When I read today’s letter to the editor (“Garlock “guilt ridden” over Vietnam service”), I was surprised at the hostility, sarcasm, personal insults, distortions and false beliefs expressed towards Terry Garlock personally, as well as our military personnel in general. There was also an unsigned letter in the Free Speech column that surely must have been written by the same person.
This person must have gotten his “facts” from Hollywood movies and mistaken them for documentaries about the war. Nobody who lived through those times could be so ignorant.
The only difference between “the blind and willing soldiers” and “the peace loving generation” — the writer’s words, not mine — is that the soldiers were males with low draft numbers and no college deferment.
Those of us who have been spared the horrors of war will never know the atrocities our soldiers have seen inflicted on their fellow soldiers in combat. We have never experienced the extreme physical deprivations and pain they have endured.
Citizens in countries that our troops have fought to defend could tell us a lot about atrocities, pain, and deprivation they have suffered under totalitarian governments. Our courageous, well-trained, and committed military is what saves us from tyranny when our freedom is threatened.
The self-righteous person who wrote the letter would be imprisoned, executed or tortured for opposing government policies in many countries that don’t enjoy our freedoms.
I have not used the name of the writer because I believe The Citizen needs to enforce the policy that is printed below the editorial column: “Libelous material and personal attacks on private persons will be omitted.” The personal attack on Terry Garlock and our military, although it is one person’s opinion, is not worthy of the dignity of publication.
Marilyn Weigle
Peachtree City , Ga.

[Editor’s note: Any columnist or letter writer who submits opinions to public scrutiny must be prepared to receive tough criticism in return. To paraphrase Harry Truman, “If you can’t stand the heat, don’t come into the kitchen in the first place.”]