He was a sorry sack of $HIT regardless. Oh yes, he was a war hero just like John Kerry.
He'd be considered a flag waving patriot compared to the rabble called democrats in the Senate today.
John Kerry wasn't worthy to shine Bentsen's shoes. And Lloyd didn't go around saying "Did you know I served in WWII?". Heres a little bio on Lloyd, the guy did his duty:
When America entered World War II, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. After brief service as a private in intelligence work in Brazil, he became a pilot and in early 1944 began flying combat missions in B-24s from southern Italy with the 449th Bomb Group. At age 23 he was promoted to the rank of Major and given command of a squadron of 600 men.
In 18 months of combat, Bentsen flew 35 dangerous missions against many difficult, remote and highly defended targets such as the Ploesti oil fields in Romania, which were critical to the Nazi's war strategy. The 15th Air Force, to which the 449th was attached, is credited with destroying all of the peroleum production within its range, which equated to about half of Germany's sources of fuel on the continent. Major Bentsen's unit also flew against communications centers, aircraft factories and industrial targets in Germany, Italy, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. Bentsen participated in bombing raids in support of the Anzio campaign and flew bombers against hard targets in preparation for the landing in southern France.
Bentsen was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, one of the Army Air Corps' and now the Air Force's highest commendations for valor in combat. In addition to the Distinguished Flying Cross, Bentsen was awarded the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters. The Air Medal and each individual cluster represent specific campaigns for which he was decorated. Before completing his military service, he was promoted to the rank of Colonel in the Air Force Reserve.
He was a Major who flew 200 bombing runs in WW2.
No, not just like him. Bentsen actually was something of a war hero. And he didn't bring it up every five seconds. Even folks like Rep. Charles Rangel (Dipsh-NY) falls into that category for the same reason more than Kerry does. You have to give them credit and respect earned for that.
Have your differences with the other things.
TS
I've been trying to find a letter he wrote to me over 20 years ago in response to my letter urging him to "do something" about the illegal invasion from south of the border. (as an aside: in pre word processor and/or email days, writing to ones congress critter took more effort)
I do remember his letter sequed into support for the IRA - I guess the connection was we were both talking about foreigners. This from a Texas senator.