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Something similar happened to my Dad when he came back from his third Vietnam tour. He was a career Air Force NCO, so his uniform went to the cleaners, and he replaced the damaged ribbons at Clothing Sales. The crud he cleaned off his aircrew wings, and that cleaning made them look all the better.

The surface damage he could clean, but what was done inside him could not be. He was proud of his service, and the look in his eye when I went into the Air Force was beyond words....and now, his voice seethes with a loathing I have never heard before. When he says "Kerry," there's a venom there....a tone that says "You're in my gunsights, John F....just like those NVA trucks were in 1969 and 1970, and the 'Stinger' is gonna nail you!"

"Deny Them The Dark" was my Dad's unit's old motto....and Kerry was hoping the darkness of ignorance would get him into office the way the dark helped the NVA get into South Vietnam. The honorable Vietnam Veterans have gone back into combat. They are denying that darkness to Kerry. My Dad is flying one more mission. Before, it was to try to save people they'd never met from being enslaved to a tyrannical government. Now, it's to save their country from a traitor.

If they need me, a veteran of the Cold War, I'll be with them.....and proud to stand by the men who showed those of us who served later what honor and courage truly were. I'm ready to fly my mission against Kerry. I could ask to be on no better crew than with the Veterans of Vietnam.