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Sept. 13, 2004 Lately some of my opponents in the dog and pony show that leads to personal riches and lifetime benefits have criticized my service during the Viet Nam war. They say that a seventeen year old man who enlisted to go wherever my government sent me was not good enough. That by being on a thirty five year old United States navy ship of the line that did nothing more than steam up and down the east coast of this nation was not good enough. I say it was not only good enough but honorable. They say that because after only a few months on that ship and after nearly being washed overboard during a hurricane and breaking my elbow did not deserve the attention I got. I say I did not fall on purpose and that the wounds received, did not merit any medals, like my combat brethren got that because I did not order up the hurricane that wounded me it still was honorable service. After I was discharged from the military I was, while not as vocal as some of my combat veteran brethren, decidedly against the war that at the time was winding down. Not necessarily because of the drug addicting treatment I received in the military but rather because I began to meet scores of grunts who had served in the mud of south East Asia and I saw for myself what the war had done to them. I saw the government that had called on them abandon them. I saw men who could not sleep well at night because of the nightmares fall into the mind numbing use of drugs and alcohol. I saw men who had lost arms, legs, eyes and others who still had all the required appendages but not the use of them due to a land mine or grenade. I saw men my age or a little older who would weep with their combat veteran brothers over those friends who left their souls in Viet Nam both psychologically and physically. I wept with them, for their pain was seared into my own worthless soul. I joined them in protest over the war and the shabby treatment they received from the Veteran’s Administration and I began to say to every combat veteran whom I met; “Welcome home brother.” Remember the days when veterans were spit on and vilified by them who had never served? “Welcome home brother” was the greeting veterans gave each other because no one else would welcome us home. Just as it is today in this race, them that did not serve are spitting on those that did. And thus it is today from some of my opponents in this race for the White House. Of the five major candidates for the presidency there is only myself and John Kerry who can actually claim to be veterans. George W. Bush can not claim such yet because he has not shown a completion of service. Yes he may have a DD-214 but the records that are surfacing are beginning to show that he did not perform his duty, neither as an officer nor as a man. He was trained as fighter pilot yet he lost his flight status when he went to campaign for some old republican candidate in Mississippi. He was ordered to take his physical and disobeyed that order so he would not have to fly over the friendly skies of America; when he should have been flying over the not so friendly skies of Viet Nam where his service may have actually done some good. Whether this was because he did not like to fly or because his boss in the failed political campaign would not give him time off to do his duty is a question you’ll have to ask him. And Dick Cheney what is up with him; what right does he have to spit on John Kerry who enlisted as a matter of conscience and VOLUNTEERED to go to Viet Nam where he actually saved some lives and, in the scheme of war, did some good? The same Dick Cheney who got five student deferments and then spoke bad about Bill Clinton for getting the same pardon from war, has not earned the right to try to discredit John Kerry or my own service to the nation during the Viet Nam era, he was hiding behind some college text books in his art classes, instead of being where he should have been; which is in the mud of Viet Nam. He wants to sound like a warrior but he is not. Being the civilian head of the military or even the vice president of the United States does not make one a warrior even if those positions allows for him to make warriors out of other people’s children. To John Kerry I say “Welcome home brother.” To the other candidates for president I say, until you have completed honorable combat service in the defense of this country you have not the right to speak down on the service others HAVE performed. You can send our children off to a war you started for whatever reasons but you can not describe the pain of that service to the parents of them who have actually served AND DIED IN THAT SERVICE. Your own children are not in harms way; I ask will it be the same thirty five years from now. Will them who did not serve but belong to a political dynasty be spitefully talking about their opponents who did serve? George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld et al; have been sucking at the government teat since the Nixon administration, that makes them career civil servants not combat veterans. Remember John Kerry and I are veterans, he has his pension and lifetime benefits in place from his time in congress, so I say now it is my turn. Write my name in on every line on your ballot so I can lead this country while securing the benefits it offers for myself. Thank You. ------------ About the author: Mark Durfee is a free thinker who is swayed by logic and truth not ideology and deception. Email: mcd5255@hotmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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