SwiftVets.com

[Jette]

If you heard this email on Rush Limbaugh's show last week, you may have felt pangs of anger. There are many on this board who weren't born or barely remember what happened in the 60's and 70's. Maybe this letter will help them and others understand. Here's an excerpt of that email Roger Hedgecock read on Rush's show. The link at the bottom will take you to the complete letter.


Roger,

I heard your discussion with that Vietnam veteran on Rush Limbaugh's show on Wednesday. It churned up a lot of old, unpleasant and largely dormant memories as, I'm sure, it did for a lot of others as well.

I think it is important to acknowledge that, on the question of Kerry's service, not all veterans' opinions are equally informed. There is a difference between Vietnam veterans and others.Those who actually served in Vietnam bore a special burden because of the actions of Kerry and his ilk. Even my wife of four decades wonders why this Kerry business angers me so. Let me try and explain.

I, too, received combat decorations for service in Vietnam but the "award" I still remember clearest - and the one that I preserved for years "in my memory trunk" to show my children when they grew up - was the short sleeve summer tropical khaki uniform I was wearing when I returned to the USA. Landing at Travis AFB outside San Francisco, we were bussed by the military to San Francisco airport to make our connecting civilian flights home. Leaving the special military bus PAX drop-off point some distance from the terminal entrance late in the evening, we were met by a screaming, chanting horde of anti-war demonstrators who lined our path into the airport and down the concourse. Apparently, meeting military busses in this fashion was their standard procedure. Police, who were used to their tactics, were supportive of the veterans but too few to fully control the crowd.

They escorted our group down the walk and into the airport, reminding us to "keep it cool" as they would have to arrest anyone who attacked a demonstrator unless physically attacked first. Every veteran, including some still recovering from wounds, was forced to walk this ugly gauntlet. Not only were we verbally taunted and insulted but we had to duck all kinds of stuff thrown at us in the dark, including feces, urine, blood, spit, rotten fruit and who knows what else.

Permitted only a shaving kit to handcarry for the return trip to the States, we lacked the ability to change clothes. Thus, after cleaning up as best I could in the Men's room, I boarded my flight home to the east coast on a commercial midnight flight, a decorated young military officer in the horribly desecrated uniform of my country, still wet and stinking from the California welcome I received after a year at war and a year of separation from my wife and babies. What I remember most clearly is walking down the aisle of that crowded plane, looking and smelling like some worthless street bum, people turning away in disgust. In fact, to this day I remember that more clearly than my worst firefight. It is "seared" in my memory.

To top off this Kafka-esque episode, I had to sit in a middle seat in the rear of the full plane between two spaced out pot-heads who were....grade school teachers!!! They freely admitted that they had gone to teaching to dodge the draft. Between purple haze giggles, they wanted to know how many kids I'd killed. They don't know how close they came to being the first two. Was I angry? You're Damn Right!!!!!!!

That's what it was really like to be a Vietnam vet at that time and most genuine Vietnam vets I know have had similar unpleasant experiences, or worse. John Kerry had a lot to do with the kind of treatment that all Vietnam vets experienced on our return. When I finally got home, I took a long, hot shower and washed the stink of Vietnam and California away, vowing never to return to either. I was not successful in either case. Thirty five years, however, still hasn't washed the stink off of that treasonous bastard John Kerry. I doubt time ever will.


http://www.rogerhedgecock.com/macsclipboard.html

[air_vet]

[BillGremm]

Bill O'Reilly admitted that he went into teaching to dodge the draft-any wonder why he is imbalanced when it comes to vietnam issues.
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Up - Down, In - Out, Black - White, Truth - Kerry

[cjg]

It could be he is unbalanced because he was one of the men who sat
beside the vet.

His reaction to the Swiftvets is really over the top and I wonder if it
is because he did dodge the draft, behaved as above and now feels
like a jerk, because he knows he is not respected for his choices during
the war.

Whatever, he made the choice and now must live with it, people are
more understanding than he seems to think. As he is a very judgemental
person I assume he thinks people feel the same way. They don't,
as we realize the decisions made were long ago. If he had gone and
done what Kerry did, it would be a different story now, quite different!

I do not imagine he was a very good teacher!

The vets story was so honest and I find my own anger coming back
when I read about what they went through when coming home.
Then, I stop and think and know the truth is coming out and to focus
on that. The gentleman did very well creating his new life and that
is the main point in his life.
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Swiftvets rock!