Part III - Will the Real Vietnam Vet Stand Up?

Well, I was attacked, and one of those hippie bastards still has a toothless grin or wears dentures.

Millions of patriotic Americans would say thank you today...for your service, and for punching the SOB. Welcome home!

That's beautiful, chesty. Bless you and thank you for your sacrifice. We won't forget.

It will never happen because their agenda is deeper than resisting the war. You and I both know that. We all know what those guys have been doing for us all along.

Tonkin, anything for you. I've been posting these excerpts for years, but this latest terrorist-supporter rally in our DC was the last straw.

Today's aging "peaceniks" owe you and every Vietnam vet an apology. They are now corrupting a whole new generation, dividing our nation, and undermining our efforts in the war on terror. Stolen Valor belongs at FR where we can spread the word.

Good link to multiple news sources..

Sorry but the expertise of our docs and nurses are the reason so many are alive today to enjoy offspring like you.
I enjoy my three and thank God for them. The medical staff at our place was second to none and the older I get the more I am amazed at what they accomplished. We also spent time at a Catholic hospital and a leper colony in our off hours. The repaired lips, cleft palets and eye surgery were what we did on out days off. I am so sick of the crap spewed about Vietnam Vets. I worked my arse off in heat from hell as did dozens of others. Drunks my ass

Ben Stein thought that our country was finished after the sixties and then Watergate stripped conservatives of a voice. A few years of Jimmy Carter and the country chose Ronald Reagan...twice.

Who wanted to stand with Hillary Clinton or Noam Chomsky on 9-12-01? Our institutions are sick, but people are coming up with creative and brilliant alternatives to mainstream education, news and entertainment...and the second amendment is well defended.

Hopeless? Think of the Sons of Liberty, Gideon, the recent outcry against the attempt to strip "Under God" from the pledge, Phil Donahue's ratings......the example of the Amish...(^:

As bad as it was, I wouldn't trade the lessions I learned there.

Amen.

Sure, there are always a few bad apples in the barrel. But, most of the men I knew and served with there were some of the finest, most dedicated and best people I have ever had the privilege of serving with. We worked out tails off. We fought hard when we needed to and played hard when we could. We weren't saints - we were just everyday Americans trying our best to do our jobs right and stay alive.

In our hearts and in the field we prevailed, even though we well knew at the time we were being sold out by the politicians and anti-war crowds at home. But the enemy never really beat us as hard as they tried. I also have to say, they worked and fought hard too. We didn't like them for it but grudgingly respected them for it.

The ones I distain even today are those who fought against us here and sold us out at home. So, when we get a loser like Wellstone being eulogized to high heaven for his "principled" anti-war stance, my blood boils. I honestly would rather shake the hand of the average NVA trooper than his or any of his slavering sychophants.

Dear Ann: Does that make me one of those psycho Vietnam Vets?

Believe me, I'm with your RC. I just think those dopes literally have to die off before things will change. But then there's the Universities that are reality challenged from the indoctrinations they've been fed.

Vietnam's still one of the most exploited leftist/"peacenik" lies. Please share BG Burkett's facts from Stolen Valor with pundits, pols, directors, script writers, Professors, students, vets - friends and enemies. It debunks decades of leftist propaganda re. Vietnam vets - a fine weapon to stop the continued slandering one of the finest groups of Americans in our history. The lies of the leftist newsmedia inflamed a generation of impressionable students and inspires them to stand with our enemies yet again today.

Today's troops will not be treated the way our Vietnam vets were treated. Today we have a voice - and e-mail.

My family has blood invested in the Vietnam War. I have a cousin who was a medic who flew in and out transporting wounded from Hot L/Z's on a C-130. His plane was mortared on takeoff and crashed killing all onboard. The family was delivered a 12x12 box of remains to represent a once Promising Life to bury! This is what happened to the flower of American youth sent off to a no-win war! While all this proceeded, the worthless bureaucrats families who promoted this monstrous wrong were prevented from serving in what they knew was a life threattening situation. No way would they put their family in harms way but it was more than acceptable for yours and mine!

My Air Force career covered the years 1966 to 1970. In the States I worked from two bases. Amarillo AFB the 461 Bomb Wing and the 380th Bomb Wing out of Plattsburgh New York.
My bases in the Pacific were Pearl Harbor, Wake Island, Guam, and Okinawa. I was also in and out of March AFB, In Riverside California, McDill AFB, Tampa, Florida and Beale AFB In the Okland California Area!

My Job as a Jet Engine Technician On (MRT) Mobile Recovery Flight line Operations was on KC-135 A's and the BUFF's
B-52D Models. Watching a fully loaded B-52 on its takeoff roll on Guam was something to behold! When fully committed on water injection and all Eight Engines straining for all the power it can generate for launch heading past "Paddy's Point with the outrigger wheels still firmly planted on the runway makes your Butt pucker just a little. Under these severe flight conditions the planes are not airborne until they fling themselves off Paddy's Point. Standing on the Runway the planes go out of sight temporarilly, until about two miles out you see them pulling up to continue their missions! There was a major early morning launch planned for our Tanker (KC-135) that morning. On that day we were launching F-4 Phantoms that were to be ferried over to a base in Vietnam somewhere. Our Tanker was involveed with this particular launch. Two F-4's would go and then a Tanker would follow. As things normally happen in all the chaos hapening one of our engines developed a problem that took us out of normal rotation that morning. Directly in front of us there was a MAC Troop Carrier loading passengers getting ready to take off as well. When we stayed behind analyzing our problem a sister tanker in our squadron pulled out and taxied into position. The two F-4's were given clearance to take off, Apparently one of the two F-4's had a complete electrical power failure and flamed out leaving it dead on the runway unable to move or re-establish communication or something. At the same time The Tanker thinking the runway was clear began its takeoff roll thinking both F-4's had left. Right before reaching rotate speed the KC-135 ran up on the F-4 stalled on the runway raming their #4 engine into the back of the F-4 tearing away the engine completely off the wing. The force of the collision caused the Tanker to turn nearly sideways on the active runway because we could clearly see the landing and takeoff lights shining. The pilot of the tanker by the grace of Jehovah God was able to partially recover his aircraft to avoid us on the flightline & avoiding an even worse disaster. Unfortunately the two F-4 pilots burned to death right before my eyes, unable to escape!

An Inflight Refueling Squadron is a very dangerous job and mission to perform, this happened on Guam. On MRT your home is the KC-135, you have bags packed and ready to go 24/7. Okinawa was another surreal environment. This was the first time I came face to face with protesters saying "Yankee Go Home" with a real desire to do you harm if they could get at you. One day My OMS crewchief asked me if I had the stomach to see something really bad. He had a step van on the ramp parked off to the side. Being the innocent that I was we drove to a remote part of the parking area where certain areas were restricted unless you had a flightline pass to enter, I did and so did he. We pulled up beside a Grating to a point you could see directly down into it. The nauseating stench coming forth liked to knocked me down. In the bottom you could see white fragments of Bone as I was later told. On leaving he swung around and indicated a Dark Stain in the Concrete that ran down to the grate. On the way back he told me that it was Blood that was washed out of C-141's and C-130's that brought in body bags for final processing. When they were removed Firehoses were used to wash out the debris left in the walls and floors. this haunting memory will remain with me for as long as I live. Again this is how the Government rewards the Flower of American Youth.

One last memory of the Pacific Theatre of Operations I was able to see was Walter Lantz the creator of Woody the Woodpecker while on Guam. He drew a picture of Woody riding a Bomb, that was a real hoot. Also while there on Guam There was off loading ramp for the wounded and maimed coming out of that Hell Hole and you could hear a pin drop over in that area. In another part of the base at another location, the in-coming troops sounded like a Fraternity Party going on. Little did they know what was awaiting them! But there was a news media Group that consisted of Morely Safer there that Day as Well, on his way to Vietnam to complete those series of Shameful Documentaries in country. Selectively avoiding the real heroes for those who smoked dope and fragged their officers. You will remember particularly the one episode where a shotgun barrel was used to smoke "hashish" or something!

On my final trip back to America in late 1970 I spent a reflective visit @ Pearl Harbor wanting to visit the Arizona Memorial but it was closed that day. Instead I wandered around the docks and Schoefield Barraks reaching my hand into bullet holes left behind on our Day of Infamy. As it happened it was a day much like it probably was that Day on December 7th 1941. Very quiet and not much traffic. Upon closing my eyes I could let my imagination run away. It was the most stirring moment I have ever experienced. Memory is my mentor and I am blessed for being able to grow up and see the world for what it really is. I began from that point, my 30 Year fight against Socialism and liberalism and I continue to this Day! Jehovah Bless America And The Republic!

Thank you for your service, wharfat. I can't begin to understand the trauma of witnessing another's violent death, or taking a life as a soldier.

Stolen Valor was based on years of research, polls, records - and was not an argument in support of the war (though most soldiers support the fight against Communism and believe we could have won the war), but a validation of the honor of our Vietnam Vets. The author wondered at news stories and Hollywood movies depicting Vietnam Vets as homeless, addicted, dupes (the author being a Vietnam Vet) and set out to find the truth. Hollywood, and the news media lied (surprise), and sold out one of the bravest groups of mostly volunteer men and women our country's ever known.

Charlie Rangel and the left are still playing the race, class war re. Vietnam veterans. It was a lie then, it's a lie now - and an insult to everyone who chooses to serve in the military today.

Strikingly, the Washington Post survey indicated that, despite the negative attitudes of the public, Vietnam veterans had positive feelings about their experience:

- Seventy-four percent said they "enjoyed their time in service."
- Eighty percent disagreed with the statement "the United States took unfair advantage of me."
- Fifty-six percent of Vietnam veterans said they benefited in the long run by going to Vietnam. Only 29 percent said they were set back.
- Ninety-one percent of those who served in Vietnam were "glad they served their country."

I often send this Stolen Valor series to pols and pundits with the question: Who knew? Why not!? The facts are so different than the stories we've been fed for decades. This time, when Jane Fonda speaks, our troops will hear the louder response of their grateful fellow Americans back home.

Peace Movements Don’t Prevent Wars.

Michelle Malkin

Dear American soldier

Dear American soldier,

You don't know me, but I know who you are and I will not forget.

You are deploying from Fort Carson and Fort Hood and Fort Bliss and Fort Stewart. You hail from Middletown and Middleboro and Greenville and Redding and Thousand Oaks and Maple Tree. You are white, black, brown, and yellow-but always Americans first.

You are with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team and the 10th Combat Support Hospital and the 571st Air Ambulance Medical Evacuation Company. You are with the 1st Cavalry Division and the 3rd Infantry Division and the "Iron Horse" 4th Infantry Division. You are Black Knights with the 2nd Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment. You are engineers, drivers and medics in the 13th Corps Support Command.

Your motto is "We Will," "Steadfast and Loyal," "Swift and Deadly," "Always Prepared," "First to Fight," and "No Task Too Tough."

You will be joined overseas by thousands of sailors and Marines on the USS Boxer and USS Bonhomme Richard and USS Cleveland and USS Dubuque and USS Anchorage and USS Comstock and USS Pearl Harbor. You will get support in the Gulf from an airborne infantry brigade, a squadron of F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighters, and two squadrons of F-16CJ radar-jamming fighters.

You have friends on the USS Constellation in the Persian Gulf, and the USS Harry S Truman in the Mediterranean Sea, and the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln stationed at Perth, Australia, and the USNS Yano en route to the Red Sea, and the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson on its way to a training mission in the Pacific.

You have classmates and colleagues and cousins who died at the Pentagon and in the Twin Towers on September 11. You have buddies who took bullets over the past year in Afghanistan and Kuwait and the Philippines during Operation Enduring Freedom. You have uncles and brothers and fathers and grandfathers who sacrificed their lives in past wars.

Their deaths haunt you. Their heroism inspires you. Their footsteps beckon and you cannot resist.

You have wives who are tough as nails and husbands who are enormously proud. You have toddlers who know the colors of the American flag and grade-schoolers who have memorized Army verses like these:

The hardest job, the dirtiest job
Since ever war began
Is picking 'em up and laying 'em down
The job of an infantryman

No mission too difficult
No sacrifice too great
Our duty to the nation
Is the first we're here to state

Our doughboys come from Brooklyn
Our gunners from Vermont
Our signals from Fort Monmouth
Our engineers DuPont

Against the foes of freedom
We fight for liberty
We make no peace with tyrants
On land or on the sea

As you pack your green Army duffel bags, press your desert camouflage fatigues, polish your boots and kiss your families goodbye, please take these words with you:

Thank you. Thank you for answering the call to arms. Thank you for being fit and young and brave and willing. Thank you for loving freedom enough to put your own life on the line to defend it.

Pay no attention to Sean Penn and Sheryl Crow and Baghdad Babs. Tune out the half-naked loonies and Flower Power leftovers. Stand tall. Fight hard. And know that there are legions of Americans who are boundlessly grateful for what you have volunteered to do.

We know who you are. We will not forget. And we will pray every day for your safe return. Hoo-ah!

(The Department of Defense's online thank you note to the men and women of the U.S. military can be signed at http://www.defendamerica.mil/nmam.html.)