A letter to a first-time voter
The following is an excerpt from a letter that my uncle Wayne sent to his granddaughter Drew (my cousin’s daughter) today, as she will be voting for the first time this year. If you want me to send you the whole thing (I have his permission, of course), email me (spam will get you shot!) and I’ll send you the whole thing. He says the more people that read it, the better!
In the military, just as in civilian life, a person develops a reputation with those he works and lives with. It is particularly important in a military context because your life might well depend on the person you are called to share a fox hole with. Norman Hapke, a graduate of Annapolis, defined a military reputation as:
“…the collective judgment about one’s abilities, character, and judgment by his peers, superiors, and subordinates. More honest and accurate than laudatory adjectives on a fitness report or hyperbole in a medal citation, it is the true measure of a man by the people who know him best.”
By that criterion, what do the Swift Boat Veterans who served with Kerry in Vietnam have to say about Kerry’s reputation? By my count, 263 officers and enlisted men in the Coastal Command where Kerry served have come forward. —254 out of 263 consider and have judged Kerry as Unfit for Command, including Kerry’s entire chain of command still living!
Alabama Common Sense
Drew, let’s give all of that a dose of old fashioned Alabama common sense. Kerry served with each of those 263 men and now he has gone on to be a famous Senator who is also the Democratic presidential nominee with a 50% chance of being the next president. Now, if Kerry had done all that he claimed, was an OK guy and warrior’s warrior, and really genuinely earned all of those medals as claimed, ordinarily, the men he served with would be eager and even enthusiastic to support him because it would indirectly reflect favorably on them. And, additionally, it carries a flattering, heady, intoxicating, ego-boosting, vicarious rub-off that, you can be a big buddy of the next president of the United States, maybe even spend a night in the Lincoln bedroom, if you support Kerry.
Would it not be reasonable from what you understand of human nature to suppose that at least 90% would be for him in those circumstances, rather than a paltry 4%?
Finally, other than having revealed some very serious character flaws and integrity gaps, what Kerry did 36 years ago in Vietnam should not be an issue in this election. But what Kerry did when he got back home should be an issue—falsely and publicly vilifying the 2,500,000 servicemen who had and were serving honorably by accusing them of horrific war crimes “reminiscent of Genghis Khan”. — demeaning the uniform by throwing away his own medals he now brags about. And, even more importantly, how Kerry has voted as a US Senator, about which, for good reason, he has acted like a deaf-mute.
But if Kerry is banking his presidential bid on his four month service record from more than three decades ago, I have to conclude that Kerry has been weighed in the balance and found wanting. Nana and I will be voting for George W. Bush.
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