"Pechs1" wrote in message

Last time...I was an educated, patriotic, healthy young man in the late
60s.

Me, too. Did four years NROTC '64-'68. Not a great time to wear a uniform
on campus, even at a Jesuit school.

The USA was at war, I too wanted to serve my country via the military.

Me, too.

Choosing
the 'national guard' just wasn't in my scan nor in the scan of anybody I
knew.

So what? Should your narrow horizons govern all who would serve? Is
National Guard or Reserve service less honorable than Active Service?

I place GWB in the same catagory as those Naval Aviators that pulled
strings to
stay on the east coast, making Med cruises during VN.

I was LANTFLT VS. My brother in law LANTFLT HS. Some of my classmates were
LANTFLT VP, VF, VA, VAW, VR, VRC, etc.. We went where we told to go. No
strings pulled, just "dream sheets" like anyone else. What we may, or may
not, have put on those sheets are between us and our detailers and God.

Or are "dreamsheets" now "strings"?

No one questions your choice. You made it. You live with its consequences.
That choice neither elevates nor demeans you morally or ethically.

Frankly, the entire issue amounts to a mosquito fart in a hurricane. The
evidence appears to be that Kerry was an effective JO under fire. That
neither makes him more nor less qualified to be C-in-C. We don't know what
Bush might have done under fire. This neither makes him more nor less
qualified to be C-in-C.

We do know that Kerry declared his opposition ot the War upon his return to
CONUS and stated that he would return his medals. He did not do so. That
makes him either a liar or constitutes his first, big "flip-flop." Either
way it raises questions in my mind.

We also know that Kerry has "carried water" for Teddy K. for decades. When
a Kennedy says "frog" then Kerry jumps. We know that his legislative record
as a senator is remarklybly blank. We know that he is a very rich, very
liberal MA politician married to an even richer wife. Somehow this does
not, necessarily, equate to concern for either the common man or the average
veteran.

Regarding W, I am a V2R (Very Reluctant Republican). I seriously mistrust
many of the "social conservatives" that surround him. His performance at
Bob Jones University damn near made me stay home on '2000. But, living in
TN, I knew enough about Prince Albert to know that he was not the guy I
wanted to be C-in-C (in spite of his "Vietnam Combat Experience). Thus, my
reluctant choice.

His performance in office up to 9/11 was in the finest traditions of Millard
Filmore. But, then, he got an opportunity to excell. And, IMO, has done a
much better job that the Prince would have done. Since the Prince and Kerry
are cut from the same cloth (rich, liberals living in the shelter of their
family's connections) my choice is, again, to be a V2R.

I lived as a USN and a USNR. There were men of honor and scoundrals in both
worlds. Such is life.

Bill Kambic

Mangalarga Marchador: Uma raça, uma paixão