SUPPORT FOR UPCOMING ELECTION
If you support the policies and character that our current President, George W. Bush, stands for, please drive with your headlights on during the day this coming Sunday.
If you support John Kerry, please drive with your headlights off at night.
John Kerry told the world we were war criminals who raped, tortured and murdered in Vietnam. Now, thirty-three years later, we will tell America the truth.
Join us at the rally we call:
What: A peaceful remembrance of those with whom we served in Vietnam - those who lived and those who died.
We will tell the story of their virtues and how that contrasts with the lies told by John Kerry.
When: Sunday, Sept. 12, 2004 @ 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM EDT
Where: The West Front of the U.S. Capitol Building, Washington, DC
All Vietnam veterans and their families and supporters are asked to attend. Other veterans are invited as honored guests. This will be a peaceful event--no shouting or contact with others with different opinions. We fought for their rights then, and we respect their rights now. This is NOT a Republican or a pro-Bush rally. Democrats, Republicans and independents alike are warmly invited.
Our gathering is to remember those with whom we served, thereby giving the lie to John Kerry's smear against a generation of fine young men. B.G. "Jug" Burkett, author of "Stolen Valor," will be one of our speakers. Jug has debunked countless impostors who falsely claimed to be Vietnam veterans or who falsely claimed awards for heroism. Jug recommends that we refrain from dragging fatigues out of mothballs. Dress like America, like you do every day. Dress code: business casual, nice slacks, and shirt and shoes. No uniform remnants, please. Unit hats OK.
Selected members will wear badges identifying them as authorized to speak to the media about our event. Others who speak to the media will speak only for themselves.
The program will be controlled in an attempt to stay on-message. Speakers are encouraged not to engage in speculative criticism of John Kerry but (1) to stick to known and undisputed facts about John Kerry’s lies while (2) reminding America of the true honor and courage of our brothers in battle in Vietnam.
Send this announcement to 10 or more of your brothers! Bring them by car, bus, train or plane! Make this event one of pride in America, an event you would be proud to have your mother or your children attend.
Contact: kerrylied.com
Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.
Actively seeking volunteers to provide this valuable service to Veterans and their families.
UPDATED THROUGH APRIL 2004
The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul
Click on Hagar for
"The FReeper Foxhole Compiled List of Daily Threads"
Victor Belenko voted U.S. citizen by unanimous Congress
Viktor BELENKO
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Grissom feels America forgot 1st NASA tragedy
Unlike Challenger and Columbia, NASA swept Apollo 1 deaths in 1967 aside, widow says.
By Mary Beth Schneider
The Indianapolis Star
Published: February 2, 2003
Betty Grissom has a wish for the families of space shuttle Columbia's lost crew.
She hopes they get answers.
She hopes that someday they know what happened.
Because on Jan. 27, 1967, her husband, Hoosier Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, and two other astronauts were killed when a deadly fire swept their command module as they trained for what would have been the first Apollo space mission.
"I've waited 35 years for somebody to come by my home and explain to me about the Apollo 1 fire," Grissom said. "I'm still waiting."
Saturday was a hard day for Grissom. Everyone in America, and in many corners of the world, was grieving for the seven crew members killed in the Columbia disaster. She is one of the few who knows just how the pain feels.
"Right now, my sympathies go to the families. Hopefully, NASA will do a better job of keeping them informed. It doesn't pay to be first."
Just as Gus Grissom was among the first astronauts to risk his life, Betty Grissom was among the first to know the price those risks entail.
Betty Grissom and her two sons, then 16 and 13, were in Houston, not at Cape Canaveral, in 1967 as Gus Grissom prepared for his mission. On Jan. 27, 1967, things went horribly wrong.
To Betty Grissom, so did what happened afterward.
Unlike Jan. 28, 1986, when space shuttle Challenger exploded, the survivors of the Apollo 1 tragedy weren't wrapped in the embrace of a nation.
Almost from the moment the family left Arlington National Cemetery, where Grissom is buried, "we were cut off," his widow said. "I never heard from anybody."
Saturday, an emotional President Bush called the families of the Columbia from the Oval Office, telling them, "I wish I was there to hug and cry and comfort you right now."
But in 1967, there was no comforting phone call from President Lyndon B. Johnson. No offers of counseling. No funds created to put her boys through college.
They went, all right. Both Scott and Mark followed their dad's footsteps to Purdue University, and both became pilots. But it took a lawsuit against NASA to get the money that paid those bills; she received a $350,000 settlement, 40 percent of which went to attorneys.
NASA's attitude, Grissom said, was to talk as little as possible about the disaster, in hopes the public would just forget about it and any hint of controversy would fade away. Officials even stopped referring to her husband's mission by its rightful name, Apollo 1, and called it "204" instead.
"It's because if you say 204, nobody knows what you're talking about."
It hurts Grissom and her sons that Apollo 1 is so forgotten. Last week, they held a memorial service at Pad 34 at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the place where Grissom and fellow astronauts Edward White and Roger Chaffee died.
It went unnoticed by almost everyone, including the media. The next day, though, the 17th anniversary of the Challenger tragedy got the attention that they didn't.
Scott Grissom, now a pilot for Federal Express whose own dreams of becoming an astronaut were cut short by imperfect eyesight, was riveted by Saturday's news like most Americans.
"We feel terrible for the families. We've been there and done that," Scott Grissom said. "An accident like this is devastating to thousands of people. The whole effort to get one of these things in space and back -- lots of people have their hearts and soul in it."
His dad did, he said, and he knows his father would want the space program to go on.
"I think that my father pretty much captured it when he said that the exploration of space is worth the risk of life."
Grissom is less certain. "We were the ones that got left behind."
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A pure oxygen environment with a thousand electrical components, cold o-rings, "greener" lox insulation--
And John Glenn who protected Clinton's Chinagate treason was rewarded with a space ride.
There is no upper limit on temperature. The center of the sun is 18,000,000 degrees Centigrade.
Clinton, Glenn and Kerry to the center of the sun in Jules Verne's Karmic Rocketry Illustrated.
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