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Per the request of Aegedius, I will share my experience as a child of a serviceman during the Vietnam War when EXACTLY this type of thing happened, an event that made me a conservative at about the age of 3, realizing that the "peace protesters" like John Kerry actually just hate America and don't really care about people.

I have very few clear memories before the age of 5 --- this is one.

My dad flew B-52's in Vietnam. More correctly, he flew IN B-52's -- he was the electronic countermeasures crewman. My knowledge of the war was that dad would disappear for a couple or days or a week, mom and my older sisters would be worried, and then we would all be happy when he came home.

One day, when mom was out, we got a call one of the times dad was away. The eldest (10? 13? Not sure.) answered.

DAD WAS DEAD SAID the caller. He was shot down in Vietnam. She started to cry. The middle sister started to cry. I started to cry.

Mom came home to three hysterical children. She knew the call was a fake; the base wives had been warned of this trick. I remember being scared until dad finally came home the next day.

So Snopes, et al, can go jump in a lake. This really did happen.

This is not all. This is probably more the memory of my sisters imparted on me that my own recollection. It came about because of a tradition on the base.

The school was right off to the side of the base --- you could see (and hear) every plane land and take off.

In fact, the school was so close that the kids could also see the "peace protestors" with their signs out on the fence edge.

Basically everyone in the little elementary/pre- school we went to knew someone in the air crews that went out --- either fathers of the kids, or the kids' dads were on the ground crew or neighbors or whatnot. I suspect (no knowledge)that half the teachers were wives of servicemen.

Anyway, when we heard the lumbering engines of the B-52's coming back, everyone could go run out and see their dads come back.

The eldest kids learned to count the planes out and count the planes in.

One day, a couple planes did not come back.

The protesters, who could count too, cheered while the sons and daughters wept.

Importantly, it turned out the planes were not shot down, but diverted somewhere (Japan?) due to some mechanical problem, so it ended fine. Regardless, the protesters showed their true colors.

Indeed, it reminds me of the gloating of the media and Democrats as they eagerly awaited the 1000th death in Iraq.