An email from Tom Towler, Viet Nam 68-69

I got this email from, I presume, a Happy Carpenter reader:

Sir:

The swiftie ads are a continuation of this administration's campaign of half truths, misrepresentations, and outright lies. Their claims have been roundly and soundly defeated by Senator Kerry's military records, his crew, and even the comments of those who are attacking him now.

How you and your ilk can malign a man like Kerry when this president cowered in the National Guard while others of us were fighting a war in Vietnam is beyond comprehension.

Shame on you. You bring shame on the military and its veterans.

Tom Towler
Vietnam 68-69

Mt response: Tom,

It's not so much what Kerry did in Viet Nam that bothers me, but what he has said and continues to say about it. He has retracted his Christmas in Cambodia story that was seared, seared in his mind. He has not retracted his allegations of widespread & routine war crimes, including his own. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's sworn affidavits have not been roundly or soundly defeated, but rather distorted and ignored, while the Kerry campaign has impugned the honor of several hundred veterans and the entire National Guard.

At the time George W. Bush joined the Texas Air National Guard, his unit was fighting and dieing in Viet Nam. He was not sent because the plane he was trained to fly, the F-102 Delta Dagger, was unsuitable for that conflict. Just flying it, however, was hazardous duty. My uncle was killed in an Air Force jet training accident, so don't talk to me about cowering. Shame on you, sir, for that slur.

No one here is bringing shame on the military or its veterans. It is Senator Kerry, not I, who brings shame on himself. His volunteering for Swift Boat duty was brave and honorable in itself, but his conduct was spotty and his gaming the system to earn early return (3 Purple Hearts & you're out) was not in the highest tradition of the Navy.

Senator Kerry can end this mess at any time by doing a few simple things:

1.) He can authorize the release of all his military records.
2.) While he's at it, it wouldn't hurt to release his medical records and his wife's tax records, too.
3.) He can specifically and in detail address his attitude and feelings about his actions and statements in the Veterans Against the War days.
4.) He can stop talking about Viet Nam.
5.) He can start talking about his plans for the future, including "declassifying" his plans for Iraq.
6.) He can have his campaign stop smearing the President's Air National Guard duty.

Tom, I have my doubts about your actually serving in Viet Nam. But if you did, then thank you for your service, and I hope you will do your part to help us do things better in the War on Terror than we did in Indo-China.

Sincerely,
pedro

Comments

[Mikey]

I have to agree with one of the talking heads from TV on this one. All of the guys saying these wonderful things about Kerry were his subordinates. All of his peers judge him more harshly. A jury of one's peers -- has a nice ring to it.

For me, I keep coming back to the notion that I don't see Kerry dragging his sorry ass across the finish line in Iraq. It is vital to the future of this country that we finish what we started there.

[Link for swift vet forums...]

Check out the truth at the swift boat forums!

[maizie]

Tom refers to Kerry's military records as a source to Kerry's truthfulness but Kerry won't release his military records! Tom should aquaint himself with fact checking!!

[pedro]

Maize, I think we can let any Viet Nam vet feel any way he wants to about this one. He earned a free pass, just like the SBV's for T earned the right to be heard.

Don't give up on Tom. He'll come around.