The Band of Brothers.......
I have refrained from writing publically about John Kerry's Vietnam service for a variety of reasons. He did, after all, serve when so many did not. However, I do have strong opinons about Kerry's motives, his actions and his subsequent betrayal of those he now so proudly calls his "band of brothers". The band of brothers from whom he chose to cut and run using an obscure regulation and three minor scratches. In the band of brothers I know, this would be unthinkable.
Among the band of brothers I know well are those men of the 1st Cavalry Division who fought in the horrendous battles in the Ia Drang Valley in 1965. Some of their units lost more than half their troops killed outright over a five day period with many more of the remainder wounded. Many of the wounded [some grievously] heroes, of my band of brothers chose not to pursue the road back to home and safety to which they were rightly entitled, but instead defied orders by doctors and superior officers and simply left the hospital in their bandages to go back to their units where they were desperately needed. Back to their brothers. Other brothers I know personally from my time suffered guilt beyond reckoning when the time came for their allotted 365 day tour of duty to end. The guilt and grief born of leaving their brothers still in harms way while they went home to safety, family and loved ones.
Whether John Kerry pulled a man from the water under fire, whether he was in Cambodia or not, whether his purple hearts were deserved or not....these are secondary to me. What matters and is a matter of record without a doubt is that John Kerry abandoned his brothers in Vietnam and then again in Washington with his public outcry against them. He has lost the right to be included in the "brotherhood". Period.
I have refrained from writing publically about John Kerry's Vietnam service for a variety of reasons. He did, after all, serve when so many did not. However, I do have strong opinons about Kerry's motives, his actions and his subsequent betrayal of those he now so proudly calls his "band of brothers". The band of brothers from whom he chose to cut and run using an obscure regulation and three minor scratches. In the band of brothers I know, this would be unthinkable.
Among the band of brothers I know well are those men of the 1st Cavalry Division who fought in the horrendous battles in the Ia Drang Valley in 1965. Some of their units lost more than half their troops killed outright over a five day period with many more of the remainder wounded. Many of the wounded [some grievously] heroes, of my band of brothers chose not to pursue the road back to home and safety to which they were rightly entitled, but instead defied orders by doctors and superior officers and simply left the hospital in their bandages to go back to their units where they were desperately needed. Back to their brothers. Other brothers I know personally from my time suffered guilt beyond reckoning when the time came for their allotted 365 day tour of duty to end. The guilt and grief born of leaving their brothers still in harms way while they went home to safety, family and loved ones.
Whether John Kerry pulled a man from the water under fire, whether he was in Cambodia or not, whether his purple hearts were deserved or not....these are secondary to me. What matters and is a matter of record without a doubt is that John Kerry abandoned his brothers in Vietnam and then again in Washington with his public outcry against them. He has lost the right to be included in the "brotherhood". Period.
