A Letter from the Editor

0 Comments | Insight on the News, May 21, 2001 | by Paul M. Rodriguez

Dear Readers,

"The years others knew as youth, I spent learning the meaning of death. The time others spent learning to love, I passed hoping to live through the endless nights. The moments others remember as laughs in the classroom, I remember as terror in the jungle. The instants of pleasure taken for granted by others, I remember as forgotten hopes, long ago crushed by the reality of war.... My time spent in Vietnam left me a feeling of unfinished business.... I speak of spiritual darkness and psychological confusion." -- Bo, always a LRRP.

What brings this to mind is Bob Kerrey, a fellow we knew from covering the Senate, where he was a lawmaker from Nebraska -- a pretty good one, too, who notwithstanding being a politician, told it to us straight. Now comes news about a secret -- his secret, but one concealed by the Navy and the Pentagon for more than three decades.

It was 1969. Kerrey was a young officer leading a SEAL team. The night was moonless. The reconnaissance mission was dangerous. Shots were fired, then a firefight erupted. Dead civilians were found. The team moved on and returned safely. A field report came. An official report cited Viet Cong killed. A Bronze Star was awarded -- and a tragedy was born.

Silence. Then Kerrey was wounded. Hospitals, surgery, pain. The Medal of Honor was awarded to a brave warrior. Politics in war ... and in peace.

So, is now the time to return both medals? One awarded "falsely" and one awarded based on a "false" record? This is not to say Kerrey didn't earn the right to such medals. Rather, those specific awards need to be reviewed. Too many fought and died, or came home feeling as Bo did, to have further injury inflicted upon the many who "earned" their medals but never received them. Or even those who did. War is, indeed, hell. Just look at the burden Kerrey bears.

Until next week then, God bless.