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Senator Harkin: A Phony Soldier or Just a Phony Vietnam Hero?
Wall Street Journal ^ | Dec. 26, 1991 and August 19, 2004 | The Wall Street Journal

Posted on 10/02/2007 9:44:20 AM PDT by rface

Mr. Harkin did serve in the Navy during the Vietnam era, but exactly what he did, and for how long, remain a matter of some dispute.

"After I got out of college," he says in his standard stump speech, "I spent eight years, eight months and eight days as a Navy pilot."....

"I spent five years as a Navy pilot, starting in November of 1962,"....."One year was in Vietnam. I was flying F-4s and F-8s on combat air patrols and photo-reconnaissance support missions. I did no bombing.".......That clearly is not an accurate picture of his Navy service. He concedes now he never flew combat air patrols in Vietnam.

Harkin has estimated that over a period of about 12 months he flew in and out of Vietnam "a dozen times, maybe 10 times."

But what about those combat air patrols and the photo-reconnaissance support missions he claims to have participated in? .......

In April of 1981, Mr. Harkin told Harold E. Roberts, publisher of the Creston, Iowa, News Advertiser, that in Japan he was assigned to a squadron where "we flew many missions to Vietnam and the Philippines."

(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: stolenvalor; veterans; vietnam
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phony hero
1 posted on 10/02/2007 9:44:26 AM PDT by rface
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To: rface

He’s a real ahole.


2 posted on 10/02/2007 9:46:07 AM PDT by linn37 (Phlebotomists need love too.)
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To: rface

True zero.


3 posted on 10/02/2007 9:46:26 AM PDT by Vaduz (and just think how clean the cities would become again.)
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To: rface; Wolverine
spreading Wolverine's find around today....


4 posted on 10/02/2007 9:47:09 AM PDT by ErnBatavia (...forward this to your 10 very best friends....)
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To: rface

Harkin is another proud, sociopathic member, of the Deceitocratic Party.


5 posted on 10/02/2007 9:49:27 AM PDT by dforest (Duncan Hunter is the best hope we have on both fronts.)
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To: rface

He is a hero to the tax and spenders.


6 posted on 10/02/2007 9:51:00 AM PDT by Reagan79 (Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys)
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To: ErnBatavia
Is Senator Harkin on drugs?
7 posted on 10/02/2007 9:51:03 AM PDT by Stark_GOP
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To: rface

Did he get a Purple Heart or Flying Cross??

Pray for W and Our Troops


8 posted on 10/02/2007 9:51:50 AM PDT by bray (Think "Betray U.S." Think Democrat)
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To: rface

Having military experience is one of those liberal talking points that depends on what party is being talked about. Note, Bill Clinton’s lack of a military service wasn’t an issue with the left..but when GWB didn’t go to Vietnam instead being assigned to the air national guard, then suddenly it was an issue that the candidate have military experience.

What a joke the left is.


9 posted on 10/02/2007 9:53:49 AM PDT by Slapshot68
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To: rface

Harkin is a despicable and evil human being.


10 posted on 10/02/2007 9:54:53 AM PDT by RabidBartender (Al-Qaeda doesn't need an intelligence network. They have the U.S. media.)
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To: rface

someone search for “harkin + daniel ortega”

he spent most of the 80’s kissing sandanista butt. the guy instinctively sides with america’s enemies.


11 posted on 10/02/2007 9:56:27 AM PDT by attackcartoons
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To: Stark_GOP

Harkin paid for law school using what was essentially blood money. That sickens me since he is a fellow alum of Catholic Univ. Law.

This man is a piece of dirt.


12 posted on 10/02/2007 10:00:14 AM PDT by ReagansRaiders ("Fearsome" Fred Thompson '08)
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To: rface
Dungheap Harkin LIES again!!

Is AMerica worth fighting for when over half of the people ELECT LIARS and un-Patriotic people like these leftists??? I try to pray for America, but the percentage of people I hate here is growing.

13 posted on 10/02/2007 10:01:47 AM PDT by Suzy Quzy (Hillary '08...Her PHONINESS is REAL!!!)
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To: ErnBatavia
Harkin is a lying sack of BS. Pilots did not transition from the F8 Crusader to the F4 Phantom in the middle of a deployment.

Pilots transitioning from the Crusader to the Phantom underwent training stateside, usually in a RAG squadron. The Navy's Phantom RAG squadron was VF-121, based at NAS Miramar. (Top Gun was originally a spinoff of VF-121).

The Crusader was a hot plane in its own right; more losses were due to operational mishaps than any other cause, inculuding combat. The Phantom was a hot plane, too, and more complex than the Crusader. One did not simply hop in and fly off. Harkin is a liar.

14 posted on 10/02/2007 10:04:29 AM PDT by 60Gunner (ER Nursing: You watch it... We live it!)
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To: rface; darkangel82; LdSentinal; JohnnyZ; Kuksool; BlackElk; EternalVigilance; Clemenza; ...

Harkin. Chronic. Pathological. Liar.

Steve King should hammer at this piece of human debris over the next year with these oldies but goodies.


15 posted on 10/02/2007 10:04:43 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~~~Jihad Fever -- Catch It !~~~ (Backup tag: "Live Fred or Die"))
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To: Stark_GOP

Is Senator Harkin on drugs?

Again? /s


16 posted on 10/02/2007 10:06:28 AM PDT by Bitsy
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To: rface

Harkin is nothing but a decaying piece of subhuman sh*t.

Even maggots won’t touch his dead body when he finally keels over.


17 posted on 10/02/2007 10:06:48 AM PDT by mkjessup (Jan 20, 2009 - "We Don't Know. Where Rudy Went. Just Glad He's Not. The President. Burma Shave.")
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To: rface
Harkin!, Enter the Village IDIOT.
18 posted on 10/02/2007 10:07:35 AM PDT by bmwcyle (BOMB, BOMB, BOMB,.......BOMB, BOMB IRAN)
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To: RabidBartender
Harkin is a despicable and evil human being.

I thought that was a perquisite for being a leftist Democrat.

19 posted on 10/02/2007 10:08:20 AM PDT by Bitsy
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To: ReagansRaiders

Like all poseurs who did serve somewhere in some capacity, Harkin demonstrates the disdain he has for his actual service by pretending he did something better or (as HE sees it) more honorable than what he DID do.

In short, he spits on his OWN service while fabricating undeserved respect of those he can fool.


20 posted on 10/02/2007 10:08:42 AM PDT by Vn_survivor_67-68
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