vietnam veterans against the war

my biological father was a member of vietnam veterans against the war. my mom was doing civil rights and peace work at the time, and apparently they had quite a few discussions about what was going on.
i have tried to contact all the names on the website about pat, but i have gotten no response. maybe noone remaining there knew him, or maybe they are busy trying to get us out of iraq. word.
there is a genuinely good thing that makes it well nigh impossible for me to find my father, and that is the respect for privacy in the v.a. and im assuming in the vvaw. the vvaw doesnt really say what their policy is regarding things like this, but im assuming that may be why they havent answered me. the v.a. is straight up about their policies involving finding vets. its basically, if we are giving him benefits, or if we know where he is, well get your letter there. but thats all we are saying on it.
i have tried many times to write that letter. its never right. how do you just pop out of a mailbox 36 years later, like "hi, im your son?" if i did write it, he would have no obligation to respond, so i would never know if he had actually recieved it anyway. so theres mystery and drama on both ends. not my steez.
getting around to vietnam, i just read a book called "flashback" which has a lot of terrifying stats regarding vets from nam. did you know more returned vets have committed suicide than all the people who actually died in the war? like, think about the wall. more.
that being said, i know that the odds arent that good for finding him, really.
but far weirder things have happened in all of our lives.

the buckinghams

the buckinghams were a chicago pop group with a good run of hits (late 60s early 70s). apparently patrick was a roadie for them for a while. my mom swears she saw him on dick clarks american bandstand. i talked to one of the buckinghams who pretty much summed it up like this-
on ab, dick would talk to the manager briefly before he introduced the band (super weird, huh?). apparently, their manager was really ill on the day of the show, and delegated it to patrick.
this same buckingham thought that patrick moved out to california after one of the tours.
i called every number for patrick owens in cali, no dice. oh well.
apparently he looked real cool on air, long hair and muttonchops.
he was really popular and played guitar alot.
oops i hit speelcheck and dont know how to undo this thing, so a lot of odd stuff is highlighted and or linked. oh well. gotta go.

chicago

the pat owens im seeking was born and raised in chicago, il. my mom and he met in early 69, and dated for a few months in the winter of love. his parents were either divorced or in the middle of a divorce, and his mother lived on lake shore drive. my mom recalls the building as imperial towers. she also thinks her name was helen, although she is less than certain.
my mom did a little sleuthing (god bless her), and found that later on pat lived in the same place, as his name was listed in the phone book at that address. she seems to remember that the mother intended to remarry, so thats where her name ends for us. maybe pat took over her place when she moved.

purple heart

the patrick owens im seeking served in the army in vietnam. he was stateside by march of 1969, having recieved shrapnel wounds in his back and leg. so i am fairly positive he got a purple heart.
the only lists i can find for purple heart recipients are for those that died, if anyone knows of any other lists id love to know... it seems par for the course that the living vets of vietnam are not recognized for their injuries.
i am not 1000 percent sure he was army, but odds are if you caught some grenade shrapnel, you were army or marine, and my mom seems fairly sure he was army.

patrick owens search

hi my name is malcolm. i am looking for my father, and the odds are not super good. his name is pat owens, or, more specifically, patrick j. owens (i dunno what the j is). there are quite a few pat owens in this country, and a lot of them in pennsylvania. calling every pat owens is a huge drag, i have done 2 states, and im not doing it again.
ive spent money on various search and find sites, and internet private detectives, all to no avail. maybe he does not wish to be found, and changed his name. or maybe ive actually talked to him on the phone and dont know it.
every few years or so, i get excited about actually finding him, and i try something new. so this blog is my new something new. i figure i could actually meet other pat owens this way, or maybe someone that is related could help me find something out.
which brings me to what id like to say if he or someone that knows him is reading.

i basically want to know medical history.
i dont want to acquire a whole new family (i am pretty busy with mine).
if he needs help, ill help him.

so, in the posts ill talk about what i know about him, and if anything comes up, ill talk about that. i probably will talk a little about random stuff regarding this search, but ill try and be on point about it all.
this is my first blog, so im not sure if i need to put my contact in, or what. so if its already in the thing, whatever. you can reach me at
oldmanmalcolm@gmail.com

also i welcome any advice or input from people who have found or are searching for a longlosty. or comments from owensfolk who can tell me about their families (what i gather largely catholic, irish or welsh or something.) are all welsh hairy or what? post it, yo.