Posted on 07/18/2004 4:55:11 PM PDT by redrock
"May 18,1971"--(Evil Exists)
April 22, 1971 -- John Kerry testifies on behalf of the VVAW before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs. He claims that American soldiers had "personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan..."
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Every action produces a reaction.
It's simple really..........
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You couldn't really call it a village.
I'm not really sure what you would call it. It was just a collection of lean-to's...tents and just plain 'any-spot-in-the-storm-will-do' types of shelters.
It was as if the old people and the young people had walked as far as they could...and it was just the spot that they stopped and tried to put together a reasonable image of their lives. It had water and was somewhat close to a road.
And...it was as far as they could go to get away from the war....and the soldiers of the NVA(North Vietnamese). The same NVA that had driven them away from the highlands of Vietnam. From their homes....from their lives.
That little spot in the road had around 25 people living there...mostly the old but a few young. One of them was pregnant. Luckily,for awhile anyway, a Medical Mission was nearby.
We used to patrol that area around every 3-4 days. Nothing major..just a platoon. The LT. liked to call that patrol his 'breaking-in' for newbies...for those who had just arrived 'in country'. It gave you a feel for the landscape...and it reminded the newbies that altho we were Air Cav....we also were expected to walk to earn our money.
On one patrol..we found out that the Medical Mission had left the area...and the pregnant woman was about to give birth. Being the only person on the patrol to even remotely have Medical training...( I served as a Medic)...I was volunteered by the LT. to help with the birth. One of the really old (ancient comes to mind) women knew about child-birth but was physically unable to help. Since we had a ARVN(South Vietnamese) interpreter along...I became her hands...as long as the ARVN interpreter could keep up.
The child was born into the world on May 15,1971. A little girl...all healthy as could be. We left her in the arms of her proud mother...and finished on with the patrol. (and I got the ribbing of my life about the whole thing...good natured...but it lasted for days).
The NVA activity started to pick up in the area. It seemed as if they thought we wouldn't fight back if we saw them...or came under fire. They started to get a little bolder....as they were sending out lots of patrols into the area around Pleiku..and further south.
On our next patrol into that area...we ran into a NVA patrol. Had a small firefight. Had to only work on a few minor wounds.
Then we came upon the small little spot...where the old and young had stopped to try and live.
The lean-to's were burned....the tents torn. Fire was still burning some of the bigger shacks.
The old and young people had been lined up and made to kneel...where they had had a gun pressed to the back of their heads. I know this is what happened...as each of them had a hole in the backs of their head...one made by a bullet.
The boot marks on the ground (that red dirt that seemed to exist everywhere in Vietnam)...were of standard issue NVA. So...the people who had done this were probably NVA.
I checked all that I could ...looking for even a glimmer of life. There was none.
Then I remembered the young mother....and the baby that I helped to deliver.
I searched the area..(with my back being watched by my Platoon Sgt.)...and came across them a few yards into the bush.
The young mother lay on the ground...and bullet hole in her head and laying in her arms was her baby daughter.
With a bullet hole in her head.
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Evil exists.
I came face-to-face with it on that day in Vietnam.
This is the 3rd time I've talked about that day in 30 plus years. I'm not sure if I can talk about it again ever.
But the same evil that I found in the highlands of Vietnam...exists today.
30 plus years ago...a self-serving ex-sailor sat before Congress and lied to them about the behaviour of American Soldiers. Lied to them in order to make himself look good. Lied to them in order to further his own ambitions.
Lied to them to facilitate the Evil.
And now...that same liar ...that same self-serving arrogant bastard is running for President.
I cannot prove it...but I have always believed that the actions of people like Kerry...facilitated the death of that young mother and her baby.
I would hate to think of a world...were someone like Kerry had as much power as a President of the United States has.
What would be the consequences????
Evil exists.
It is up to us...to defeat it.
God Bless *ALL* of our legitimate Military Members past and present.
May *fakes and traitors* the likes of John Kerry be exposed for the scum that they are.
.
Anytime you want to "talk" you freepmail me.
And don't worry, we're all going to work to send Kerry down like a rock in water.
Thanks very much Chieftain for taking the time to share your experience with me, and of course for how you spent those 22 years.
Clinton's administration turned me from a conservative who was skeptical about the Democrats, but willing to consider that the odd one in a local election might merit my support, to one who believes that the Democrats are manipulative and dishonest from top to bottom. I was, and am still, stunned at the solidarity they displayed in standing behind Clinton's obvious lies and then behind Gore when he went so far as to have active duty military votes challenged and discarded in Florida.
My veteran friend had told me during that election that he wanted "something done for the military", then during the recount he told me "I just want all the votes to be counted." I e-mailed him a news account of the Democrat challenges to military votes and asked if that was what he had in mind for the military. He never responded to that note.
Your point about John Glenn is a good one. Certainly an admirable, heroic, man, who has served the country with the best of them. Yet even he maintained a partisan Democrat position during Senate hearings on impeachment (if I recall correctly). I think Max Cleland is probably a decent man also, and I respect his service and his injuries even if they did not come in combat. They came while on active duty in a combat zone, and that's close enough for me. Yet now he uses them for purely partisan purposes.
I've never endured anything like Cleland endures, nor have I the courage of Glenn. But if I had the experiences each has I just don't think I'd associate myself with a party that systematically lies about everything. Maybe I shouldn't say this since they protected me, but it seems to me that their association with the Democrat party cheapens their service and sacrifices. That service and those sacrifices are the best and most moving things about America. They define America. And they just should not be cheapened.
I feel bad about saying that, since Cleland and Glenn have done and given so much, while I've done and given nothing. But it's the only honest conclusion I can reach. I just don't understand it and I'm saddened by it. How can heroes do what they've done and what they are doing?
I think one needs to separate the military veteran from the politician. That's right, either party, they are politicians who decided to utilize their military service as platform to vault them into political career.
Remember also, that people who are supporters of one party or the other aren't politicians, they just identify with that party's platform.
It is a free country and as bad as I hate to admit it, there a few with a (D) behind their name that are actually decent people who actually stand for sopmething other than the leftist drivel. They are few and far between, but retiring Senator Zell Miller of Georgia (D) is one of them, he is also a fellow Marine - OOORRAAHH!!
If you separate the veteran from the politician, you will see what I mean. Example: George McGovern was a highly decorated WW II pilot, but when he became a politician years later, he was a liberal and a dove, (he also got CLOBBERED in '72 by Nixon).
Let's get as many as we can to vote for George W in November!
Hi Chieftain and thanks again for your insight. Your advice to separate the veteran from the politician is sound. Another vet friend of mine said something similar - that I should separate what they did from what they are doing.
I guess it's a bit naive for me to hold someone, even a hero, to a heroic standard for the entire rest of their lives. But the men I know at work and at church who served in combat are heroes to me, and everytime I see them I think of them as heroes. A kind word or pat on the back from them is a humbling and moving experience.
So it's hard for me to draw that distinction between the past and the present, but it's part of life I suppose. As I hope my tag line makes clear, there is only One Who is really worthy of praise.
Take care Chieftain. I'll look forward to the honor of talking with you on some other thread in the future.
bttt
If anyone has any doubt about this statement...just look at the pictures of the dead children in Russia..to gain a real UNDERSTANDING of just what is at stake this election.
redrock
redrock
Count me in! God bless ya.
5.56mm
redrock
redrock
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