Just in case you haven't read my response to your earlier letter. Sleep well, there are those that are there to protect your freedoms. Including speech.

Service:

It is difficult for me to recall the war without it overtaking my senses and sensibilities. I served my country as a Corpsman attached to the Marines. I do not talk about my experiences and do not wish to do so here. Everyone that served has a story, told or untold.

All of those that served during this war, like all wars I suppose, did so imperfectly. Not all served with valor and bravery. Some did so with greater devotion and sacrifice than others. Some were simply killed outright and are now just a name on a cold black stone wall. However they all served. Whether they were drafted or volunteered they did their duty to their country, they did not shirk their responsibility to past generations. They did not run.

This is what makes them quite different than faint hearted souls like Mr. David Markham. Good for Mr. Markham, good that he had good men to serve, so he could be critical of those that did serve. It seems to me if there is one person in the world that is guilt ridden it is Mr. Markham.

Fear accentuates both the best and the worst in men and war if nothing else steels character for a lifetime. We can never go back and right the wrongs in life, war is not elegant, and it is not gilded with fine thinking and detached hyperbole like Mr. Markham’s.

There were cowards on the battlefield and cowards at home but the ones on the battlefield served their country by risking their lives.

I will never forget the fine young men that I knew, I will remember my fallen comrades every day for the rest of my life, and will never regret being called “doc”.

It is an honor to have served with such men.

Mr. Markham, I am a bit puzzled. If you did not want an open forum for your discussion, why then, did you not simply respond to Mr. Garlock in the first place? Instead, you sent an opinion piece to a public newspaper in which you participated in 'name calling'. After all, calling a veteran who honorably and proudly served his country a 'wind-me-up soldier' was hardly an olive branch and was highly disrespectful.

Further, I doubt that Mr. Garlock needed 'rescued' any more than he needed your 'forgiveness'.

Sleep well.

No veteran in Fayette County,nor any place else of which I'm aware, would ever deprive you of any freedom preserved by men and women in uniform. Your father surely conveyed that to you over the years.

I agree with you on one thing though, you were lucky and you didn't run. From what you describe of your dad, he also was lucky and he did not run. Unfortunate in that he was hurt, but compared to the many who didn't survive Guadalcanal, Korea, etc even you would agree to his being more fortunate than others.

Going to bed with images of Kim Phuc or Xuan Minh? You, sir, were not there, so how is it that these two images cause reckless sleep? Having not experienced the smell of burning flesh, the numbing pain of personal loss, or the smell of cordite your experience is but the sum total of the documentaries you've watched or read. Your trouble with reckless sleep is but hyperbole.

Your dad proved his mettle, but given the same opportunity for you, we simply don't know, do we?