Friday, September 14, 2007

Reader Regrets Not Having Served in Vietnam   [W. Thomas Smith Jr.]

Lots of e-mail like this (I'll post one or two others this afternoon). Notice, it's not so much how this reader feels about the nobleness of service to country, but his apparent, personal shame at not having answered the call when his country — right or wrong — was at war. I've actually heard this before from men who were of the age for service during the Vietnam War and skirted the draft. I'll get to a famous one in a moment. First, the e-mail:

I agree with everything you said in this very well written article [The MoveOn Choice]. It truly is upsetting to see our military leaders so maligned by the left. How MoveOn.org and far left liberals can talk this way about men and women who are putting their lives on the line for the rest of us is beyond my comprehension.

I did not serve in the military but often wish I had. I had a sole-surviving son deferment in the Vietnam days and let other young men do the dying while I stayed at home and "protested" the war as a young angry college student who simply didn't want to fight. But the difference was I always respected the boys and men who served in Vietnam. I truly admired them for their courage, knowing that at least they were willing to fight and die for what they believed in. While I wouldn't admit it to many of my friends at the time, I was actually envious of them in ways that I am only now really beginning to understand.

I am now 58 years old, and if the military could take old men like me to serve in Iraq, I think I would go in a heartbeat. I no longer fear death. What I fear is what Al Qaeda and radical Islam wants to do to my children and grandchildren. I spend each day trying to earn a living and secure my retirement, but what I really wish I could do would be to serve my country in the fight in Iraq or anywhere in the world where terrorists threaten us. And being criticized for wanting to do so by MoveOn.org would be to me nothing less than a badge of honor.

God bless your prior service and your very wonderful defense of General Patraeus and all those who serve under him.

I wish I had entered into the Marine Corps and led a platoon of Marines in Vietnam. ... I was raised in the Marine Corps, and I was raised at The Citadel. I knew what I was supposed to do.

But I did not do it.

Editor’s note: Please see this note.

09/14 09:34 AMShare