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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (66834)	9/3/2004 8:38:41 PM
From: unclewest	Respond to of 793911

I received this e-mail today from a sailor who went from SEAL to subs after a very serious injury. We have been great friends for a looooong time. He lives in Honolulu now. We have taken at least 10 vacations together in the past 25 years. I have deleted a few personal comments...but the gist of his letter gives very important insight to how Vets feel about Kerry. The devices on his uniform include SEAL badge, jump wings and submariner badge. Like myself, he signs with his old call sign. uw "Dear Uncle West You are preaching to the choir when you talk about Kerry to me and / or his fitness for command. Never mind the book or “Swift Vets” I remember even now, though it was so many years ago his “winter soldier” speech. I don’t remember his words from then, I only remember how pissed off, disgusted, disgraced I was. I, to this day, remember that it was only after his speech that I did not feel comfortable wearing my uniform with as much pride as I had before, even though I knew that I, and absolutely no one that I knew had done anything to disgrace himself, or the honor of his uniform, or of the United States military services, except to fall down drunk (at attention of course, and with proper military dignity) and that’s it. And then again Mike, it is with great difficulty that I tell you this very personal story. It was not long after Kerry’s speech that my father died. I was told he had died by my captain on my submarine, at that time on a “special operation” that he, my skipper would try to get me home on time for the funeral. Radio silence on subs as you know Mike is absolute. Yet when the boat hit the dock there was the squadron commanders car w/ his personal driver, a note from my captain, signed by the entire crew, and a p.s. that said my dress blues had been pressed with what I knew could be the only can of starch on board, it had all been done in secret. They even packed it all in a real suitcase, where in the hell do you find a suitcase on a sub. But my shipmates did it for me, I felt guilt about leaving them because I knew that by the time I might be back, they could all be gone. I got home to Medfield, near Boston, just three hours before the funeral. As I collected myself and got dressed in my finest dress blues prepped by my shipmates fighting a war on the other side of the world for my dads burial service, my oldest brother looked me up and down and said “don’t you have anything else to wear” I looked down at my very best naval uniform with ribbons and devices attached and thought, “Oh God, what’s wrong”, it’s wrinkled, it doesn’t fit, I look like crap somehow, But that wasn’t it. I came quickly to realize that my own family was ashamed of the uniform that I wore that day. I owe that shame that day to John Kerry, and I cannot forgive my brother for his question to me, to this very day. And yet I would like to. I walked all the way home from the cemetery that day. My tears and the thoughts in my mind on the way home then, can only be imagined. My dad was a WWII vet. Would he have been proud of my uniform don’t you think, maybe. I was never one of that bastard Kerry’s, “winter soldiers” We, meaning you and me Mike, had pride, I consider my military service even today to be the most honorable time in my life, we knew we could die, our friends already had died, and yet we still volunteered to do the most dangerous things that were available to us. And yet even today, Kerry’s speeches make me bleed me the most. And it makes my heart turn black with rage >>Deleted<< all of my aloha, DICK DUNNER"