To the editor: As a retired U.S. Army colonel with more than 25 years of service and two deployments to Iraq, I am ashamed of the 50 Republican veterans who signed a letter denigrating the military service of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee.
They know better. They know that soldiers sometimes serve in positions above their rank while they wait to get into schools or onto promotion lists. They know that deployment orders are hard to follow. They know that whether they are deployed to a combat zone or to a base in the rear, they carry weapons.
Above all, they know that anyone who says “yes” to putting on the uniform deserves nothing less than a “thank you for your service.”
Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate, left the Marine Corps after four years, far fewer than Walz’s 24 in the Army National Guard. To him, I still say, “Thank you for your service.”
Scott Sterling, Indian
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To the editor: One particularly egregious lie in the letter signed by 50 Republican veterans is the claim that Walz “abandoned his post.”
As is public record, we know that Walz served honorably. Instead of retiring after 20 years, he remained in office for four more years out of patriotic duty after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
He retired months before his unit was notified of a possible deployment to run for Congress. The deployment occurred the following year.
What is galling is that this cynical group serves a man who obtained five deferments during the Vietnam War, a man who claimed that avoiding venereal disease was his “personal Vietnam,” a man who has disparaged the service of veterans and war heroes.
More recently, he claimed that the Presidential Medal of Freedom for civilians was “better” than the Congressional Medal of Honor for the military. His reason? Soldiers who win the latter are “in pretty bad shape… or they’re dead.”
Shameful.
Cathy Goldberg, Seal Beach
