Some VERY good friends of mine lost their son to a IED on Oct. 18th. His Body was flown to LAX yesterday (Thursday). PLEASE let them all come home. They have been there 9 years and done a great heroic job. They deserve to come home for good.

God bless all our service men and women!!

If you ever want to see what a hero is. Take a look every one of these men is a hero. I may never meet you but rest assurred every night each and every one of you are in my prayers. GOD BLESS THE USA

Back a few years ago I lost two of my best freinds on earth (my Great Aunt Maude's Maid's grandson June Bug (in cambodia where we wern't) the other my mothers good freinds son Russel. At the time I was uh nuke with the understanding that we would never go there unless attacked.

We have in fact been attacked by the RADICAL ISLAMIC factions, suffice it to say they come in all flavors as have Jim Jones and bin ladin.

We as a World community need to address this stupidity or give up war or wonder if as I volunteered to do retaliate.

Would that the numbnut osama might understand his days are numbered and I would personally smear Pig @!$%# and fat on the one that will get him and those of similar ilk.

grain08 You really believe that crap you are wallowing in. Clinton was responsible for 9/11 because he allowed Bin Ladin to live after Kenya, Tanzania, and the Cole. He had five chances and couldn't get it done because he was busy with Monica. Take your Political rant and shove it. These brave men and women don't need people like you tarnishing what honor they get or sacrifices they do for your freedom to have the right to say such a stupid comment. And for the record I'm an independent voter, Watch the History Channel and maybe you will learn something moron.

This article is meant to humanize the plights of our service men and women. How about setting the political rants aside.

CuriousOne,

The draft dodgers and protestors did not have to spit on our troops and treat them as if they were lower than dirt. So yes, they were cruel, very much so. Those troops were doing their duty and following orders. Don't talk about things you haven't got a clue about. And while you're at it, take your bleeding heart and go to hell.

Before I criticize, did you do a combat tour?

Otherwise, quit the "philosphosizing". They left because they were cowards. It is not about the justness of the war, it is about feeling the fellowship with your fellow American young men of the Vietnam generation. In war, once the country decides to go, to be fair to all conscriptable young men, everyone has to go. Those who dodged and went to Canada, broke that fellowship with their fellow Americans.

to curious...this is not the place to voice your view...this is about honoring the men and women that have given their lives...as a mother of a US Navy son and US Army son (currently with tears streaming down my face), I can only say THANK YOU to Mr. Guttenfelder for showing such respect in the photos and forcing us all to remember what these HEROES do each and everyday for us...God bless you all!

I really do think if you weren't in her husbands place then you don't know how it really feels. A lot of our vietnam vets have more problems when they came back than the draft dodgers, most of them were upper class americans...a lot of the small town and middle americans were affected by the draft. I personally have worked with a vietnam vet that committed suicide because he couldnt take anymore the demons that had been haunting him since he came back from vietnam and I truly feel sorry for those family that have gone thru.....They gave the freedom for those draft dodgers, so they can run to another country and be cowards, while they give up everything so they can come home to their families and the draft dodger's family and friends can live freely.

My husband is currently doing his 4th tour and It's just a disgraced to hear a comment like that to a fellow military family!

My sweet little Curious

Plain and simple ...

There is always a Dumb Ass in every croud.

We just found the one in this croud.

Pull your head out of your fifth point of contact and thank our mighty Lord for real Patriots like these men and the ones that have gone before and the ones who will follow after them.

Momhight, I thank you for your post and also thank your Honorable Husband and ALL of the Men and Women who have served this Great Country .

ANYTIME your Country calls on you, Run through the gates of Hell if necessary to support and defend Her Values and trust in the guidance of God Almighty to guide you!!

Semper Fi

To "Curious" - I'm curious... you're so passionate in defending the draft dodgers..were you one of them? I absolutely agree with motherofasailorandasoldier. This is not the place. If you don't agree, at least have a little respect.

Thank you to all the men and women serving, especially to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. You'll never be forgotten!

Curious, you must be far too young to have experienced the Vietnam War, so please just be very silent and pray for these young men and their families.

Momhight.. give your husband a hug from the daughter of a Vietnam vet.

Curious- 77% of soldiers who died in Vietnam were volunteers. And the day after Carter was sworn in he issued amnesty to those who fled to Canada and elsewhere. Those men did get to come home to their families, while the 77% volunteers did not.

And yes, there was cruelty against the soldiers coming home including from conscientious objectors. It is one thing to disagree with the politics of war, it is another thing entirely to disparage the soldiers themselves.

So here we have an army wife, wife of a marine, a sarge, and even a mother of a sailor and soldier lambaste poor Curiousone over an opinion concerning draft dodgers. Emotional, heartfelt sentiments about duty, honor, sacrifice? I served overseas, attached for 2+ years to a guided missile cruiser; am I not entitled to an opinion as well?

War is the resort of failure in diplomacy. Fellowship amongst countrymen is as much a delusion as the exercise of prayer is futile. Is it disrespectful to question the evil motives governments employ to cause war? Which weapon of mass destruction would Jesus use on which nation or race of people? How can all of you be good Christian soldiers while turning the other cheek? Is it really the duty of the United states to mediate and/or cause all the world's problems? Ask yourselves, if you can: why has the United States been so militaristic since its inception?

Are Americans capable of sustaining a decade of peace? Or is the price of eternal vigilance against eternal foes to be eternal confrontation, and conflict? When does it ever end? If freedom isn't free, it's because some greedy capitalist is overcharging for it. I propose that I am not evil for posting comments questioning the logic of the mob; my primary intent is to stimulate alternate lines of thought and promote healthy debate, if anyone believes they have the intellect to indulge.

Androloma, it is not disrespectful to question the motives of a government which involves its citizens in war; it IS disrespectful to blame the soldiers who are sent to fight the war, as if it were they who started it. Having served overseas on a cruiser, you were closer to the fight than I ever was (safe in the Phillipines for a year); for your service, I thank you. The questions you ask in your second paragraph are irrelevant to this thread. What is relevant to this thread is a discussion of the treatment of our veterans when they get home. It is NOT okay to call a returning soldier a baby-killer unless YOU WERE THERE AND SAW HIM KILL A BABY. It is not okay to denigrate these fine young men for responding to the call of duty as they understood it. It is not okay to blame these young men for the failure of diplomacy which led to their being in harm's way. If you really want to help, stop the fruitless philosophizing and write to the government which continues to send them into the war. Demand their sacrifice be honored by insisting on victory. Anything less is the same as telling them their efforts were in vain.

Curious One...I distinctly remember the draft dodgers, objectors and war protestors spitting on our viet nam military personnel. The soldiers would be getting off of planes fresh from duty in Viet Nam, some of them wounded and crippled for life, and they were getting spit on and called names. It was on the news all the time and it would break my heart and bring me to tears. Yes, draft dodgers and war protestors were rude. They were mean. They were the ultimate bullies.

Its as simple as this: DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY.....those who serve, have it....those who hide from it when called upon, are cowards. Any arguement to the contrary is useless and will never be convincing.

Dear Androloma:

Please go back and study history. The US resisted war in WWI and II. We entered after all hell had been breaking loose in Europe for months!. We had an "Isolationist" policy and had to be dragged into it. Pearl Harbor got us involved. I honestly don't think we went around looking to see whom we could bully or invade! We were asked for help by our allies. Vietnam was different because the French had made a mess of it and asked for our help. We went there as advisers and when we were attacked, our congress never really declared WAR and we found ourselves in a quandary. LBJ escalated it and basically made a mess of everything. Meanwhile our precious media shoved it in our face every night and we still hadn't declared war. Those wonderful, brave soldiers, did what they were told and should have at least had the respect they deserved when they got home. If they got home. War is hell and it always has been and always will be. College kids have the right to protest as long as they really know what is going on, rather than listening to some liberal professor that has an axe to grind.

I'm so proud of this country, always have been Michelle O, and we have the bravest, strongest, and brightest men and women in our military. God bless them!

CuriousOne,

I remember as a child the images of all the death of the Viet Nam war. I also will never forget the images of all those who objected to the war. I never understood till later what Viet Nam was. I will say this, I am a American who enjoys the Freedoms of this great nation. It does not matter to me if my nation calls upon me for its service I will go. Why! Because this is my Nation and I love it no matter what. When the same one who granted amnesty to the dodgers was confronted with a nation actually attacking our sovereign soil and taking Americans hostage. Which in my opinion was a reason for war! I went down and volunteered for the US Army Infantry because that is my Patriotic Duty. To find out ole Jimmy Carter was spineless. We all witnessed how fast they came back when Reagan took office. A Coward is a Coward in my book. Draft Dodgers where all cowards period!

Androloma:

Nearly 40 years since the end of the Vietnam War, Americans are still struggling with the pain of losing over 55,000 of its young men and women for a cause that the US government claimed as protecting of America's liberty from communism while others claimed as US militarism. To say the Vietnam War still divides this Nation is an understatement. For many Americans the anguish of losing their sons or daughters in Vietnam has not healed or will ever heal. Still suffering real and psychological pain, many disfigured Vietnam Vets, who gave parts of their body when this Nation asked of them, find it difficult to accept any proposition that the war was for a dubious cause, especially from those who fled the Nation to avoid the military draft. Regardless of the motives behind the Vietnam War, the Vietnam Vet deserves our utmost respect for various complex reasons or for the simple reason that they, like the American people, were patriotic pawns of the powerful ruling elite.

Even before the inception of United States of America in 1776, the American people had already waged war for nearly 100 years against the Native American tribes for the purpose of seizing land, property and wealth. The reasons given to justify such slaughter vary through out the history: civilize the savages, manifest destiny, preservation of democracy, containment of communism, and recently, the war against terrorism.

As described in the pages of history books, America is not alone in such dubious endeavor. The European and Asian empires employed similar means. What distinguish America's recent military action from those of the Old World are the frequency of the intervention and the imposition of political ideology over the indigenous ones rather than the pursuit of purely economic gain.

The American government has made serious mistakes in the past. It is up to patriotic Americans to turn America around.

What this should remind us all is the consequences of a War. Things like this can be prevented. I'm sure that those man and woman who died in service, and those from the other band too would have liked us to stop the War. We should think carefully our words because we are seeing only half the picture. The other guys, the so called bad guys, have their own history too. This has never been good guys vs. bad guys. We should start making corrections in that direction. Wars are always consequences of ignorance either from one side or from both. In this particular case Iraq and Afghanistan are consequences of the ignorance of both governments and parties. In the middle as always the true heroes, the usual citizen hard working that may die any day because the insanity of those fighting for a so called war.

As every son remembers, Dad teaches him to be a good person. Even as a soldier for a normal son the killing of a human being is difficult to reconcile, especially when the victim is an Iraqi or Afghan citizen residing in his own country that US has invaded. The "enemy" believes his country is invaded by foreign troops and his duty is to defend it, while US troops believe the "enemy" is part of the terrorism attacked America that must be eliminated.

When the mother, father, son, daughter, brother or wife comes to retrieve the "enemy" corpse and wraps it in expensive cloth, and they look into the eyes of the son, how it is not surprising that the son has difficulty telling to his Dad how many "enemy" he intentionally killed or civilian he accidentally killed or the carnage he witnessed. As the son tried to bury the memory of the deadless bodies, limbs and organs strewn about the bloody battlefield, the stench of corpses, and the cry of imminent death, how can the Dad ask his son to retrieve his experience and thus relive the horror.

Like a double edge sword that cuts both ways, the taking of a human life exact something from the taker. Some say it's the loss of innocence. Others say hope. Still others say God. Is it any surprise that many ex- soldiers who killed many becomes ardent pacifist.

On both sides, mother and father grief as they bury their son or daughter. There is no winner in wars. Only losers.

Reel-Deal, please don't give up on your son. Make sure that he gets all the help he needs to deal with his feelings, don't let him become another PTSD statistic. Your son is a hero, as are all the men and women following their orders and serving our country.

Fat Cat, I don't know if you think you were trying to help this father, but you didn't. Families go through enough without morons like you throwing your opinion out there. Please keep your comments to yourself or find a board that welcomes idiot opinions like yours.

I myself am a combat veteran. I come from a long line of combat veterans. Some of us came home, some of us didn't. For those of us who did, we are all fine because we have a family who understands that what we all needed was the love and support we received, not somebody calling us killers and making us feel bad for serving our country.

SJackson:

It is wrong for Americans to criticize and blame our Vietnam veterans for doing a job asked of them by our government. Those Americans who spit, curse, and criticize our veterans have misplaced their anger; they should direct them at the corrupt-evil politicians who have exploited the love and patriotism of Americans, having ordered them to useless war that waste the precious lives of our sons and daughters.

Since the mid 60s, the corrupt-evil politicians have sacrificed too many American soldiers for dubious causes. Since Vietnam to the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, too much American blood have been lost on foreign soil without a honest debate as to the merit of these wars as would be required by Declaration of War. But the cowardly politicians would not issue any Declaration of War as required by the US Constitution for that would expose their self-serving agenda.

Just as the aimless Vietnam War raged for nearly 10 years without a Declaration of War, so too, today's Iraqi and Afghanistan War. Under immense pressure from the American people, the corrupt politicians finally withdrew American soldiers from Vietnam under the emphemism, "Peace with Honor" after destroying over 55,000 American lives and tens of thousand of injured. When the Vietnamese casualty is combined together with the America's the total human, psychological and economic cost are staggering.

Majority of Americans are a proud people and unequivacally patriotic to the core. When the Vietnam War portrays America as a war monger, killer of innocent people, and destroyer of a nation, these Americans erroneous vented their anger upon the soldiers rather than the corrupt politicians who quietly hid behind official podiums pointing fingers.

When our troops came home enduring a hostile reception, not one politician stood up and said, " Don't spit or curse on our veterans. Spit on me because every year I voted more money for the Vietnam War. Curse me because I catered to the Powerful Elite rather than listen to the American people. Criticize me because I exploited your patriotism for ten years."

My dad was in Vietnam, and like your son, he will not talk to many people about what he went through or saw. It hasn't been til recently that he has opened up to me and we both cry. He cries in front of me, but I pretend to be strong for him. I cry without his knowledge, because he almost died while there.

Seeing these pictures just gives us a glimpse of what is really going on. I have a very close friend that will be home from Afghanistan in a few weeks. He is a hero to me. These guys are heros to the families to the fallen soldiers.

Very well said, Kathy. You are right. A thank you to a vet. means everything..........

I am the proud sister of a servicemen in the army currently stationed in Washington state for his Striker training and he is a Forward Observer with the American Armed Forces . Every day my heart goes out to each family who loses a loved one , to each soldier who loses not only a commrade but a brother and my neverending thanks goes out to all those who protect our country which includes myself and my children. These men gave the ultimate sacrifice and I thank each of the men who did the unthinkably hard task of retrieving these men with respect and dignity and giving of themselves so that these men who have died in the line of duty protecting our families may be returned to theirs. I know that one day soon my brother will be out there fighting for our freedom and I pray for his and all the servicemen's safety and should the unthinkable happen , I pray that someone is their for my brother to treat him with the dignity and respect thse men have show these fallen heroes . God bless each and every one of you who serve and all the families of those who serve...because a little piece of each of us the family , goes with each soldier and a little piece of us is serving with them. I love you little brother be safe , be strong and be honorable your in my heart.

Erin, there is a brotherhood between soldiers. Especially ones in combat. There is and will be someone there for your Brother as he is there for his Brothers in arms. I too was an FO in Viet Nam. My Brotherhood with fellow soldiers I served with continues to this day. I know your fear and also know how proud you are............

Thank you, Kathy for sharing that. I'm the daughter and niece of Vietnam veterans. My dad volunteered. Uncle Joe was drafted at 18. Dad came home but Uncle Joe was killed at age 19... I was only 5 yrs old but to this day I still clearly remember his funeral service. I grew up always respecting our men and women in uniform. Especially our Vietnam veterans. I, too, make it a point to always approach and thank those "old guys" with military insignia caps. After I thank them, I tell them about my dad and uncle serving in Vietnam and how now my husband, two brothers, and brother-in-law are also proudly serving. Sometimes, their eyes go soft when I mention Uncle Joe but that's always followed by a brighter gleam when I tell them about my "boys" currently serving. I tell you, I will stand and listen until they're done telling me all they have to say! And, I'm making sure our 7yr old and 2 1/2 yr old grow up showing the same respect as well. Right now, they both think all men and women in uniform are "daddy's and tio's friends" and you know, I tell them "darn right!" In fact, they're BROTHERS and take care of each other~ From this military family to you and your husband- a big THANK YOU! We will NEVER forget.

SAD STORY :( my heart is with all those families and their soldiers. GOD BLESS ALL OUR BRAVES SOLDIERS FOR THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE!!

My son is in the AirForce, he is 19, He to me he is a child, but I support him as well all those brave women and men that protect our country. I was looking stories about military to do a homework. I saw those images, I can't control my fellings every time that I saw something like that. Kathy, a Few months ago my son came to visit, and when he was at the airport a lot of people did what your husband does to all those HEROES. He toldme he felt good but his tears come out when a little child hughed him. I pray every day for all soldiers, no matter what branch they belong, all they have the same goal PROTECT OUR COUNTRY! THANKS AND GOD BLESS ALL OUR SOLDIERS AND THEIR FAMILIES

Although it has been mentioned in several posts, please, let's not forget about all the women serving overseas and elsewhere. I'm a disabled vet injured in the line of duty during the gulf war, right before my deployment over there. I'm ashamed I couldn't go with my brothers and sisters because of this injury, to this day - even though it was an accident. I wanted to go, I wanted to fight, I wanted to be there - but couldn't. I can't perceive what it's like in war since they kicked me out on a medical, but there are still many thousands of woman who are over there with their lives on the line as well.

Just because I'm female, I have the same sense of duty and honor the men do as well, and I am damn proud of it. It irritates me a little to see so much love and attention going to "all our boys" over there and coming home, but the woman are hardly mentioned. Don't forget about us, because we are many, and we count too!

I am so very sorry for your loss. Your son is a hero. I will pray for your family.

Susan, I am so very sorry for your loss. My beloved nephew served in Iraq and was the center of the families constant concern, worry and prayer. We were so lucky that he came home safely. I can't even begin to imagine your pain. Thank you for your sacrifice. I will remember your son and your post for the rest of my life.

Susan, I'm so sorry for your loss.

Ma'am, I can guarantee that from the first moment your son passed from this world to the next he was treated with the utmost respect and honor. And if his resting place is a military cemetery he will be cared for and respected til the end of time. We all know that there is "no greater sacrifice than to lay down one's life for his brother." and we acknowledge this to the nth degree when a brother falls.

From a Sailor to you and your family - You are in my heart and prayers. Please rest well knowing that we as a brotherhood and sisterhood of all branches appreciate and honor the sacrifices your son and your family have made for us. Thank you.

Brother McClamrock - Rest in Peace. Fair Winds and Following Seas, brother. We have the watch.

Susan, I am so sorry about the loss of your beloved son. I cannot imagine the depth of your grief. Not only did he make the untimate sacrifice for our country, but your family bears the grief. May God give you the strength to endure and to eventually be able to regain the life that he would have wanted for you. Your son is a true hero and he deserves all the honor and gratitude we can give him. Your family is in my prayers.

Susan, my heart breaks for you. May God grant you peace. My right hand to the brim of my cap to your son.

MSgt Norman E. Fields Jr, USAF, Retired