Thank you, but there are men on this site that deserve more accolades for courage, I was never shot at. I did a few things that took a little guts, I did move faster or first compared to the Marines around me, but I was never alone, and got more recognition for the puny lifesaving things we got recognized for than we deserved, and none for the ones we did deserve! :)
Did that come out right?
I just cannot believe, still, 6 or 7 hous later, that people actually will print such a lie like this, something so demonstrably false, with thousands of witnesses still alive, and some people will repeat this pencil pushing geek's lies as the truth!
I just dont know what to say.
I am so upset, the latest Ann Coulter column had absolutely no effect on me...and that shook me!
Funny, that might sound funny, but it is a truth!
I am so sorry that you had to read this garbage. What is your opinion, has it been a "good" thing to start bringing the old Vietnam lies out in the open (lke the Swifites) to expose and finally put them to rest, or not?
While I was not a Vietnam Vet, I distinctly recall seeing TV news of some of the soldiers returning home and being subjected to a gauntlet of abuse... including obvious spitting and being pelted by objects. I spoke to some of my high school classmates (class of 67) who HAD gone and endured that gauntlet. They were all bitter.
These reports DID exist... but that is past tense. Most TV stations of the period reused their tapes because they were so expensive. Once the report was aired, the tape would likely be erased and reused. Very little of this "non-news" (as judged by the liberal editors of the TV station news) was archived. That being said, I still think this idiot did not look very hard.
But there is a very important point that needs to be said:
This academic puke understands something that all the impugned Vets do not.
Someday, all the witnesses WILL BE DEAD AND SILENT! He knows that his "research" and "writings", printed as fact, will outlive the eyewitnesses that can refute his tripe. Other researchers in the future will seek out "authoritative" source material to write history... and they will find HIS work. They will find the work of similar liars that seem to support his contentions as his supportd theirs. This agreement will appear to be consensus... and consensus is awfully hard to deny.
The anacdotal stories of those actually experienced the atrocious "welcomes" of the spitters and abusers WILL NOT BE FOUND because acedemics like him will not have archived those stories. Most of those who experienced it did not write it down, did not file complaints, and like yourself, restrained themselves from newsworthy reprisal attacks on the abusers. What will be found in the libraries are the "carefully" researched negative refutations of those stories written by "professional," "certified" experts whose words can be credited BECAUSE they are professional and certified... and corraborated by other "professional certified experts."
His lies will be "sanctified" by being enshrined in libraries of historical research... to be relied upon by future researchers who WILL NOT HAVE ACCESS TO PRIMARY SOURCES because they are all gone.
You, and your fellow vets, now that successful opposition to Kerry has united you, should continue this battle to regain your stolen honor. Do it by writing YOUR stories of your homecomings and your stories of how you were treated. Publish them. Get them placed on the shelves alongside tripe such as Llewelyn's so that future historians WILL have primary source material, written by the eyewitness and the victims of the leftists to let them SEE the tripe for what it is!
Posting on FreeRepubic is a good start... but the records of your posts on the internet are ephermeral. They need to be written in book form. Collect these stories, have those who tell them write them in first person and document what can be documented, AND PUBLISH IT. I bet there is a market for such a book. Regnery would probably publish it.
Good Luck