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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDear Donald, I hope you have a lovely Memorial Day. Enjoy some Kentucky
Last edited Sun May 28, 2017, 10:48 PM - Edit history (1)
Fried Chicken and all of your favorite gourmet foods. I will spend the day thinking of my brother, Joe, who was killed in a plane crash on his way to Vietnam and how they won't put the names of the 80 young Airman killed on that plane on the Vietnam Wall. I will think of how my Mom and Dad suffered, along with thousands of parents who lost sons and daughters in that worthless war. I will be thinking about my friend in college who hung himself the day he got his draft notice. I will be thinking about my friends who suffered and died from agent orange. And, Donald, I will thinking about you and how you had 4 deferments while playing college sports and how in the 90's, you said that avoiding STDS when you were single was your personal Vietnam. Let's not forget your good buddy, Ted Nugent, who soiled himself so that he wouldn't get drafted. So you have fun tomorrow, you horrible, horrible, disgusting thing. Sincerely, RCH
furtheradu
(1,865 posts)FDT
dalton99a
(81,487 posts)JohnnyLib2
(11,212 posts)And that strange man doesn't deserve the salutes he's given.
busterbrown
(8,515 posts)They died going to war for Christs sakes... They were flying to put their lives in harms way... Nuts!
Freedomofspeech
(4,224 posts)denbot
(9,899 posts)onethatcares
(16,168 posts)irisblue
(32,974 posts)Permanut
(5,608 posts)I will lift a glass to your brother Joe, and to my two friends who made it to Viet Nam, but didn't make it back.
Freedomofspeech
(4,224 posts)He was a great guy...my sons never knew the coolest Uncle they could have ever had and I was denied my big brother my entire life.
busterbrown
(8,515 posts)out of N.Y..... Past last year...Silver Star winner at Kasan... Took a lot of angent orange into his body...during his tour..
Highly probable that was the cause.
democrank
(11,094 posts)~PEACE~
Victor_c3
(3,557 posts)from any Memorial Day ceremony.
He is an insult to those who have served and even more so to those who have sacrificed. His comments about McCain and him being a POW and about vets suffering from PTSD is inexcusable. I'm just waiting for anyone to say anything to me tomorrow about trump supporting veterans. I'm ready to pounce on them with all of my fury.
Mr. Evil
(2,844 posts)This 'open running sore with a brain of pus' has no right to be anywhere near any Memorial Day service or activity honoring our fallen service men and women.
mr_lebowski
(33,643 posts)Monday will actually be the first-ever Memorial Day with a Repub POTUS who should've served, but didn't.
Last time we had a Republican as President on Memorial Day who didn't serve our Country was 1987, last year of St. Ronnie being POTUS. 30 years ago.
But Raygun was already 30 when WWII started and he and Jane Wyman had an infant in 1941, so he pretty much gets a pass from serving due his age, year of his first child's birth, and when War started ... IOW, one could argue Ronnie shouldn't have been expected to serve.
The prior three Republican Presidents Ford and Nixon both served, as did obviously Eisenhower. The previous Republican President before them, Hoover, would've been old to fight in WWI (already around 40 when it started), but famously organized relief efforts for Belgium and other countries we were allied with in Europe during the Great War, so he's the last Republican President to not serve when they MAYbe should've ... but at least he 'helped' ... plus we had no 'Memorial Day' as official holiday yet back then.
BTW, fun fact ... in what country did Hoover earn his multiple-million fortune, as a Mining Director? Answer: Why, it's RUSSIA!
Anyways, one could legitimately argue that Drumpf is the first Republican POTUS who FAILED to serve his country, whilst being childless, and of proper fighting age at the time the US was engaged in a War, in OVER A CENTURY, and clearly the first since Memorial Day became a Holiday during the Nixon admin.
It'll be interesting to watch how he 'honors' the people who ACTUALLY went out, fought, and died ... for our Country, and our freedom ... when they had the chance to do so.
My bet is he attempts with great vigor to 'associate' himself with these brave and honorable men and women, even though his name REALLY doesn't even belong in the same SENTENCE.
A FORTUNATE SON DRAFT DODGER, that's what our current POTUS is.
So, he'd probably be wise to not try to proclaim himself as anything more ... on his first (and hopefully last) Memorial Day as POTUS.
Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)3catwoman3
(23,987 posts)He is most definitely NOT serving the country. He is doing his best to screw it up and screw it over.
Scarsdale
(9,426 posts)serve only themselves. Rumor has it that he did not avoid STD's while single. People say he shows signs of syphillis (sp?)brain deterioration. I think he was just born STUPID, with a father who could not accept that his son was an idiot.
sarge43
(28,941 posts)He isn't capable of believing in service and sacrifice for others. It's only and always about him. The last full measure of devotion? He wouldn't know what you're talking about. That's for losers.
sarge43
(28,941 posts)During the war he did narration of training and propaganda films. He did his assigned duty and did it well. That's all that may be asked of anyone who serves.
Between Teddy Roosevelt and Harry Truman, no president served, including Franklin Roosevelt.
Don't get righteous about "draft dodging". Bill Clinton didn't serve either, but he never bragged about it.
Two reasons for the long run of POTUSs who served: WWII and the draft. Approximately 10% of the US population at the time served during WWII. I've seen numbers ranging from 12M to 15M. Difficult to find any male of that generation who didn't. The draft guaranteed their younger bothers and sons at least went through the motions of serving.
Speaking of going through the motions, check out GW's service{sic}. He blew off his mandatory flight physical. If anyone without a daddy in high places pulled that stunt, he would have been booted out or perhaps even court martialed. The military is quite anal about maintaining proficiency.
It isn't that Trump didn't serve, it's that he disparages service and those who serve - gold star family, servicewomen, POWs, combat PTSD victims, bragging about dodging STDs was his Vietnam.
I agree with you. That vulgarian shouldn't be allowed to go near the Tomb of the Unknowns.
Victor_c3
(3,557 posts)To me, that is a big difference. Also, Clinton never publicly put down the service of anyone who did serve like trump who bashed POWs and vets with PTSD.
I'm not excusing Clinton's draft dodging, but it's different than trump's. As a combat veteran myself, I can't blame him for not wanting to face a war head on. Clinton seemed to push for diplomacy first over the use of military force.
I'm not trying to argue, I believe you essentially said exactly what I just echoed.
sarge43
(28,941 posts)I served during Vietnam and essentially I never had a problem with the protesting in any form it took. One exception: Getting personal and name calling of service members.
Clinton did his best to keep Arlington from filling up. Thank you, sir. Well done.
Chickenhawks on the other: Detestable. Trump: POS
mrmpa
(4,033 posts)Hoover was also a Quaker as well as Nixon was. I've no idea what Hoover might have done in regard to Military Service, but due to his faith he may have been a Conscientious Objector. Though Nixon also was a Quaker, he decided to enter Military Service but he did not serve in a combat position.
catbyte
(34,386 posts)That said, it made me physically ill to see that open sore lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns & I had to mute his obscene, empty words to the Gold Star families he so casually mocked last year. My dad was a Marine Raider in WWII, 1st Marine Division, first wave at Guadalcanal & served in other Pacific hell holes like Peleliu & Okinawa. I lost him in in 2000 to ALS. I miss him every day, but I am glad he's not here to see what has happened to the country he sacrificed so much for. He would be heartbroken and outraged.
Motley13
(3,867 posts)I'm sure he'll mention his big win.
redstatebluegirl
(12,265 posts)My brother and many of his fellow pilots flew off of those decks in Vietnam and many of my bother's friends did not return. He dealt with survivors guilt for years afterward, something 45 could not imagine. What a serious moron.
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)To command. Deplorable and disgusting. H
retrowire
(10,345 posts)Soldiers that weren't captured.
SCantiGOP
(13,870 posts)Strikes a nerve. Lost my best friend in VN.
The damn chickenhawks like you describe and Limbaugh, W, Cheney, etc cannot buy back their souls by loving the military now.
TNNurse
(6,926 posts)of Jim who was from my home state and in my freshman class in college. He flunked out that year, having had too much fun. It was 1968 so he was drafted. He died in Viet Nam the year our class graduated.
3catwoman3
(23,987 posts)...and read your very eloquent statement.
All the losses you enumerate are heartbreaking. I am especially horrified to know that someone took his own life because of getting his draft notice. No one should have to feel such despair.
Alice11111
(5,730 posts)Came here in Vietnam. Now, 3 of my brothers married and my sister. My dad has 6 grandchildred. We are Canadians now.
Freedomofspeech
(4,224 posts)That I would not be able to restrain myself....I used to be a very mild mannered person but that train left the station.
3catwoman3
(23,987 posts)Just a couple of days ago, here on DU, I was saying to another member that the bereaved parent/sibling "club" is a whole lot bigger than we ever realize until we become unwilling members of it.
My mother was terrified about Viet Nam, and would have encouraged my younger,and only, brother to defect to Canada. She said she would rather have run the risk of never seeing him again but knowing he was safe, than knowing he had been killed in a meaningless war. It ended before that became a decision he would have had to make.
Unfortunately, we ended up never seeing him again anyway, because he died in 1978 in a winter scuba diving adventure that ended badly -probable cold water induced arrhythmia, as autopsy did not show any water in his lungs.
He was my only sibling. Like your children, my sons have no uncle, nor any cousins. He was only 23, and had no kids. I am envious of big extended families. My husband has 3 younger sisters, all of whom married, but none had kids. How atypical is that? So, no cousins on that side either.
Loss softens somewhat over time, but whenever I hear someone say anything along the line of, "We're going over to my brother's (or sister's). My kids love hanging with their cousins," my heart gives a little lurch. I want to ask, "Do you know how lucky you are to be able to say that."
It also makes me sad when I hear about siblings who are estranged from one another. What a waste.
Please accept a cyber hug -
mountain grammy
(26,621 posts)I, too, will think of your brother, Joe.
jack69
(163 posts)Maybe will choke on his chicken.
FailureToCommunicate
(14,014 posts)Freedomofspeech
(4,224 posts)Thank you.
BigmanPigman
(51,591 posts)Last night I watched the film HAIR and used up 1/2 a box when I saw all those guys getting on a plane to Vietnam and they looked so scared. The final scene was of the cemetery with endless headstones. People are very strange and I will never understand most of them. I wish they would use their brains more and testosterone less. I agree that the Donald is a lifelong bully, coward, and hypocrite.
Roy Rolling
(6,917 posts)The biggest mistake these ideologues make is disrespecting the honorable opposition. It is not theory to you, it is real. That is the strength they will NEVER have and why they are WEAK. Strength of character, strength of belief in something bigger than yourself.
That is why the Trump "revolution" will fail, it is fought by pasty-faced weak men like Trump.
wolfie001
(2,231 posts)....can your Congressperson take up a request for inclusion? That would be the honorable way to remember these fallen airmen. It only seems fair and the right thing to do. Kudos!
Freedomofspeech
(4,224 posts)wolfie001
(2,231 posts)ancianita
(36,055 posts)N_E_1 for Tennis
(9,722 posts)Unless I missed it in the crap tweets he spewed out this am..
He is the most disgusting garbage eating slug that ever crawled out of another disgusting human being.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)PatrickforO
(14,574 posts)DarleenMB
(408 posts)And I'm sorry for your loss.
My husband, also Joe, was wounded in Viet Nam and rec'd 2 purple hearts and a bronze star. He was exposed to agent orange and in 11-15 was diagnosed with lung cancer. Luckily they caught it just in time and the tumor was removed and his cancer staged at ONE. So no chemo or radiation, just 6 month checkups.
We lost another friend, and a long=time classmate of mine to agent orange caused cancer. Several other friends also have cancer now.
So I hope Trump and his family choke on their champagne popsicles today.
pnwmom
(108,978 posts)I'm very sorry you lost your brother to that terrible war.