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"The General paused. His eagle like eyes swept over the hillside. He said with pride, "There is one great thing that you men will all be able to say after this war is over and you are home once again. You may be thankful that twenty years from now when you are sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the great World War II, you WON'T have to cough, shift him to the other knee and say, "Well, your Granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana." No, Sir, you can look him straight in the eye and say, "Son, your Granddaddy rode with the Great Third Army and a Son-of-a-Goddamned-Bitch named Georgie Patton!"

All who served in WW II, Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait and Iraq did not shovel sh't somewhere.

There is plenty reason to whack Kerry for what he did when he returned. However he was in uniform, he was at the front, he risked his life and he was lucky the near misses didn't get him in the head or blow his limbs off. Criticism for front line service is pretty thin political gruel.

To me, the problem comes in that Kerry has been using the picture of these men in his campaign. He knowingly continued to use their picture to show how many were behind him, even though most in that picture disagreed with him. Their names have been tarnished, and I think they have every right to say that John Kerry is NOT telling the truth about the swift boat vets' approval of him. That's the message that I get from it.

It's fine that Kerry went and served in Vietnam. I admire and respect all the veterans who fight in any war. They paid for my freedom. What I object to, as I'm sure they do, is that Kerry is trying to say that these men he served with are behind him, and this is their way of saying that they aren't.

"Criticism for front line service is pretty thin political gruel."

I want to know if someone seeking by vote to be the Commander-in-Chief has repeatedly lied about his front line service. I thank these Swift Boat Vets for bringing this out.

Criticism for front line service is pretty thin political gruel.

That's generally true but it's much more significant when the criticism comes from those who served with him and from those in his direct chain of command.