[Salvation]

Prayers for this family.

And honor to all.

[Arkinsaw]

Sad that he thinks what his father was doing had no purpose. What the soldiers did had purpose, and they did it well. What the leadership did was what had no purpose.

[Slump Tester]

Sounds to me like the son got dropped on his head when he was young.

[mumzie]

Welcome home, brave soul.
Thank you for doing what your country asked of you.

[Buck Silverado]

What a self centered and self serving child (college student)this Gene Smith was and still is. If he was my son, I'd feel very betrayed and embarassed about him. ("Which is that what he was doing had no purpose.")

Gads, what an awful thing to say about his own father who was obviously career military. If he was old enough to be in college, he was old enough to know better and to understand.

[RGSpincich]

Smith's son, Gene, a physics professor at the University of California, San Diego.

A lifetime of academia does not allow a brain to heal after a liberal youth.

[SuziQ]

If his father had not been missing in action, he said, his mother might have reached a similar conclusions, "which is that what he was doing had no purpose."

An attitude fed, though most were not aware of it at the time, by the MSM, with Walter Cronkite being the chief manipulator of public opinion. The media brought the horrifying images of war into our living rooms every night, without, as now, ever talking about the war's successes, the least of which was to stop dead the tide of communism in Southeast Asia.

Uncle Walter intoned the body bag count and gave the impression that we were losing the war. Odd how you can lose a war without ever losing ONE battle in it! It was public opinion, fed by the disinformation campaigns of the Soviet Union and it's allies that created the idea of a loss for our soldiers, and relegated them to years of disapproval and hatred for having participated in it.

[struwwelpeter]

Our Eyes In The Sky

On a day long ago
In a far-away land,
You rose to the skies
To obey a command.

While we who were here
In our safe, secure place,
Never knew of the danger,
Never knew what you'd face.

We live in a land
That today is still free,
Who can measure the gift
To mankind and to me?

Our "Eyes in the Sky",
Looking down from above,
We hope you can see
What you gave us in love.

On a day long ago,
In a far-away land,
When you rose to the skies
To obey a command.

Chrystal Krueger Sinn, June, 1997

[ops33]

I wore Chief Rose's POW bracelet for many years. After his remains were identified and given due honors, I left his bracelet at the Wall.

[A.A. Cunningham]

he was buried with full military honors that included a 21-gun salute

Three rifle volleys, not a 21-gun salute.