Veterans


	Veteran's Corner

Baker Co, USMC Iraq 2004




		A little humor at the Taliban's expense:


	What's different between the American G.I. and Bin Laden's cowards? In one picture, here it is:




		America the Beautiful

THANK A VET - SHOW THEM YOU CARE

Don't let our Vietnam homecoming happen to our boys, ever again. If you see a veteran home from the war - buy his drink, lunch, give him a ride, anything you can do to say "thanks".

(The following is not to toot my horn - it's to serve as an example, and show it made his day - or maybe longer.)

I recall when I came home from the nam, (weapons tech) I stopped wearing my uniform - it just attracted hate. I was in a bowling alley bar, home on leave, in my civvies, and an old guy bought all my drinks. Said your money is no good here. I tried to thank him - he said no thanks, please, you've done enough. I never forgot that. I think he was a WWII vet - right age anyway. It was the only thanks I ever got - for another 25 years or so. Including from my family.

I was in my favorite cafe for lunch last year - there was a young, very fit man with short hair with what I took to be his folks. I asked the owner, is he in the service? She said yeah, he's in the Corps, a sergeant on leave from Afghanistan. I told her, "I'm buying his lunch - and his folks too. And don't tell him until I've left. I don't want thanks. He's done enough. Just tell him a Vietnam vet wants him to be appreciated." She said "I'm gonna cry."

Some weeks later, next time I came in, she gave me this note:

What is a Vet?

He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn't run out of fuel.

He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.

She or he is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another or didn't come back AT ALL.

He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never saw combat but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other's backs.

He is the parade-riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean's sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket - palsied now and aggravatingly slow who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being a person who offered some of his life's most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.

So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say thank you. That's all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.

Two little words that mean a lot, "THANK YOU".

Ann of A Thousand Nights
Verified by Snopes

Richard, (my husband), never really talked a lot about his time in Vietnam other than he had been shot by a sniper. However, he had a rather grainy, 8 x 10 black & white photo he had taken at a USO show of Ann Margaret with Bob Hope in the background that was one of his treasures.

A few years ago, Ann Margaret was doing a book signing at a local bookstore. Richard wanted to see if he could get her to sign the treasured photo so he arrived at the bookstore at 12 o'clock for the 7:30 signing. When I got there after work, the line went all the way around the bookstore, circled the parking lot, and disappeared behind a parking garage.

Before her appearance, bookstore employees announced that she would sign only her book and no memorabilia would be permitted. Richard was disappointed, but wanted to show her the photo and let her know how much those shows meant to lonely GI's so far from home.

Ann Margaret came out looking as beautiful as ever and, as 2nd in line, it was soon Richard's turn. He presented the book for her signature and then took out the photo. When he did, there were many shouts from the employees that she would not sign it. Richard said, "I understand. I just wanted her to see it".

She took one look at the photo, tears welled up in her eyes and she said, "This is one of my gentlemen from Vietnam and I most certainly will sign his photo. I know what these men did for their country and I always have time for "my gentlemen". With that, she pulled Richard across the table and planted a big kiss on him.

She then made quite a todo about the bravery of the young men she met over the years, how much she admired them, and how much she appreciated them. There weren't too many dry eyes among those close enough to hear. She then posed for pictures and acted as if he was the only one there.

Later at dinner, Richard was very quiet. When I asked if he'd like to talk about it, my big strong husband broke down in tears. "That's the first time anyone ever thanked me for my time in the Army", he said.

Richard, like many others, came home to people who spit on him and shouted ugly things at him. That night was a turning point for him. He walked a little straighter and, for the first time in years, was proud to have been a vet.

I'll never forget Ann Margaret for her graciousness and how much that small act of kindness meant to my husband. I now make it a point to say Thank You to every person I come across who served in our Armed Forces.

Freedom does not come cheap and I am grateful for all those who have served their country.

If you'd like to pass on this story, feel free to do so. Perhaps it will help others to become aware of how important it is to acknowledge the contribution our service people make.

-Author unknown

And why was Richard spit on? (And so was I, by a bunch of chiffon-robed pukes at O'Hare. It was all I could do not to throttle them and prove their point ). Why did I stop wearing my uniform off duty and on leave, why did I change to civvies in the O'Hare concourse men's room after catching my military standby flights home (you had to be in uniform to fly military standby), why did I and other veterans who sacrificed so much to protect your freedom, disguise ourselves as civilians as though ashamed of being soldiers? The same boys, many of whom had been FORCED to fight by the draft, (my "draft lottery" number was 41) by the very society that was now spitting on us for not running away to Canada as cowards, or doing other manipulations of the system, e.g. enrolling in a seminary just to get Consciencous Objector status? The traitors Jane Fonda, John Kerry, and Tom Hayden own much of the responsibility, by heavily influencing the mindset of that society into it's shameful behavior. Frankly, these people, and those who bought their hypocrisy - that is, much of American society of the decade beginning about 1967 - should be ashamed of their behavior, and many are. Now. Nowadays it's stylish to be a Vietnam vet - now that the moral compass of the country has swung 180°. What incredible hypocrisy for John Kerry to claim to be a Vietnam war HERO now that it amounts to political capital to do so - flip-flopping after betraying his brothers in arms, also for political capital. The man is a snake, the lowest form of human I have ever seen in public life. How he - and Jane Fonda - escaped indictment and prosecution for treason has me shaking my head in disgust. Take a few minutes and enter the words "John Kerry traitor" in google - and watch and read the avalanche of testimony and facts of his roguish behavior. Regardless of your politics - no veteran should back Kerry after what he has done.

Oct 29, 2004. Joseph Farrah, World Net Daily Commentator:

"Recently, the most decorated living American soldier, Col. George "Bud" Day, compared Kerry to Benedict Arnold. There is only one difference between Kerry and Benedict Arnold. The latter was a genuine war hero – by all accounts a brave fighting man who became a turncoat. Kerry was, at best, an undistinguished soldier, a malcontent, who groped for medals by writing his own after-action reports, hyped his own self-inflicted wounds, left action after four months in the field and then openly joined the enemy.

"He became, arguably, the most important human asset in the public relations arsenal of the Vietnamese Communists.

"Kerry knew and the Vietnamese knew that American military forces could never be defeated on the battlefields of Southeast Asia. So they set out to defeat them in the world of politics and public opinion. They set out to destroy America's will to fight. They set out to undermine America's morale and self-confidence.

"And it worked. It worked brilliantly – so brilliantly that Kerry was rewarded for his treacherous behavior with a successful political career.

"But now the truth is out there for all to see. The smoking-gun documents produced by Kerry's own friends and allies in Hanoi have betrayed him. All that remains left for Americans is to recognize what those documents mean.

"They mean the man so close to becoming commander in chief of the armed forces of the United States is the man who betrayed those forces in 1971 – the man who betrayed his comrades in arms, the man who betrayed his country.

"It's time to call a spade a spade. Kerry is a traitor. What he did was treason. Period. End of story.

"If what he did in 1971 – knowingly cooperating with the enemy, traveling to Paris to meet with its agents at least twice, taking instructions from them on what to do to undermine the U.S. cause in Vietnam – was not treason, then we might as well throw the word out of the English language. If we can't use it in this case, we simply can't use the word any more.

"America's mistake was not locking this guy up in the stockades in 1971 and throwing away the key. Now, we as a nation, are on the verge of paying the price.

"May God open America's eyes next Tuesday."

UPDATE - Added immediately before Obama's nomination of Kerry to Secretary of State announcement 12/20/12:

From http://johnkerry-08.com/patriot/record.php

Kerry grew up hobnobbing with the Massachusetts Cape glitterati, a life of leisure including all the accoutrements -- the best schools, the best vacation homes, the best yachts, etc. He socialized with the rich and famous, especially the Kennedy clan elites, where he was taken under the wing of his future patron saint, Teddy. He attempted to emulate John Kennedy's PT-109 heroics by joining the Navy and using his connections to obtain an assignment for a short tour on a swiftboat in Vietnam. Kerry then went on to collect three Purple Hearts in just two months -- all of dubious merit, but requisite for a ticket home to pursue his political aspirations.

Unlike John F. Kennedy, however, when John F. Kerry got home, there was no hero's welcome. The nation was in turmoil over our continued role in Vietnam, the result of limited but well-publicized Leftist protests against the war. So Kerry, ever the opportunist, endeavored to become the Left's most "useful idiot" (as Lenin called Western apologists for Soviet propaganda), collaborating with Fonda, et al., and leading protests accusing his "brethren" in Vietnam of all manner of atrocities.

Kerry was (and remains) an effective spokesperson for his Leftist cadre. His anti-war protest period culminated with his 1971 congressional testimony, after which he told the press, "There are all kinds of atrocities and I would have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free-fire zones. I conducted harassment and interdiction fire. I used 50-caliber machine guns, which we were granted and ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people. I took part in search-and-destroy missions, in the burning of villages. All of this is contrary to the laws of warfare. All of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions...."

Regarding the substance -- and source -- of Kerry's claims, Ion Mihai Pacepa, the highest-ranking intelligence officer ever to defect from the Soviet bloc, says "KGB priority number one at that time was to damage American power, judgment, and credibility. ... As a spy chief and a general in the former Soviet satellite of Romania, I produced the very same vitriol Kerry repeated to the U.S. Congress almost word for word and planted it in leftist movements. KGB chairman Yuri Andropov managed our anti-Vietnam War operation. He often bragged about having damaged the U.S. foreign-policy consensus, poisoned domestic debate in the U.S., and built a credibility gap between America and European public opinion through our disinformation operations. Vietnam was, he once told me, 'our most significant success'."

As for the success of Kerry's anti-democracy protests and his leadership of the VVAW and association with Fonda's Winter Soldier Investigation, General Vo Nguyen Giap, Vietnam's most decorated military leader, wrote in retrospect that if not for the disunity created by such stateside protesters, Hanoi would have ultimately surrendered.

But the consequences of Kerry's actions should not stop with the fall of Saigon.

Kerry, by his own account, violated the UCMJ, the Geneva Conventions and the U.S. Code while serving as a Navy officer, and he further stands in violation of Article three, Section three of the U.S. Constitution.

Upon entering the Navy in 1966, John Kerry signed a six-year contract (plus a six-month extension during wartime) and an Officer Candidate contract for five years of active duty and active Naval Reserve. This indicates that Kerry was clearly a commissioned officer at the time of his 1970 meeting with NVA Communists in Paris -- in direct violation of the UCMJ's Article 104 part 904, and U.S. Code 18 U.S.C. 953. That meeting, and Kerry's subsequent coddling of Communists while leading mass protests against our military in the year that followed, also place him in direct violation of our Constitution's Article three, Section three, which defines treason as "giving aid and comfort" to the enemy in time of warfare. (As General Vo Nguyen Giap is his witness....)

Thus, we refer our readers to the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment, Section 3, which states, "No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President ... having previously taken an oath ... to support the Constitution of the United States, [who has] engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof."

It is for this reason -- for his record of giving aid and comfort to the enemy while a member of the U.S. Armed Forces in violation of his oath -- that we insist John Kerry resign his seat in the U.S. Senate. He has dishonored his family, dishonored his state and dishonored our nation. He is not fit for public office at any level of government, much less, the highest office in the land. John Kerry should resign.

Communist Vietnamese honor John Kerry, the war protestor, as a hero in their victory over the United States in the Vietnam War.

Photograph of John Kerry meeting with Comrade Do Muoi, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, in Vietnam. Photo displayed in the War Remnants Museum (formerly the "War Crimes Museum") in Saigon. English-language placard below photograph reads: "Mr. Do Muoi, Secretary General of the Vietnam Communist Party met with Congressmen and Veterans Delegation in Vietnam (July 15-18, 1993)."

I still say, indict and try this snake for treason. I signed the petition years ago. Click on the pic to read Doc Farmer's 11/10/04 article in ChronWatch about it. (Oops, the link is now broken - I'll see if I can fix it.) If you are a Kerry constituent - it is incumbent upon you, by those of us who aren't - to do what part you can to remove him from office - vote. Campaign. Please. Not much I can do besides support his removal, post here & on blogs about him, and if I ever get the chance to get within spitting distance - do exactly that. I'd love to be arrested for hocking a loogie in his face. Certainly would be a highlight for me.




		Click images to read of Jane Fonda's treason.

Please do not buy or rent any Jane Fonda movies or other products. Regardless of your politics, if you support John Kerry, you are at best disrespecting veterans, especially Vietnam vets, and are supporting an American traitor.
John Kennedy is turning over in his grave. I can hear him now:

"...ask what you can do to your country."


	All content on www.horseapple.com copyright 1999-2006 Mark Tobias except "Riders Say", "Dyno Day", Vallejo and Shop Manual and Alternator Review pages, and SWF and MP-3 files and their graphic icons, and any content specifically attributed to another author. All rights reserved.