The IVAW Board Series: Joe Kurtenbach
I guess the best way to keep a fella from getting a seat on the board is for us to endorse him. I tried really hard to find reasons for IVAW mermbers to vote against Kurtenbach, but I can’t. He actually served in Iraq and he was an infantryman. He’s disabled and so that comes through on his bio;
The VA is not going looking for you to make sure your back is still feeling O.K or if you are drinking yourself to sleep every night, it might be a sign your holding a lot in. They have little concern due to the fact the burden is on you. They put letters out there in fine print, and if you don’t read or respond, you can lose benefits that WE all deserve. They have the programs. It is a bad deal, but you do have to jump through hoops for your benefits and claims. We all knew the GOVT was slow when we were in, but it is slow when you get out it is slow as well so a lot patience is needed. I think the IVAW should have a hand in helping some of these Veterans know that everything will be fine.
Most of his bio is about helping the returning veterans, not about the fundraising and protests and organizing. I almost hated writing this about Kutenbach, because it’ll probably damage his chances of sitting on the board.
To be sure, he still has some pretty radical thoughts on the war. He supports Victor Agosto, the guy who refuses to deploy from Fort Hood, TX and is awaiting a court martial, according to Joe’s website, which also has some pretty strange cartoons that I don’t understand.
Given that Joe is one of the few candidates that actually thinks about returning veterans, and given the alternatives, TAH heartily endorses Joe Kurtenbach for the IVAW Board of Directors.
Sorry, Joe.
Category: Antiwar crowd, Iraq Veterans Against the War
Well thenk you for your kind words. I am Joe Kurtenbach and I will be on the board AND I am proud of it. I am not sure why veterans turn on other veterans and decide who is “worthy” of being “real” veteran or a phony?
It makes me pretty sick to see veterans going against other veterans and slamming them for any little thing.
IF YOUR NOT TRYING TO HELP, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
Come together was not just a song The Beatles sang, It meant be as one and not as a divided unit which we are as a country and as I can now see, we are even divided as being veterans.
Everyone keep bitching and blog up everyone’s ear canal. I am presonally trying to do something FOR veterans. Not bring them down because they don not meet my “personal” feelings on what a veteran should be.
You said you almost hated writing this article. Then why do it.
There is only one critic in this world that matters and I will answer to him when I get there.
Keep on spreading the hate, that is just what we need in these trying times.
sickened in South Dakota,
Joe Kurtenbach
didnt think he was not supporting you, you support the thought that veterans returning home need more attention from the government that used/needed/required/facilitated them.
as well beatles are wonderful but in this life consider this…in CO a ‘phony vet’ claimed to be a ‘marine officer wounded in iraq’ he wasnt.
in your research that im sure you did before you joined IVAW or its board… i am sure you found that some ‘vets’ actual vets who served in vietnam. trumped up their OG wintersoldier testimony…TO PUSH THE MESSAGE that was popular at the time and so..consider if its possible that this could and is happening now.
jessemacbeth
for example
–as well many believe Morriss (think i misspelled) was a fake vet many were told
IVAW tried (adam can tell u) to delete all the clips of his speaking at PROUT in Radford 2008 with like 5 of us as he told a room full of people that he chucked a grenade in a basement full of women and children while following an insurgent in OEF..didnt have discharge papers, didnt have even the dental class needed to deploy! sweet guy/possible liar/bad hygiene
so many possible poeple looking to collect a fee for speaking..how many actually have the dd214 with them when they do it.
IVAW should help vets sure. by not steering them to people who will agitate the symptoms of PTSD further might be a good start. by accompanying the veteran to the VA, by providing a “clean group home”…all of these might be a start. you should consider if you wanna save a few actual veterans from offing themselves under your term and the time after when you wont be collecting salary or speaking fees and the veteran, the average veteran will be over looked and all for his/her politics. IVAW message shouldnt even be on paper it should be in the heart. ask around how many board members like or dislike this or that person. all u might hear is PC, but in the backchatter its all out there.