concern over japan's nuclear fallout in march plans to turn back on its nuclear power in the next eleven years some experts say such plans are untenable and believe a push to swap atomic energy for greener alternatives could leave germany jobs and in the. next year in our. spotlight program at this time guest is a vietnam war veteran richard dinoire who leads the search for the thousands of american soldiers that never returned from foreign conflicts to stay with us. hello again and welcome to spotlight the interview show r t m m today my guest on the show richard norton a veteran say war goes on until its last victim is very thousands of soldiers

america sent overseas are still missing but hope dies last and families are p.o.w.'s in m.i.a. still waiting for their beloved to return home in america the veterans of foreign wars are going to deal with problems all the servicemen including assistance with searches of the missing how is it going on and always sharing experience let's ask the commander in chief how the americans veterans of foreign wars are richard good morning to. both russia and the u.s. to taunton a number of conflicts across the world world war two the vietnam war and various military operations in all parts of the globe cost both countries thousands of missing soldiers after the iron curtain fell joins russia u.s. commission on prisoners of war and missing in action was created its primary objective is to clarify the fate of both russian and american servicemen missing

military conflicts in the past and the present. i welcome to the show thank you thanks very much for being with us thank you al so great to be here thank you very much greater how you are first of all i would like to ask you about the rule of the veterans of foreign wars association your association playing in what you call the accounting mission it's aimed at recovering the traces of more than eighty thousand american servicemen those still missing is that. true that is true al i've got to before i answer your question i would like to thank the russian government very much for appointing a co-chair recently to the u.s. russian commission for p.o.w.'s. we work together jointly and we appreciate their commitment by appointing this co-chair to answer your question yes we are advocates for the recovery and identification of p.o.w. m.i.a.'s we actually travel to many countries russia being one of them and we

are part of a joint as i said the joint commission we have a joint commission with russia on that and we visit recovery sites recently i was in cambodia i went to a recovery site where the four young american soldiers went down in during vietnam and they were working to recover those remains we also visit china to try to get assistance from the chinese government as well so we are very very active in this issue we take it very very seriously and of course the purpose is to get closure to many families who have lost loved ones of world war two to the present so so you do really would collect on the ground really really do we do every country they have to visit with well we we visit taiwan we visit china we visit russia and primarily those countries and of course we also visit southeast asia where the

actual many of the vietnam remains still there and but of course we're also interested in world war two and korea as well we'd like to get into north korea possibly your government might be able to help us do that then i'll go through that the russia the russian official rest of the fish was they they volunteered to be a sort of a middleman to try to talk the koreans you into the country absolutely never the remains of the absolutely i asked how successful have the russian well we're not there yet but i've heard rumors that. things are getting better is all we're hoping the near future that we may be able to we were in there in the ninety's for a short period of time only then we were asked to leave. well we know that it's good to come back to north korea this will be a breakthrough i mean and it's a little of this will be what we call a grassroots like getting the country together absolutely we still have a thousand. missing in action that have not been accounted for and we're very concerned about finding out. whether what happened when we talk

a thousand tens of thousands of american soldiers still missing from world war two this definitely isn't europe it should be most mostly the pacific. because in europe i think i think i think most of the most of the people killed and you have been recovering these the trial i don't know the statistics exact statistics but i would i would say that you're probably correct on that we have recently just found some world war two remains in the pacific theater there's approx seventy odd thousand still unaccounted for and i would like to add to that it was the vietnam veterans who started the movement for the recovery of p.o.w.'s my way which of course we went back and also it advocated for recovery of the world war two as well so it was my generation and the war that i was involved in that actually was responsible for starting this movement you started this interview by mentioning by

thanking the russians by pulling for appointing this lady you quoted in that pretty hard please please thank you and i didn't mention her name because i i think i know that i would probably not as and i'm not going to see some growth. for you folks but. except communicating with with koreans what else do russians are russians ready to do to help you in and if you feel your mission well i know that the russians have a great deal of concerns in recovering some of their m.i.a.'s and afghanistan. and obviously they they are hoping that we can help them doing that on the other hand it's a reciprocal thing basically this commission one hand helps the other. i understand i just found out today myself i met with the federation and they mentioned to me that we actually see some russians went to our laboratory in hawaii and we assisted them and gave them some d.n.a. kitson show them some of the ways that we had done

a five remains and so forth so my answer would be that it's a reciprocal thing this ways that they can help us with the north korea issue in this way that we can help them maybe in afghanistan and other places as well i want to be i want to be frank with you i know that the joint russia u.s. commission on p.o.w. m.i.a.'s was was founded back in one nine hundred ninety two mistaken but but today is the first time that i hear about it really in the news so why is that why is it has it they kept such low profile i mean you new news ones i'm not really sure i don't know whether it which government possibly didn't have as much commitment to that issue but we're certainly not worried about that now because. certainly russia has come through and committed themselves by appointing a co-chair and in our government is going to be funding the they are part of their part of the commission so i think we're on the right road now. i can't really say

too much about what happened at the path but ok you mentioned the russians that may like to to find them missing soldiers soldiers missing in afghanistan do you think the americans will be ready to really assists russian groups and russian delegation on entering have gathered stone on their land and digging in looking for as well as of course being in a veterans organization i'm not a politician and i was a professional marine professional soldier. professional soldiers are not politicians so i can't speak for my government but i would say that i would like to think yes. because there's much to be gained by working together and so i'm hopeful that both governments will take this commitment seriously yes what is the the w. doing with sid mean room. in the supporting the the families of the.

there are there is m.i.a. groups in our country and to basically we support them by keeping them abreast of what the efforts that we. are doing at the current time we also. advocate for them with the defense. office deep d.p.m. all and by doing so i think that gives them hope that things will be done i think we give them hope but i am glad i said that i think we do give them hope they know that we're advocating for them we won't let this issue die i think that if there were it was an advocacy time does make people forget and we don't want to forget we want to make sure that everyone is accounted for you said the soldiers are not politicians but you have to you you have to get engaged in politics to how the yes we do about what i want i guess what i'm saying is we don't take sides and we don't

but we do have to lobby to lobby and probably certainly you have to you have to be political yourselves i mean to in to a certain degree do you do raising money for those people who are where it all comes from the funds that the government well. the. i would say the am i missing the missing in action groups in america probably get their own donations and so forth that well as we do. we get our own funding fine re a funding from a fundraiser. membership. dues. corporate donations and so forth all of that goes with the form of finance and so forth and most of those m.i.a. groups have the same type of benefactors and all of the government what extent does the government in gauged in helping you in giving money to the people to the families that need help the government funds the d.p.m.

all office yes is that which is part of the department of defense and all of the activities of the office in hawaii feel cruiser go wild fun recovery missions and so forth that's all funded by the government and of course we lobby to make sure that they continue to fund that and that's our role i should say do you do you have a lot of people a lot of families that approach you with with specific questions specific requests . i don't know just how many families do contact us i'm sure there's many to do what is going on or what is being done where are we now in this endeavor i'm sure that our washington office gets calls and that i don't know how many i haven't got a count on that but yes and if they did we would certainly try to find the information for the may answer. says richard there neuer commander in chief of the american veterans of foreign wars organization spotlight will be back shortly will

take a break right now and then please join us again here on russia today spotlight will continue to stay with. a very warm welcome to you this is your news today protesters on the walls streets they have. leads in gippsland you'll show the chance to use it to get links to the status of the human experiment is exploding with. problems in this refuse what it snows was literally trying to make sense of global economy and it's on changelings us

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welcome back to spotlight i'm al green knob and just a reminder that my guest on the show today is richard dinoire commander in chief of the american veterans of foreign wars organization. richard we were talking about veterans being nonpolitical and this is true i mean i mean i agree and i'm a veteran myself but watching the current news coming from the united states the process the occupy the wall street movement you know long before we see

a lot of war veterans engaged taking part in these protests well it doesn't make them automatically political but it shows us that they are politically active and are and what i want to ask is is on the veterans really important for the u.s. government do you think that the government will certainly take into account what the veterans hampson have to say is a demonstration becoming more serious more more. important when the official see out of the vets out there on the street to answer your question i would say yes and i would say we are currently involved in a war in afghanistan and we were just recently getting out of iraq. and we have a great large percentage of veterans that are homeless and we have

a large percentage of veterans that are unemployed and so it's an economical thing a centrally and their protest on shore the ones that you're referring to is an economic protest they want work they want homes they want to get off the street they want to go on with their lives and i would say they want to be productive citizens. nearly one hundred well at least more than a third of the americans the poor afghan war and also in the we're in iraq believe that these wars weren't worth the money spent on the war itself do you think that the opinion of those veterans are pretty young people will it somehow influence the whole withdrawal strategy i don't i can't speak for our government as far as they are they come up with with this strategy i do know that i believe our president said that we he was going to be removing people out of afghanistan i think by two.

thousand and twelve i think it was or something like that next year but of course every person whether they serve in the military and i was entitled to their opinion and is entitled to their political philosophy all i can say is we don't endorse candidates we don't support the candidates we stay away from that and their view on the war whether it was worthwhile or whether it wasn't or whether it was too costly and not is as is theirs and they they are entitled to have it. they knew veterans the young veterans people coming back from the afghan war in iraq war are on the facing the same problems that your generation with facing i mean guys that were thirty from vietnam all these new wars are have something in particular i think that they're facing the same. the problems that the vietnam veteran faced with exception. more people are separating the war from the warrior and their

appreciating the service that these young people have given their country yeah this was different than the oh absolutely no question about it it was a nice change i don't again i think i think so when i went when i was when i say yes propaganda i think the news media distorted a lot of the war and and people seem to. group the war and the warrior together and they blamed the war when he was doing what his country asked him to do this is this is understandable because what we remember that the vietnam war is the deer hunter the epic. movies like that but hollywood contributed to it put into the air you know you don't want to put to an end you think you know about the war right why why do we see films movies. this accountability today about the new war is going to war is different well i think the people understand

maybe there's been better communication better pull bliss city but i think they seem to understand that there is a war on terrorism. there were two buildings in new york that went down a nearly three thousand people along with the pentagon died on that particular day and i think they see the necessity of having some kind of a common front against terrorism. but they don't obviously the cost is something to consider which you elaborated to earlier but in vietnam i guess they did not see the necessity of it i can't speak for the people who are again against it i fought in vietnam i'm a proud vietnam veteran i'm not going to you know i'm not going to say that i'm ashamed of anything that i did i answered my country's call and most vietnam veterans if not all feel that way we're proud of what what we did i think. i eighty today feels differently and now i get many people saying it's many years later but

thank you for your service society has changed their outlook somewhat. many veterans suffer from the so-called post-traumatic stress disorder those the v.f.w. . help them overcome overcome this this called the disease and help them adapt to to to to normal we do we direct them to the. the help that they need we have the v.f.w. has service officers are our veterans advocates just about every federal get building in every major city in the country and those veterans who have problems need medical care need assistance with disability compensation we are prepared to help them absolutely well returning from war for many soldiers means having to cope with post-traumatic stress life even in the media has more impact. than to force tremendous stress disorder p.t.s.d.

was born after good we're in the now us veterans found it difficult to read just for civilian life after all they've gone through in russia these issues started to be talked about after its military campaigns in the ghana stand and later to. remind who still lubov remembers how he was sent to change in one thousand nine hundred nine did when i was a boy the operation a city that was our first battle sort of course we were scheduled to size militants were shelling us and it's also terrible to see your friends some dead others injured and crying for help now we're veteran of many missions remonde says he's first back who was a nightmare that will stay with him for the rest of his life likewise many veterans of the u.s. led war in iraq and afghanistan have faced significant physical emotional and. these ruptures after they'd come back home when there are flash backs or or

nightmares there really isn't any control over it you try to but there really isn't . so you are still shaking your heart's racing your mind is going you know one hundred eighty miles a minute and. you know complete loss of control you scientists have recently discovered it proved to you that could lead to the development of a drug that helps you raise traumatic memories but working on this kind of view might take please brylin decades meanwhile the trends often have to cool a little not all of them are ready to share the b. to memories who ask for help. drugs that with a raise bits of memories this of course something on the future but if we talk about today if we talk about specific ways of helping those guys yes settled in the in the peaceful world what's what do you think personally is the best way the best

we have program group therapy groups there it seems. after i left the marine corps i spent twenty two years in the marine corps i spent twenty years in veterans advocacy and many of the veterans who came into me with p.t.s.d. or psychological problems the v.a. has these group therapy they call them vet centers their group therapy centers and they just sit around and talk and they have a clinical psychologist or a clinical social worker that kind of leads the group and most of them that i've ever talked to that have participated in that have found that very rewarding so so so these sort of help each other and this psychology sort of like act like a talk show host like you know go to them community like the well is that true yeah yeah we're a little good but isn't well it's strange that it's easier for them to be in a group of people who. are. more like you and it's not better for them to be in a group of just ordinary people have to be know they need to be in

a group with those that have a similar circumstance a similar account each of the books in exactly that how do you tell that to normal life well i think it possibly i quite i can't speak for every one of them but i would say that they probably find that hey this guy's got the same problem i have and he's making it he's he's dealing with it i can do that too and i think it's something on that on that vein if you are i'm a veteran myself and you want and i do remember my so feeling any post-traumatic stress disorder did you well i was very fortunate first of all i didn't serve in the infantry i served in combat support and i spent thirteen months in vietnam i was not out in the bush as as they say therefore i did not kill anyone and i didn't see anybody get killed and i was very fortunate i was very very very fortunate so you think it depends on and i'm actually when i use the exact way do you know

because i was in the air force i mean right i mean i also didn't see anybody die and i will have them saying and some people say well a marine you must have been and you are bad you must have seen people die and some do some don't and it depends on what your role is and your job mine was to make sure that the infantry got the ammunition and that they needed in order to fight their war and i was very fortunate that i didn't have to have some of the experiences that some of those who is painful isn't that for people like you when you return back. because you get used to it so quickly i mean you get these couple of use you get used to that this is the only and when you come back to normal life there is certainly in a just it doesn't seem normal that he will yeah i spent twenty two years in the marine corps and i was thirty nine when i retired and there was certainly an adjustment and the adjustment is difficult because military life is best what it is it's a way of life and. there is an adjustment but for the not anywhere near the type of adjustment that someone that was in the infantry was unnaturally was in combat

thank you thank you very much surprised to be with us and just i remind you that my guest on the show today was richard good morning mondrian chief of the american veterans of foreign wars and that's it for now for wallace he will be back with you until then stay on r.t. and take care thank you.

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