[ASA Vet]

My dad is a WW II vet. He was shot and spent a long time in the hospital.
He refused a purple heart. He told the officer trying to give it to him
that he'd been biten by a bear. (At least it wasn't a moose.)

He's 79 now, and still taking his bride of 57+ years out dancing twice a week.

We just don't build tough guys like that anymore.

[Severa]

Wow. *S* Your parents sound awesome.

After watching Kerry for a while I got to thinking about something that has really bugged me:

My dad was drafted for 'Nam, was stateside for most of that time as a cook (he asked to be a gunner but a busted eardrum from a prior welding accident prevented that) and did his time just before his unit, 25th Infantry, got sent over and as he puts it, 'got slashed to ribbons'...

My cousin Juan was a medic in 'Nam...and made it home alive and in one piece...

Dad is just now starting to tell me about his days in the Army. Juan hardly talks to ANYONE, let alone me, about what he saw there, and I'm not about to make him tell me.

Yet Kerry manages to fit his service (if one could call it that) in every conversation I've seen. And this ranks right up with Clinton not being able to render a proper salute to save his damned life on my irritation meter.