Great post Julie...
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Posted on 08/29/2004 4:44:09 AM PDT by stockpirate
When I am getting coffee or in a store and I see a serviceman or group, more than once I have said thanks.
And reminded them that a lot of Americans are proud of them and very greatful.
I thought in light of what you wrote you might enjoy knowing this about Kerry and the VVAW.
Yes the VVAW did cost American lives, read this from the FBI report.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1201299/posts
And I now of the information fromthe FBI files that the VVAW voted Yea, and then acted upon the vote.
Mike I have been busy please check out my FBI files and Kerry posts.
Here are some things I have posted if you would like to find out what I am about.
I have been researching John Kerry and VVAW and the FBI files.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1200373/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1199050/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1198088/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1200846/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1200950/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1201299/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1193146/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1192084/posts
Should I say "thanks" or "accepted"? You have suffered with more than my simmering anger over the years.
Thank you for your moving post.
I remember the VVAW and John Kerry's trashing of our military and feeling anger that the Communists, American-haters, their Dem cohorts and the media were smearing all Vietnam Vets as war criminals. At the time, I was busy with young children and couldn't do anything to counter them.
I believe must inform younger Americans so they will know the truth about Hanoi John.
Here is a letter that Roger Hedgecock read while he was filling in for Rush this week. If you're under the age of 50, please read it once, twice, three times if you have to. Read it till you're sick. Read it till you cry. Read it and you'll understand what the Swift Boat Vets are all about:
http://www.rogerhedgecock.com/macsclipboard.html
Roger,
I heard your discussion with that Vietnam veteran on Rush Limbaugh's show on Wednesday. It churned up a lot of old, unpleasant and largely dormant memories as, I'm sure, it did for a lot of others as well.
I think it is important to acknowledge that, on the question of Kerry's service, not all veterans' opinions are equally informed. There is a difference between Vietnam veterans and others. Those who actually served in Vietnam bore a special burden because of the actions of Kerry and his ilk. Even my wife of four decades wonders why this Kerry business angers me so. Let me try and explain.
I, too, received combat decorations for service in Vietnam but the "award" I still remember clearest - and the one that I preserved for years "in my memory trunk" to show my children when they grew up - was the short sleeve summer tropical khaki uniform I was wearing when I returned to the USA. Landing at Travis AFB outside San Francisco, we were bussed by the military to San Francisco airport to make our connecting civilian flights home. Leaving the special military bus PAX drop-off point some distance from the terminal entrance late in the evening, we were met by a screaming, chanting horde of anti-war demonstrators who lined our path into the airport and down the concourse. Apparently, meeting military busses in this fashion was their standard procedure. Police, who were used to their tactics, were supportive of the veterans but too few to fully control the crowd.
They escorted our group down the walk and into the airport, reminding us to "keep it cool" as they would have to arrest anyone who attacked a demonstrator unless physically attacked first. Every veteran, including some still recovering from wounds, was forced to walk this ugly gauntlet. Not only were we verbally taunted and insulted but we had to duck all kinds of stuff thrown at us in the dark, including feces, urine, blood, spit, rotten fruit and who knows what else.
Permitted only a shaving kit to handcarry for the return trip to the States, we lacked the ability to change clothes. Thus, after cleaning up as best I could in the Men's room, I boarded my flight home to the east coast on a commercial midnight flight, a decorated young military officer in the horribly desecrated uniform of my country, still wet and stinking from the California welcome I received after a year at war and a year of separation from my wife and babies. What I remember most clearly is walking down the aisle of that crowded plane, looking and smelling like some worthless street bum, people turning away in disgust. In fact, to this day I remember that more clearly than my worst firefight. It is "seared" in my memory.
To top off this Kafka-esque episode, I had to sit in a middle seat in the rear of the full plane between two spaced out pot-heads who were....grade school teachers!!! They freely admitted that they had gone to teaching to dodge the draft. Between purple haze giggles, they wanted to know how many kids I'd killed. They don't know how close they came to being the first two. Was I angry? You're Damn Right!!!!!!!
That's what it was really like to be a Vietnam vet at that time and most genuine Vietnam vets I know have had similar unpleasant experiences, or worse. John Kerry had a lot to do with the kind of treatment that all Vietnam vets experienced on our return. When I finally got home, I took a long, hot shower and washed the stink of Vietnam and California away, vowing never to return to either. I was not successful in either case. Thirty five years, however, still hasn't washed the stink off of that treasonous bastard John Kerry. I doubt time ever will.
Kerry's comments about Bush remaining with the children in the classroom on 9-11demonstrates Kerry's total lack of understanding of genuine leadership. A true leader seeks to build a top-notch team upon which he can rely, whatever the circumstances. He doesn't always have to be the center of attention. He knows his people know what to do, when to do it, how to do it and he trusts them to do their jobs. They know which decisions they may make and which can be made only by the leader. Kerry's style is that of a classic micro-manager who must be everywhere and do everything himself, trusting no one. If he were truly the experienced combat veteran he claims to be, he would have learned 35 years ago that no effective military leader can operate in that fashion, and certainly not as commander in chief.
The true leader knows instinctively when to act and when to first seek to develop the situation, as the military calls it, and obtain necessary information upon which to make informed decisions. He also instinctively realizes the importance of calming the fears that arise naturally in people because of danger and uncertainty. On September 11, 2001, President Bush did that brilliantly. He was the epitome of coolness under fire. He was the commander-in-chief!! In spades!!!
Kerry is a mere pretender unworthy to clean Bush's latrine with his tongue.
Thanks for the opportunity to vent about this parasite. You can use all, some, none of the above. Given that I live in a very small town and we are easy to find, I would ask that you limit any attribution to use of my first name only...or a pseudonym, if you prefer. No sense making it any easier for the professional out of town Kerry Kook-aid nut-jobs than they already have it.
Frank
Colonel, USA (ret)
Boiling Springs, PA
Beautiful. Thank you.
Great job!
Welcome to FR. It appears that you are well acquainted with some FReepers already.
Yes, I have become acquinted with some Freepers, most are nice, some are libs.
I haven't read this, but will read soon.
I'm reading Unfit for Command now, and, as someone who used to buy the negative generalisms about the Vietnam War, it very apparent to me how wrong so many of us were about this war and the veterans.
Maybe JFnKerry and the SwiftVets are doing something painful but good for this country.
-- Joe
The VVAW was getting funds and support Communist Party USA, a Communist Party of a counry in Europe.
kerry threw in just enough truth to fool gullible people. I would think having been a FReeper for over 6 years, you would have been exposed to enough truth that you would know better. The "code" you refer to is a code of honor, not a code of cover-ups and lies. Those who have no honor, can't seem to grasp that concept. I don't know a single soldier who would cover for another soldier dishonoring the military. I'm sure there are rare exceptions to that rule, but how dare you suggest that lies are the rule! There is no such "code" in the military that requires soldiers to cover up eachother's war crimes. I was spoonfed the same lies you were spoonfed. The difference is, when it upset my stomach and I threw it back up, I didn't turn it into a meal to be shared with others. I cleaned up the mess, and feasted on truth thereafter. That's a meal big enough for everyone, and you're welcome to partake.
I, too, was born in 1962. I know exactly where you're coming from. I could have written your post myself.
I've met a few "Viet Nam Vets" who were totally screwed up in the head because of "what our government made them do." It was always confusing to me to hear their stories, because it was so completely different from the experiences of the few Vets I knew personally. Strange how the few I knew personally were so well adjusted, but the many I barely knew were so screwed up. I'm just now figuring out they were imposters. I remember kerry's testimoy before the Senate in 1971. I was too young then to understand most of it, but the shocking stuff really sunk in. A nine year old girl doesn't forget the image of her heroes cutting off the enemies' ears, and electrocuting their genitals.
Thanks!
Thanks for the ping . . . RA19849875
I see. JFK got us into VietNam, LBJ ramped up the involvement after running on a platform stating he'd pull out, and Nixon actually did pull us out ... and they're all equal?
Nixon's victory in 1968 was not a mandate to bomb Hanoi. It was in part a righted wrong from the 1960 JFK usurpation, and building somewhat on the Republican resurgence seen in the 1966 mid-term. JFK's memory was still very much alive and the personality cult had been fed by the adoring media for 5 years already. The JFK who got us into the conflict was blown away in 1963. His brother running as an anti-war dove was blown away in June, 1968. RFK's death fed the media and public passions in the anti-war sense that left the media and the Democrat voting public very emotionally conflicted. Recall the Dem convention in 1968.
If Nixon bombed Hanoi in 1969, he would have united his opposition in ways that would have brought his Administration to a complete stand still. He got that popular mandate in 1972 and acted on it then.
LBJs failures in the micromanagement of the VietNam conflict left him unconvinced of his own electoral success to the point of choosing not to run in '68, and it left many questions regarding the success of our involvement there in the minds of Americans.
Nixon took his 1972 mandate forward and a narrow interregnum window of opportunity and bombed Hanoi while Congress took its Christmas/post-election recess. A stroke of genius.
And you still fail to assign any blame to the Democrat Congress that tied his hands, likely because you are unfamiliar with what the Constitution says are the obligations of Congress in the context of making formal declarations of war.
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