This is the granddaughter of Tom Connolly. I was doing a google search of my grandfather when I came across this article on this website. I can tell you right now not only am I ashamed at the factor that anything to do with him is on a site like this one, but so would my grandfather! I’m extremely proud of everything he ever did, and was excited when I heard about this article from my uncle. However the factor that its been posted on this right wing propaganda site scares me! The things this article doesn’t tell you is how kind, loving, and intelligent he was. Or how he would never agree with any of the articles I’ve seen on this site. People need to open a book and their minds then and only then will the world become what it is meant to be!
I do not know how old you are, but I think it is specious at best to assume what he would think of the content of this site. Most of what is here is opinion and people exercising their right to free speech. Most of what is truly offensive here is refuted by other members. Most of what you may find offensive, may be a personal blindness to the realities of the world.
Once again, god bless your Grandfather and many like him who helped keep this great country free.
Since when is the truth "Right" or "Left"? And just who do you think has a monopoly on it? If you think that "the Right" is really mistaken, shouldn't you want them to understand the truth of history with stories like this one?
Please try and find this article or much of anything on the Halyard Mission that saved your grandfather posted on any website espousing a more "Left" or even "Center" leaning (and presumably more comfortable to you) political orientation. Because it is extremely unlikely that you will find one.
When Clinton's NATO bombs were being dropped on the Serbs -- the very people without whose help your grandfather would have never returned and you wouldn't even be here-- Free Republic was one of the only websites that was willing to listen to the true story of the WWII Halyard Mission. At a time when an enormous propaganda machine (fully embraced by the Left & Center) was trying to portray the Serbs as all being some sort of "anti-American genetic throwbacks", Free Republic was one of the only places to allow stories like this which evidenced otherwise. If anything, I think that you ought to feel grateful to Jim Robinson and Free Republic for keeping your grandfather's legacy alive when other political forces were trying to kill and bury the story to suit their own political ends.
My father, like your grandfather, fought in the US Army during WWII, and I consider both heroes to whom we owe thanks for putting their lives on the line for the US so that we could have a future and freedom. (Freedom of speech being one of those things.) But their heroism is not ours, it's theirs. And I don't own my father's heroism anymore than you own your grandfather's.
You are confusing being the beneficiary of a history of bravery, with being the owner of that history of bravery, yourself.