Posted on 04/27/2004 9:45:22 AM PDT by doug from upland
Please pass my sincere thanks to him on behalf of a guy who owes his life to a Navy corpsman, like many, many others.
Nothing against the many servicepeople who got assignments other than the war during that time period. Good people, gave it a dice roll and they ended up in Alaska or Germany or that sort of thing. No problem. Not as prestigious as a front-line fighter in Vietnam, but no harm, no foul.
Where I get more energized is with the guys that figured the angles and found deferments, called influential friends, ran off, etc. and now want to be in positions of leadership. those people valued Number One best of all and took care of same. I reasonably consider this a failure of a character/courage test (but an A+ in self-interest and survival) and this should disqualify them from positions in which they can decide whether our children's lives are to be risked.
Also reasonably, I tend to more greatly admire the people that risked everything for their fellow servicepeople and their country. Like your Corpsman cousin.
Wow - did you make that up yourself Spotsy?
It's actually pretty perceptive: I am very humbled to have been lucky enough to have been with some of the best guys and gals this country has to offer - from the Marines of the 1st and 3rd marine Divisions, to the Army draftees I met in the hospitals in Japan, to the Army, Air Force and Navy Medical personnel that worked hard to save as many as they could, to the pilots and crewmen of the Air Force, Army, the Marines, and the Navy that risked death every day to support us - and many more.
I guess that I could have chosen a different path and missed all of them - but I was lucky.
Which is why I haven't and don't cotton to easy comparisons of these kinds of Americans to the other ones that picked clever ways to avoid the battle.
Wow - did you make that up yourself Spotsy?
Mockery and sarcasm are unbecoming.
Keep those original quotes coming, Spots, I'm writing 'em down as fast as I can...
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