband, but he is driving me crazy! I thought that when he joined the
various vet groups and participated in rap sessions he would get this
war thing out of his system. I truly love my husband and I’m really
proud that he fought in the Vietnam war because he was fighting for
freedom and democracy. I know that he went through some pretty rotten
stuff while he was there, but can’t he see that I’m hurting, too? Can’t
he see that I want to come along side him, support and encourage him,
and yes, in my own way, share his pain. We are supposed to be one in
this marriage, but I feel like the war is his mistress.”
Have
you ever wondered how different your marriage would be if it had not
been for the war? Have you ever wondered if wives of other vets
experience what you do in your marriage? How can we support and
understand what our husbands went through and what the war does to a
person?
Obviously, we can’t experience war in the same way they
did. We can’t see, feel, and smell the memories, nightmares, pain and
anger lived and relived on a daily basis. We can, however, learn to
understand, support and recognize triggers which touch their very
souls, taking them unwillingly back in time and space to circumstances
where they relive over and over again what they so much want to forget.
HOMEFRONT
is the Point Man International Ministries outreach for wives and family
members of veterans. If you or someone you know might be helped,
encouraged or just interested in learning more about HOMEFRONT please
contact me, Lynnda McCorkle.
I will be at the reunion with my
husband, John, who served with C 2/5 in ’71-’72. I can also be reached
via email – lynndamccorkle@msn.com or you can call me on my cell at
(217) 370-4337 or via snail mail at
707 West College, Jacksonville, IL 62650.
I look forward to seeing everyone at the reunion. Blessings to you all…
Lynnda
What is Point Man International Ministries?
Since 1984, when Seattle Police Officer and
Vietnam Veteran Bill Landreth noticed he was arresting the same people
each night, he discovered most were Vietnam vets like himself that just
never seemed to have quite made it home. He began to meet with them in
coffee shops and on a regular basis for fellowship and prayer. Soon,
Point Man Ministries was conceived and became a staple of the Seattle
area. Bills untimely death soon after put the future of Point Man in
jeopardy.
However, Chuck Dean, publisher of a Veterans self help
newspaper, Reveille, had a vision for the ministry and developed it
into a system of small groups across the USA for the purpose of mutual
support and fellowship. These groups are known as Outposts. Worldwide
there are hundreds of Outposts and Homefront groups serving the
families of veterans.
PMIM is run by veterans from all conflicts,
nationalities and backgrounds. Although, the primary focus of Point Man
has always been to offer spiritual healing from PTSD, Point Man today
is involved in group meetings, publishing, hospital visits,
conferences, supplying speakers for churches and veteran groups,
welcome home projects and community support. Just about any where there
are Vets there is a Point Man presence. All services offered by Point
Man are free of charge.
For more information on Point Man, you can check out the website at http://www.pmim.org or call the PMIM Hotline at 1 (800) 877-VETS [8387]
If
you have checked out the Point Man International webpage you have
probably seen that from the Book Bunker you can order a lot of
different material. I will be bringing a lot of this material to
Memphis in September.
I want to give you some idea of what
this material is all about, so, I am going to be posting some articles
briefly describing the brochures, tracts and books. Should these
articles arouse your interest in any of the material you can either
order it from the PMIM website or drop me an email or snail mail and I
can send you whatever you need.
This first brochure is entitled…
“Did God go AWOL in Vietnam?”
Six Reasons Why Vietnam Was A Different Kind Of War
One
of the most commonly asked questions regarding the Vietnam experience
is, “Why was Vietnam so different from Korea or World War II?” This
brochure discusses six (6) major reasons why the Vietnam War was so
psychologically damaging.
- Recruits were trained to dehumanize, hate and kill
– The military made the enemy less than human. Commonly accepted
derogatory names like “Gooks,” “Dinks,” etc. made Asians something less
than fellow human beings.
- Everyone who went to Vietnam knew when he was expected to go home –
We all remember our DEROS. It appeared to be a great plan, but it
failed. DEROS created and individualistic attitude. Arriving in Vietnam
the new guy began to seek a purpose. For many that purpose became to
simply stay alive for 365 days. He wasn’t there to fight the Commies or
win the war, but to simply make it to DEROS.
- The military mismanaged the war
– At the peak of the war there were 500,000 troops in Vietnam. Only
about 50,000 were engaged in fighting in the field. The other 450,000
were back in the rear at the big bases. We lost the war because so few
actually got out there to do what they were supposedly trained to do.
- Returning veterans had no time to debrief – World
War II soldiers came home on troop ships that took two weeks to cross
the ocean, giving them some time to begin the readjustment to civilian
life. In Vietnam once he had reached DEROS, the trooper was extracted
from the field and immediately sent home, some arriving home within 30
hours of leaving the jungle. Once home there was no debriefing, no
decompression time, and no one to understand what he had gone through
the past 12 months.
- The veteran’s war experience took place in virtual emotional isolation –
Arriving in Vietnam he was hurriedly issued his gear, loaded onto a
helicopter, airlifted to a base camp or jungle defensive perimeter
where he was dumped off and there became the “new guy.” None of the
seasoned troops wanted to even know his name. Keeping a good distance
from the new guy was accepted policy. On returning to the “world” he
was alone in a country indifferent to the fact that he’d spent his 19th
birthday fighting and bleeding in a leech-infested rice paddy.
- Vietnam was America’s first teenage war –
The average age of the World War II soldier was 26. For Americans in
Vietnam it was 18. When most kids that age were souping up cars or
going to Saturday night dances, these were playing with M-16 fully
automatic rifles, fragmentation grenades and plastic explosives.
Many
Vietnam veterans still suffer aftereffects from serving in combat, from
atrocities they witnessed, or sometimes committed. They are victims of
a stress reaction called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Secular
and military counselors have pronounced PTSD an incurable condition.
Point Man International Ministries tells a different story.
The
strategy for healing that Point Man has found effective is two-pronged:
get the veteran to confess his trauma to a sympathetic Vietnam veteran,
and apply God’s Word and prayer in a gentle, but direct manner.
Like
physical wounds, psychological and emotional wounds have to be cleaned
out before they can heal. These can be cleaned out by letting it out,
confessing the pain, hurt, anger, sorrow, terror and remorse. A Point
Man Outpost meeting is one of the safest environments in which to do
this. There the veteran can talk about the horrible experiences of his
combat tour. The groups are made up of veterans of all wars, some of
whom are Christian. The security of knowing that every man in the group
has gone through similar experiences helps everyone to be honest with
themselves and others, maybe for the first time since the war. They
realize that they have run into a group who understand them and show
genuine concern. In these meetings the veterans can begin to see that
God did NOT go AWOL in Vietnam.
Again, for more information on
this brochure or any other Point Man material, contact me at anytime.
Blessings to you all. See you in September
Veteran Families
The Silent Victims
This brochure is very informational on project HOMEFRONT, the outreach to veteran’s families.Since
1984 Point Man International Ministries has focused on reaching and
ministering to hurting veterans who are suffering from PTSD. The
problem, however, does not end there. The erratic behavior and
manifestation of delayed stress greatly affects the spouse and children
who live with it every day. Here are some statistics to illustrate the
magnitude of the problem.
- PTSD remains an on-going challenge for veterans of all eras and their families.
- The images from the current war are causing many older veterans to experience recurring PTSD from their own combat experience.
- More than 40 million Americans have a direct, personal link to a combat veteran (spouse, parent, children)
- The suicide rate among combat veterans is 33% higher than the general population.
- The divorce rate among combat veterans is double the national average.
- The rate for unemployed veterans is three times the national average.
It
has been found that the loved ones of combat veterans experience
varying degrees of PTSD themselves, and they never got close to combat
areas. The following list details some of the major symptoms displayed
by combat veterans suffering from PTSD along with the most common
reactions/symptoms in spouses, children, close friends.
PTSD Characteristics
In the Veteran In the loved ones
Flashbacks Constant Anxiety
Isolates self and family Alienated – no friends
Emotional distance from family Low self-esteem
Depression/worthlessness Depression/hopelessness
Anger – Rage Resentment/bitterness
Substance Abuse Over responsibility/Enabler
Anxiety/Nervousness Overwhelmed/Stressed out
The
strategy that Point Man has found effective in dealing with the combat
veteran is now offered to their families through project HOMEFRONT.
These chapters are led by spouses of combat veterans who have
experienced the “war at home” and found Jesus Christ as the only true
answer to their hurts. The three main needs addressed in these meetings
are:
- Veterans spouses need to know that they are not alone in their experiences with their partners.
- Veteran families need to understand PTSD and why the veteran responds to life as he does.
- Veterans
loved ones need to focus on their own walk with God, and allow the Lord
to change the way they respond to their veteran through prayer and
studying the Word of God.
For more information on Point Man International Ministries or HOMEFRONT, you can…
Contact me directly via cell phone (217) 473-1904 or email johnmccorkle@verizon.net or,
