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| Author | Topic: A Soldiers Letter to Kerry |
| Muskie Guy |
posted 8/10/04 7:10 PM
I recieved this in an e-mail. It was accompanied by a phone number. Michael Connelly answered and verified that he had done the research and written the letter. Soldier's Letter to Kerry Dear Senator Kerry: Since it has become clear that you will probably be the Democratic nominee for President, I have spent a great deal of time researching your war record and your record as a professional politician. The reason is simple, you aspire to be the Commander in Chief who would lead my sons and their fellow soldiers in time of war. I simply wanted to know if you possess the necessary qualifications to be trusted in that respect. You see, I belong to a family of proud U.S. veterans. I was a Captain in the Army Reserve, my father was a decorated Lieutenant in World War II; and I have four sons who have either served, or are currently serving in the military. The oldest is an Army Lieutenant still on active duty in Afghanistan after already being honored for his service in Iraq. The youngest is an E-4 with the military police. His National Guard unit just finished their second tour of active duty, including six months in Guantanamo Bay. My two other sons have served in the national guard and the navy. In looking at your record I found myself comparing it not only to that of my father and my sons, but to the people they served with. My father served with the 87th Chemical Mortar Battalion in Europe. They landed on Utah Beach and fought for 317 straight days including the Cherbourg Peninsula, Aachen, the Hurtgen Forest, and the Battle of the Bulge. You earned a Silver Star in Vietnam for chasing down and finishing off a wounded and retreating enemy soldier. My father won a Bronze Star for single handedly charging and knocking out a German machine gun nest that had his men pinned down. You received three purple hearts for what appears to be three minor scratches. In fact you only missed a combined total of two days of duty for these wounds.. The men of my father's unit, the 87th, had to be admonished by their commanding officer because: "It has been brought to our attention that some men are covering up wounds and refusing medical attention for fear of being evacuated and permanently separated from this organization..." It was also a common problem for seriously wounded soldiers to go AWOL from hospitals in order to rejoin their units. You used your three purple hearts to leave Vietnam early. My oldest boy came home from Iraq with numerous commendations and then proceeded to volunteer to go to Afghanistan and from there back to Iraq again. My sons and father have never had anything but the highest regard and respect for their fellow soldiers. Yet, you came home to publicly charge your fellow fighting men with being war criminals and to urge their defeat by the enemy. You even wrote a book that had a cover which mocked the heroism of the U.S. Marines who raised the flag on Iwo Jima.. Our current crop of soldiers has a philosophy that no one gets left behind; and they have practiced that from Somalia to the battlefields of the Middle East. Yet as chairman of a Senate committee looking into allegations that many of your fellow servicemen had been left behind as prisoners in Vietnam, you chose to defend the brutal Vietnamese regime. You even went so far as to refer to the families of the POWs and MIAs as Professional malcontents, conspiracy mongers, con artists, and dime-store Rambos. As a Senator you voted against the 1991 Gulf War, and have repeatedly voted against funds to supply our troops with the best equipment, and against money to improve our intelligence capability. I find this particularly ironic since as a Presidential candidate you are highly critical of our pre-war intelligence in Iraq. However, you did vote to authorize the President to go to war, but have since proceeded to do everything you can to undermine the efforts of our government and our troops to win. Is this what our fighting men and women can expect of you if you are their Commander in Chief? Will you gladly send them to war, only to then aid the enemy by undermining the morale of our troops and cutting off the weapons they need to win? Our country is at war Senator, and as has been the case in every war since the American Revolution, a member of my family is serving their country during the war. Now you want me to trust you to lead my sons in this fight. Sorry Senator, but when I compare your record to those who have fought and died for this nation, and are currently fighting and dying, the answer is not just no, but Hell No! Sincerely, Michael Connelly February 14, 2004 Dallas, Texas Forward this to EVERYONE you know--we can NOT afford to have this man as the President of the United States!! |
| Disabled Vet |
posted 8/12/04 8:02 AM
I have read this post, and let me start off by saying this mans family like many others has given our country great service and a source of pride. I also want to say I understand this mans point, as I hope others will see mine. I also stood up for our country, for eight years. I started out as an e1 and I was discharged as an E6 Staff SGT. I was only a private for 9 months of my career. I had my back broken during a training mission and was mis diagnosed for three months. A period of time that would ultimately cost me my career. But this is not about me. This letter was writen by a man who served in the reserves, I can only believe during peace time. He wants to compare Kerry's career with that of his father a man who was at D day. He wants to show how brave his father was and how his sacrifice was more tha John Kerry's. It may very well be that his father was (more heroic) more deserving of his medals than Kerry. He puts down Kerry for his views of the Viet Nam war, a conflict to be more specific. A conflict that had rules that hendered solidiers in thier ability to fight and win. John Kerry was in a very different place. He fought with men who were ordered to chase down an enmey just to let him go if he made it to a base line drawn by politicions not warriors. He was in a system where drug abuse was not just ignored but sometimes supplied by our own goverment. Where drug testing was not even heard of. It was a war where the poor man was the most likely to serve, if you were black, hispanic, or poor white and uneducated you were the first on the draft list. Mr. Bush was National Guard and served state side and then missed most of his drills. Yet this man feels he is a better canidate. John Kerry was surronded by more enemies than the Viet Cong. He was an officer when it was just as likely for a LT to die from friendly fire as from the enemy. There was very little law enforcement in place in Nam officers soldiers and civilians had to deal with constraints never faced by US soldiers before. Our country had turned it's back to them and the war. Black markets thrived there, supply Sergeants had more side businesses than duties. Every thing had it's price. Medals are given for bravery, not the size of the scar or how long you were in the hospital. In WWII men were teams that would start out in basic and serve together untill the end or they all died. In Nam it was newbies and short timers. you did not want be friends with either because they would be gone soon either way. John Kerry saw what he felt was wrong and he stood up to be counted, he came back and tried to help fix the problem, he did not run to the country club and hide out at the 19th hole untill drill was over for the month. If you think he was different from the soldiers of the past and present, you are right. Thank God that our service members to do not face the neglect and lack of support from the goverment that the troops in Nam did, and still do. Take a trip to the VA Hospital nearest you spend the day talking to the Veterans there get thier opinon about the treatment they recieve there. Veterans benifits are descretionary spending, not mandatory. I honestly do not know if Kerry would or could be a better President. I do know that if a man has smelled blood and sweat and tasted the bile that fear causes he may not be in such a hurry to start a war. It is funny that old men start wars but we send our young to fight them. This year has been the year of the lie. It is not about who is best suited to be president but which party can generate the most BS about the other canidate. Neither side is saying what they are going to do to fix our problems. They simply point fingers to the others mistakes, The truth is we as a nation do not want to take the blame for our problems, we just want to believe it is the other guys fault. George W says it is clintons fault, others say it was the Democrats, while others say it is the republicans. We fought and defeated Sadam in the 90s just to let him have 12 more years to do wrong but we seem to forget that part. in the 80s we gave him supplies and weapons to fight against Iran. My enemies enemy is my friend conscept runs rampant in our world. We now have relations to Viet Nam we trade war stories with them. and we honor our dead with monuments. How do we sort out the lies, I do not know. No one man is to blame no man is able to change the world or our country. We need to stop the BS of politics and start working as a Nation. We can not compare heroes of one war to those of another. It just does not work that way. When election day comes and the decision is made, do not let our interest and involvment end there. Volunteer, write letters voice your opinons and help to make the difference. It is easy to sit at home and say it is not my fault or to blame the other guy. It is hard to say OK its broke how do we fix it and then follow through and fix it. It takes time sweat and effort. It is more than making a mark at the ballot box. Vote and then find a way to make a difference. To this man I thank you and your famlilies service. I hope God watches over your sons and see them home safely. Our way of life celebrates the fact that we can disagree with each other and still be on the same side, it is what make our nation strong. |
| Jim Dicken |
posted 8/16/04 3:42 PM
I really appreciate your message and its content. I have just one point I want to discuss... John Kerry saw what he felt was wrong and he stood up to be counted, he came back and tried to help fix the problem, he did not run to the country club and hide out at the 19th hole untill drill was over for the month. If you think he was different from the soldiers of the past and present, you are right. According to the Swiftboat Vets who served with Kerry, he only came to Nam to get his medals. He has during his career spent most of it following the POPULAR theme of the moment. The Swiftboat Vets claim he lied about their attrocities and that Kerry lied about his Purple Hearts. He came home and asserted that crimes were committed by his comrades who to a man deny his claims. This is not finger pointing, and Kerry did not stand up for what he believed .. he stood up for what would make him a politician. Vietnam was not fought by the poor. Too many of my friends went for that to be the case. The draft did not discriminate. YES rich kids had more resources, but they still were drafted. Jim Dicken |
| A Bush fan |
posted 8/19/04 11:55 PM
It's very sad to see how many people are being sucked by Hannity, Hume, Limbaugh, O¡¦reilly and especially from these political stooges in the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (which has been financed by Republican donors). The SBVFT claims that Kerry did nothing so heroic because there had been no enemy fire at the time and, moreover, that Kerry actually fled the scene. Military records of Larry Thurlow, one of the leaders of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (Thurlow was the skipper of another Swift boat in the flotilla that day) shows that he, too, won a Bronze Star for actions taken during the same encounter. The citation for his award says he assisted a damaged Swift boat ¡§despite enemy bullets flying about him.¡¨ The citation noted that ¡§all units began receiving enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire from the river banks.¡¨ Yet in an affidavit he signed last month, Thurlow claimed there had been no enemy fire: ¡§I never heard a shot.¡¨ Hmmmm.....how then does Thurlow explain his own Bronze Star? Thurlow said ¡§My personal feeling was always that I got the award for coming to the rescue of a boat that was mined. This casts doubt on anybody¡¦s award.¡¨ He said he lost his Bronze Star citation twenty years ago¡Vhow convenient¡Vand added that he now considered his award ¡§fraudulent.¡¨ He apparently forgot what the citation said but he asks us to believe his memory of that day. Gimme a break!!!! Imagine the hatred Thurlow must feel for Kerry to throw out his own Bronze Star with the bath water in order to do harm to Kerry. Thurlow, a registered Republican (Hello???), concedes he despises Kerry for having become a leader of the Vietnam veterans against the war. And he is sticking to his guns. In a statement released today, Thurlow said, ¡§To this day, I can say without doubt in my mind¡Kthere was no hostile enemy fire directed at my boat or at any of the five boats operating on the river that day.¡¨ Kerry says there was enemy fire. So does Rassmann, a Republican, whose life Kerry saved. So do the crew members of Kerry¡¦s own Swift boat. So does Kerry¡¦s citation. So does Thurlow¡¦s citation. Both citations were signed by Lt. Commander George Elliott (a supporter of Swift Boat Veterans who has issued conflicting statements about Kerry¡¦s wartime actions). Thurlow says there was no enemy fire. Two other Swift boat captains involved in the action that day say they do not recall enemy fire. (Another Swift boat skipper there was killed in action a month later.) Confusing? I hope these conservative stooges are not on methadone, percocet, oxycontin, vicodin. Their minds are so foggy that they do not even know what planet they live on. Now you guys are saying that the reason Kerry was going to Nam was for his medals. Bush stated he's released all his records...if that's true, then has anyone seen: Bush's last DD-214 Any pages from Bush's flight log Records from the Flight Inquiry Board convened after Bush was suspended as a pilot Any evidence of Bush's reclassification into another AFSC after suspension as a pilot Any photos of George Bush in a military uniform after 1972 Anything at all from any Alabama unit with Bush's name on it Any copies of form 44a from the Alabama National Guard certifying attendance Anything proving service (not just receipt of pay) by Bush between May 1972 and May 1973? A leader is the one who sets example. How dare the two war dodgers (Bush and Cheney) have the right to send other people kids to war while they don't even want to go to Nam back then. Why did Bush moved to Alabama while he was in the Texas National Guard? As a pilot, he could have been anywhere in the US and been able to get a ride back to Houston for his weekend duty. Even non- pilots could do it by flying standby on MATS. But Bush didn't do it. He had to get a transfer to a unit in Alabama. Missing his physical took him to a non-flying status, but even that wouldn't have stopped him from riding a back seat in a T-33 going home for duty. He missed all his physicals after May 1971, so he couldn't have kept his "pilot" rating, but that is the MOS on his discharge. What did he do as a non-pilot in the Guard? If he didn't miss the physicals, then they should be in his record. They aren't. That is the crux of his duty in the Air Guard. Please explain clearly to me and others how a war-dodging wuss has your vote while you question an ex service member who has served his country before. It's just totally pure ignorant. |
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