I do not know what compelled Lowell Grant to write the article “I support our troops?,” but when I read it, I was compelled to write this letter. I am not a liberal, to say the least, but what you wrote, I agree with you in its ultimate manner. You are right that the United States of America is in disgrace for what is transpiring with our worthy troops and as a nation as a whole.
I write this because I also served in the Army for three years and a month and I was injured badly, non-combat, during the Vietnam War. My father served as a hard-hat welder at Angel Island patching wholes in ships that had been torpedoed by the Japanese. My oldest brother served in Korea when our friends, the Chinese, invaded South Korea and most unfortunate, my son, served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.
I bring this up because in 2004 I was working for the Department of Homeland Security at the airport in Sacramento. I received a long-distance call from my son from Iraq and he asked me for a 9 mm leg holster and belt. My son, at the time, was a Chinook pilot and they made him carry his 9 inside his flight suit where it was impossible to get to, if necessary, and uncomfortable to say the least. They did not provide this item and yet the U.S. Customs has them. Immediately my associates helped me order the items he requested along with a 12-inch Kershaw serrated knife and two extra 9 mm magazines for that lousy Italian-made weapon.
At the time I could not understand the depth of what was happening but I do know this, for what Cheney said about our troops, as you indicated, he truly deserves the “Medal of Cowardice!”
Moses Ornelas Valdez
Kelseyville
