Photo of Kerry with Fonda enrages Vietnam veterans

Washington Times ^ | 2/10/04 | Stephen Dinan

[kattracks]

A photograph of Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts together with Jane Fonda at an anti-Vietnam war rally in 1970 in Pennsylvania has surfaced on the Internet, angering veterans who say his association with her 34 years ago is a slap in the faces of Vietnam War veterans.

[mathluv]

Be careful. I got blasted and called names when I questioned some jerk yesterday.

[DBrow]

I have heard rumors that Kerry's book is selling for big $$ on the used market because he and his campaign is buying them all up. There can't have been many to begin with and investing a few tens of thousand is worth it to get them out of circulation.

However, do you think Rush or Hannity or Savage or whoever have copies?

[kittymyrib]

Kerry's congressional testimony that US soldiers WHO WERE STILL FIGHTING AND DYING were rapists and baby killers is far more damning IMO than this picture of him and Hanoi Jane. And it puts the big lie to his spin-doctor campaign publicist that he "always supported the troups." Does she really think no one will bring up this traitor's testimony before Congress? He should have been imprisoned for giving aid and comfort to the enemy, right along with Jane Fonda, but instead the pathetic citizens of the Republic of MA have inflicted him on us all these years and would make him our president, God forbid!

[Carl/NewsMax]

Again, NewsMax credits FR more than any other commericial news source does. I wish the sources that routinely steal stuff from my column were half as respectful when it comes to giving credit as NewsMax is.

But in this case, there's one important detail you seem to be deliberately overlooking. It was against the law to reprint that photo without permission from Corbis. Whoever did so on FR, they did it ILLEGALLY.

If you would have preferred I had credited FR with theft of intellectual property - fine. But I suspect those who own and run this Web site wouldn't have appreciated the lawsuit such crediting might have invited.

I suspect the Washington Times was trying to do FR the same favor by alluding to the fact that the photo had also turned up elsewhere on the Internet - without identifying FR by name.

For the record, NewsMax said it had "obtained" the photo, not that it had unearthed it. And the Times said only that NewsMax had published it, not that it had done so exclusively.

[ecurbh]

NewsMax, Limbaugh, PoliticsMI, and a bizillion other sites took the photo from FR without attribution. It's unethical and scummy.

Oh, gimme a break. Isn't it at all possible they did the same research you did, and found it ON THE INTERNET in the same location? Sheesh, get over yourself.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Hillary's Lovely Legs, thank you...and to all who spread the "news" (and do the honorable thing by crediting FR, ONCE).

It's surprising that so many are surprised by this. Our domestic enemies aren't exactly quiet, or censored in the town square.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Excerpts from Stolen Valor: How The Vietnam Generation Was Robbed Of its Heroes And its History ~ by B.G. Burkett & Glenna Whitley:

* Part I - Rambo and the Bogus War Heroes 
* Part II - Welcome Home, Babykiller 
* Part III - Will the Real Vietnam Vet Stand Up? 
* Part VI - The VVA - The Vietnam Victims of America

Thanks to NewsMax for keeping "Stolen Valor" in your "Cooled off Hot Topics".
It is both relevant today and "news" to too many.

[Ramtek57]

I love my Botox.

[xzins]

A Good Morning, Good links Ping :>)

[MEG33]

Thanks for covering our back on the picture.I read about the problem after it was published here.Amateurs make mistakes!

[Spiff]

Carl,

Again you miss my point.

Suffice it to say, you should have said something similar to: "NewsMax obtained the photo which was unearthed by the sleuths at the conservative FreeRepublic.com web site."

It is not all that important who gets the credit. I don't want to make a big deal out of this or to disparage what NewsMax does. I just felt that credit was not properly attributed.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Thanks, Carl.

You still owe FR credit for this: Newsmax ~  Original.

Thank you for spreading the good news.    (^:

[MEG33]

You are missing the point.We were supposed to pay for that picture.A freeper noted that after it was published.Be careful what you wish for.Amateurs err at times.

[antivenom]

CORIS photo...it wasn't legally yours...

[antivenom]

CORBIS typo...

[serurier]

I fear Mr. Kerry will have been bringing another a of the Vietnam Wars into against terrorism alliance .

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Good morning, Pastor x! It's a pleasure to share the links with others.

'Twas a shock to me just a few years back to learn how badly our press and Hollywood misrepresented our awesome, honorable, Vietnam Veterans.

(^:

[AppyPappy]

Does anyone have a copy of the political pop quiz that works?

[Shooter 2.5]

Americans in Vietnam had "personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam." Kerry testified, "We all did it."

Said the admitted war criminal.

[Spiff]

Oh, and I believe posting the photo falls under fair use as does the posting of articles and excerpts of articles. The photo was posted as a "Hey, look what I dug up over a Corbis" kind of thing.

NewsMax, on the other hand, is a commercial enterprise which makes money through various means which all center around the content it provides. Posting it or printing it there would not fall under fair use.

Corbis should actually thank FR for unearthing it and publicizing it sufficiently that at least one publisher paid full price to use it.

I understand your point and see that you may have thought you were watching FR's back. I just disagree that it had to be done the way you did it.

I still like NewsMax and I hope NewsMax still likes FR. This is not a big deal but just a minor disagreement about how you handled this and I'm just a lone FReeper to which you happened to reply.

[Valin]

Bush and I were Lieutenants (Fellow Pilot Comes to Bush's Defense)
The Washington Times Letters to the Editor 2-11-4
Col. William Campenni (ret.)


Posted on 02/11/2004 8:20:44 AM CST by Petronski

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1075896/posts
Letters to the Editor


'Bush and I were lieutenants'

George Bush and I were lieutenants and pilots in the 111th Fighter Interceptor Squadron (FIS), Texas Air National Guard (ANG) from 1970 to 1971. We had the same flight and squadron commanders (Maj. William Harris and Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, both now deceased). While we were not part of the same social circle outside the base, we were in the same fraternity of fighter pilots, and proudly wore the same squadron patch.

It is quite frustrating to hear the daily cacophony from the left and Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, et al., about Lt. Bush escaping his military responsibilities by hiding in the Texas ANG. In the Air Guard during the Vietnam War, you were always subject to call-up, as many Air National Guardsmen are finding out today. If the 111th FIS and Lt. Bush did not go to Vietnam, blame President Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, not lowly Lt. Bush. They deliberately avoided use of the Guard and Reserves for domestic political calculations, knowing that a draftee only stirred up the concerns of one family, while a call-up got a whole community's attention.

The mission of the 147th Fighter Group and its subordinate 111th FIS, Texas ANG, and the airplane it possessed, the F-102, was air defense. It was focused on defending the continental United States from Soviet nuclear bombers. The F-102 could not drop bombs and would have been useless in Vietnam. A pilot program using ANG volunteer pilots in F-102s (called Palace Alert) was scrapped quickly after the airplane proved to be unsuitable to the war effort. Ironically, Lt. Bush did inquire about this program but was advised by an ANG supervisor (Maj. Maurice Udell, retired) that he did not have the desired experience (500 hours) at the time and that the program was winding down and not accepting more volunteers.

If you check the 111th FIS records of 1970-72 and any other ANG squadron, you will find other pilots excused for career obligations and conflicts. The Bush excusal in 1972 was further facilitated by a change in the unit's mission, from an operational fighter squadron to a training squadron with a new airplane, the F-101, which required that more pilots be available for full-time instructor duty rather than part-time traditional reservists with outside employment.

The winding down of the Vietnam War in 1971 provided a flood of exiting active-duty pilots for these instructor jobs, making part-timers like Lt. Bush and me somewhat superfluous. There was a huge glut of pilots in the Air Force in 1972, and with no cockpits available to put them in, many were shoved into nonflying desk jobs. Any pilot could have left the Air Force or the Air Guard with ease after 1972 before his commitment was up because there just wasn't room for all of them anymore.

Sadly, few of today's partisan pundits know anything about the environment of service in the Reserves in the 1970s. The image of a reservist at that time is of one who joined, went off for six months' basic training, then came back and drilled weekly or monthly at home, with two weeks of "summer camp." With the knowledge that Mr. Johnson and Mr. McNamara were not going to call out the Reserves, it did become a place of refuge for many wanting to avoid Vietnam.

There was one big exception to this abusive use of the Guard to avoid the draft, and that was for those who wanted to fly, as pilots or crew members. Because of the training required, signing up for this duty meant up to 2½ years of active duty for training alone, plus a high probability of mobilization. A fighter-pilot candidate selected by the Guard (such as Lt. Bush and me) would be spending the next two years on active duty going through basic training (six weeks), flight training (one year), survival training (two weeks) and combat crew training for his aircraft (six to nine months), followed by local checkout (up to three more months) before he was even deemed combat-ready. Because the draft was just two years, you sure weren't getting out of duty being an Air Guard pilot. If the unit to which you were going back was an F-100, you were mobilized for Vietnam. Avoiding service? Yeah, tell that to those guys.

The Bush critics do not comprehend the dangers of fighter aviation at any time or place, in Vietnam or at home, when they say other such pilots were risking their lives or even dying while Lt. Bush was in Texas. Our Texas ANG unit lost several planes right there in Houston during Lt. Bush's tenure, with fatalities. Just strapping on one of those obsolescing F-102s was risking one's life.

Critics such as Mr. Kerry (who served in Vietnam, you know), Terry McAuliffe and Michael Moore (neither of whom served anywhere) say Lt. Bush abandoned his assignment as a jet fighter pilot without explanation or authorization and was AWOL from the Alabama Air Guard.

Well, as for abandoning his assignment, this is untrue. Lt. Bush was excused for a period to take employment in Florida for a congressman and later in Alabama for a Senate campaign.

Excusals for employment were common then and are now in the Air Guard, as pilots frequently are in career transitions, and most commanders (as I later was) are flexible in letting their charges take care of career affairs until they return or transfer to another unit near their new employment. Sometimes they will transfer temporarily to another unit to keep them on the active list until they can return home. The receiving unit often has little use for a transitory member, especially in a high-skills category like a pilot, because those slots usually are filled and, if not filled, would require extensive conversion training of up to six months, an unlikely option for a temporary hire.

As a commander, I would put such "visitors" in some minor administrative post until they went back home. There even were a few instances when I was unaware that they were on my roster because the paperwork often lagged. Today, I can't even recall their names. If a Lt. Bush came into my unit to "pull drills" for a couple of months, I wouldn't be too involved with him because I would have a lot more important things on my table keeping the unit combat ready.

Another frequent charge is that, as a member of the Texas ANG, Lt. Bush twice ignored or disobeyed lawful orders, first by refusing to report for a required physical in the year when drug testing first became part of the exam, and second by failing to report for duty at the disciplinary unit in Colorado to which he had been ordered. Well, here are the facts:

First, there is no instance of Lt. Bush disobeying lawful orders in reporting for a physical, as none would be given. Pilots are scheduled for their annual flight physicals in their birth month during that month's weekend drill assembly — the only time the clinic is open. In the Reserves, it is not uncommon to miss this deadline by a month or so for a variety of reasons: The clinic is closed that month for special training; the individual is out of town on civilian business; etc.

If so, the pilot is grounded temporarily until he completes the physical. Also, the formal drug testing program was not instituted by the Air Force until the 1980s and is done randomly by lot, not as a special part of a flight physical, when one easily could abstain from drug use because of its date certain. Blood work is done, but to ensure a healthy pilot, not confront a drug user.

Second, there was no such thing as a "disciplinary unit in Colorado" to which Lt. Bush had been ordered. The Air Reserve Personnel Center in Denver is a repository of the paperwork for those no longer assigned to a specific unit, such as retirees and transferees. Mine is there now, so I guess I'm "being disciplined." These "disciplinary units" just don't exist. Any discipline, if required, is handled within the local squadron, group or wing, administratively or judicially. Had there been such an infraction or court-martial action, there would be a record and a reflection in Lt. Bush's performance review and personnel folder. None exists, as was confirmed in The Washington Post in 2000.

Finally, the Kerrys, Moores and McAuliffes are casting a terrible slander on those who served in the Guard, then and now. My Guard career parallels Lt. Bush's, except that I stayed on for 33 years. As a guardsman, I even got to serve in two campaigns. In the Cold War, the air defense of the United States was borne primarily by the Air National Guard, by such people as Lt. Bush and me and a lot of others. Six of those with whom I served in those years never made their 30th birthdays because they died in crashes flying air-defense missions.

While most of America was sleeping and Mr. Kerry was playing antiwar games with Hanoi Jane Fonda, we were answering 3 a.m. scrambles for who knows what inbound threat over the Canadian subarctic, the cold North Atlantic and the shark-filled Gulf of Mexico. We were the pathfinders in showing that the Guard and Reserves could become reliable members of the first team in the total force, so proudly evidenced today in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It didn't happen by accident. It happened because back at the nadir of Guard fortunes in the early '70s, a lot of volunteer guardsman showed they were ready and able to accept the responsibilities of soldier and citizen — then and now. Lt. Bush was a kid whose congressman father encouraged him to serve in the Air National Guard. We served proudly in the Guard. Would that Mr. Kerry encourage his children and the children of his colleague senators and congressmen to serve now in the Guard.

In the fighter-pilot world, we have a phrase we use when things are starting to get out of hand and it's time to stop and reset before disaster strikes. We say, "Knock it off." So, Mr. Kerry and your friends who want to slander the Guard: Knock it off.


COL. WILLIAM CAMPENNI (retired)
U.S. Air Force/Air National Guard
Herndon, Va.5