I put a post on FR a few months before the election that I would be attending an event in Beverly Hills to get a signed UNFIT FOR COMMAND from John O'Neill. A Wisconsin FReeper contacted me and asked me to get two extra books, one for him and one for an employee. There were no book signings in his area. His employee had worked for him for seven years and never mentioned Vietnam until the SwiftVets came forward. I had O'Neill write: To xxxxxx, my comrade in arms. Finally, welcome home.
When the FReeper received the books I sent, his employee was overwhelmed and had to go be alone for awhile.
Similar story here. I served in Vietnam on a Coast Guard patrol cutter and spent two weeks shy of a year living and working on the boat. We served alongside the Swift Boats though our patrol areas were slightly further offshore. When I returned to the US and due to the protests just beginning to get ugly (Kerry was just coming into Vietnam the month I left), it was suggested that we change into civilian clothes before being sent to Oakland or San Francisco airports for the final leg home. I imagine the level of hate toward our servicemen was at a fever pitch in 1970 after Kerry pulled his crap. But all of this was long forgetten by most of us who, unlike JFnK, moved on with our lives.
This past August and September I found myself remembering my service as the Swift Boat Vets began their campaign to tell the truth about Kerry. I went to DC to the September rally in support of the vets who were exposing Kerry's lie. While there, I met John O'Neill who graciously signed my copy of his book with a personal note remembering our service at the same base in Vietnam.
This commercial shows how different our troops are treated. Even though Kennedy, Boxer, Kerry, Biden, Hillary, etc. try to say they honor the troops and not the policy, we and those serving today know their real agenda is pretty much the same as it was back then -- the US is the aggressor and the enemy of "oppressed peoples" everywhere, and is always wrong in taking actions that support freedom and choice for captive peoples.