no more chimeric ideals
“Retired U.S. army colonel David Hackworth defends presidential candidate John Kerry’s Purple Hearts. He correctly notes that they are awarded for a wound that necessitates treatment by a medical officer and that is received in action with a enemy (”The meaning of a Purple Heart,” The Forum, June 16).
“I was the commanding officer to whom Kerry reported his injury on Dec. 3, 1968. I had confirmed that there was no hostile fire that night and that Kerry had simply wounded himself with an M-79 grenade round he fired too close. He wanted a Purple Heart, and I refused. Louis Letson, the base physician, saw Kerry and used tweezers to remove the tiny piece of shrapnel - about 1 centimeter in length and 2 millimeters in diameter. Letson also confirmed that the scratch was inflicted with our M-79.
“We admire Col. Hackworth, but he, above all people, knows why it is unacceptable to nominate yourself for an award. It compromises the basic military principle that we survive together. To promote yourself is to denigrate your team. I hope Col. Hackworth will rethink his characterization of Kerry’s swift-boat comrades as “grousers” passing on “secondhand bilge.” In our case, this is firsthand knowledge, and our integrity is unquestioned.
“Kerry orchestrated his way out of Vietnam and then testified, under oath, before Congress that we, his comrades, had committed horrible war crimes. This testimony was a lie and slandered honorable men. We, who were actually there, believe he is unfit to command our sons and daughters.”
- Grant Hibbard, retired commander; U.S. Navy, Gulf Breeze, Fla.; and Louis Letson, M.D. retired lieutenant commander; Medical Corps, U.S. Navy Reserve, Scottsboro, Ala. in a USA Today letter to the editor published on Friday, June 25, 2004.
These letters to the editor are not published online, and I was impressed so much with the entire piece, that I was not the slightest bit hesitant to ‘reprint’ it here. My careful following with much of the news, as of late, was very alarmed when I read this response to the article previously linked. There is not much to dispute, really; when you get the word straight from the source, little can be debated.
But on the non-political front, my weekend continued on and I arrive at my last few moments, here and now, of my days off.
Saturday, after viewing The Passion with my parents, my dad and I did some browsing and shopping. I introduced him to Frappucinos. Then we cruised BestBuy and I picked up an NEC MultiSync 17″ monitor. I have nothing but sheer praise for it; by far the best response and quality of any LCD I’ve ever, ever seen. Second only to hi-fi CRTs like LaCie. But anyways.
I had a nice evening with Tabitha and Allison. Great conversation around a more aged Drowsy crowd.
Today has been equally good and pleasant. Jeremiah recommended me try out APEX at BRCC on Thursdays due to my expression of lack of involvement this summer. P’haps I have more plans this week! A plus, truly.