Operation Union I ended May 17, 2004, with a total of 30 Marines killed. It was estimated that 865 enemy soldiers were also killed.
After 12 days of intense fighting Operation Swift has finally come to an end. During the operation which saw 600 enemy soldiers killed, a spokesman from the 1st Marine Division said that “US casualties were heavy.”
President Bush recently awarded the Presidential Unit Citation (PUC) to the 5th Marine Regiment for its annihilation of the 2nd NVA Division between April 25 and June 5. The PUC is the highest award that be given to an entire unit for outstanding service in action, above and beyond the call of duty.
Lt. Vincent R. Capodanno, Chaplin, U.S. Navy, has been posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. Lt. Capodanno, whose only weapon of defense was the word of God, was killed this past Labor Day while administering last rites to dying soldiers and attending to the wounded.
Even though he was shot several times, it was the rapid fire of an enemy machine gun that eventually killed him. Lt. Capodanno’s brother recently accepted on behalf of the family, this country’s highest award for valor during a military ceremony in Hawaii.
“Day la mot tam Giay Thong Hanh co gia tri voi tat ca co quan Quan Chinh Vietnam …”
Vietnam! Did I say Vietnam? Well pardon me all to hell! I must be editorializing the wrong war. I’m supposed to be writing about Osama, Abdul and Saddam.
Somebody needs to inform Sen. John Kerry of this and have him get off the Vietnam kick. Vietnam ended in January of 1973 when President Nixon announced to the nation that “we have today concluded an agreement to the war and bring peace with honor to Vietnam and Southeast Asia.” But since Kerry is personally responsible for reviving Vietnam, the kitchen heat should be of little or no consequence to him.
Kerry’s insipid pronouncement about “Reporting for Duty,” ranks as one of three of the most insane political remarks made in the last 30 years. No. 1 is “I did not have sex with that woman,” and No. 2 is “I am not a crook.”
Well, at least no one can accuse me of being too biased since I gave equal treatment to both political parties. I guess if the election were held tomorrow and the only two candidates we had to choose from were Nixon and Clinton, I would vote for Nixon. I have no problem with Quaker religious beliefs, but I can’t stand draft-dodgers.
Kerry wants us to look at his war record. I want us to look at his senatorial voting record for the past two decades. Kerry wants the nation to fight his personal ghosts of Vietnam past. I want us to fight the current war against terrorism.
Kerry has an extremely long record of supporting tax increases while opposing tax cuts. He voted against the $1.35 trillion tax cut in 2001, voted against the $350 billion tax cut in 2003, voted for the $240 billion tax hike in 1993, and voted against the Marriage Penalty Relief Bill in 2001.
While Kerry voted to authorize the war against Iraq, it was his vote against the American soldiers that I find the most disgusting. Voting to authorize a war and then voting not to fund it is the height of hypocrisy.
And while I am on the subject of hypocrisy, I’ll return to Kerry’s favorite election topic, Vietnam. He wants us to look at his war record, but then uses it as a distraction for his senatorial record.
I don’t really give a damn about his war record and what he did during the war. What I do care about though, were his actions and statements made after he returned from Vietnam. I take offense to both because I served in Vietnam, too.
No matter how I feel about Vietnam today, Kerry’s remarks then were way out of line. And just for the record, I didn’t operate a Swift Boat.
I was an infantryman/radio operator with M Co., 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, from September 1966 until October 1967. I fought in Operation Union I and Operation Swift, just to name a couple. My company was awarded the PUC by the president, and I personally witnessed Lt. Capodanno die in battle.
I was one of several Marines who recommended Lt. Capodanno’s award for valor. The process took four months, not three days like Kerry’s and a Labor Day never passes without my remembering the chaplin. I’m not sure why, but I often question the existence of God on that day.
I lost several comrades and friends during those 13 months, and besides a few faded memories, all that remains of Vietnam and all that needs to remain, is a black granite wall in Washington, D.C. The war in Vietnam is over Senator, and has been for 31 years.
Two Purple Heart awards grace the wall of my home in Butler. One is inscribed with my name, while the other is etched with my father’s name. Of these two awards, my father’s is the one that I cherish the most.
It’s not the magnitude or the importance surrounding the award, just the fact that my father, who unlike Kerry, was never interested in any kind of pomp and circumstance and he sure as hell didn’t dwell on the war.
My father was a veteran of World War I, extremely proud of his service to this nation and didn’t bad mouth America. Incidentally, when my father passed away in 1988 as a Pulitzer Prize winner and noted journalist, Paul Greenberg wrote his obituary editorial.
Because of Kerry’s self-righteous attitude and antiwar stance, perhaps his family will hire Jane Fonda to write the obituary column. Fonda claims to have found God and asked Vietnam veterans for forgiveness. It never ceases to amaze me how people who make monumental mistakes want to correct the error of their ways by claiming they found God and then think that everything will be OK.
To bleed for one’s country, whether externally, internally, or not at all, should be of little consequence to the voters of this country. There are other important issues at hand.
I too have come to one final and devastating conclusion. Vietnam was, and continues to be America’s second civil war. Until the last individual who lived during that era is declared dead, this war will never end.
Unfortunately though and for reasons unknown, individuals like John Kerry continue to surface and resurrect their own private and self-consuming Vietnam.
There will always be some imbecile who wants to continue this fight, even if he has to stand in front of a mirror and shoot at himself.

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