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Hard Charger
 
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To: Senator Byrd of W. Virginia
Subject: Email To Sen Byrd
Senator Byrd, As a retired Naval Officer, with two Gulf carrier deployments under my belt, I find your criticism of President Bush's visit to the Lincoln offensive in the extreme! This is the first time that the Commander-in-Chief took time out of his busy wartime schedule to pay a visit to thank those who served in the line of fire, in a way that was both dramatic and meaningful to those on the carrier. Perhaps if LBJ got off his fat ass to do something similar, our troops' morale in Vietnam might not have been so low.
As a Naval officer, I am extremely sensitive to styles of leadership. That is, after all, our stock in trade. And it was not lost on me that the President spent about thirty seconds shaking hands with the Admiral, CO, and CAG (If you don't know these abbreviations just look them up in your Funk & Wagnalls!). He then spent the next forty-five minutes putting himself at the disposal of the people who make that ship work, the yellow shirts, the green shirts, the purple shirts, the chiefs, the sailors. If you don't know the significance of those colored shirts, look it up in your Blue Jacket's Manual. Not dressed out in formal uniform (I understand at Bush's request), but in their greasy, smelly, sweaty working uniforms ... working a flight deck is hot, hard work. And yet he, in his flight suit, put himself at their disposal, this was their moment for 19 or 20 something year old kids a few years out of high school, to get a picture of themselves with the President of the United States, his arm draped around their shoulder. That is a moment that those kids never dreamed would ever happen to them, maybe not even when they knew he was coming aboard. Surely, he would see the brass, not the troops. But it was the troops to whom he gave his time ... and it was the most natural moment in the world. You might have thought it was a family reunion, and in a way, it was ... Bush is one of them, the common man, and while he is still the most powerful man on the planet right now, he hasn't lost his touch for them.
Was it a political moment? What moment of a president's life is NOT a political moment? Was it grand standing, to come in to an OK pass to a 4 wire, a bit high in close, correcting, left of centerline? Well, hell, he didn't fly the approach anyway, though I understand from the pilots who flew him that he did a pretty good job at formation flying, tucked in close for a lead change. You can always tell a fighter pilot, you just can't tell him very much. And apparently after thirty years, it all comes back, with a little coaching, I am sure. Frankly, I would have liked to see him come aboard in an FA-18, but the Secret Service vetoed that, and Bush accepted their judgment ... again, a mark of a good leader.
If you had spent some time in the service, instead of the Klan, you might understand the significance of that moment to all the men and women aboard the Lincoln, and indeed to all the men and women in the service who shared that moment vicariously. But you chose the bedsheet instead of the uniform, and so you don't. I am half-tempted to move to West Virginia just so I could vote against you in your next election.
Lewis F. McIntyre CDR, USN (Ret)
Hughesville, MD
This is a rather good email to the Senator from W. Va.
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Seasoned Vet
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Senator Byrd is a senile, leftist idiot and the best argument going for term limits. As long as his seniority lets him chair or control important committees, the poor misguided citizens kept voting him in.
"I think men who have a pierced ear are better prepared for marriage. . . . . .
They've experienced pain and bought jewelry."
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Green GI
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| Sen Byrd, what a piece of work! Isnt he still the grand dragon of the West Virg KKK? Funny how the left gives him a pass on that one. Whenever I see him speaking on the senate floor I'd like to reach through the TV and slap him back into last week!
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Trooper
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| TH6,Alejake and 6yearvet, you folks are right on the money with your comments. Byrd is the undisputed champion of unnecessary pork. How he can go on TV and make some of his comments and get a free pass from the press burns my A$$. I have read a bunch of comments from folks bad mouthing GWB doing time in the Air Guard during VN. As an old helicopter pilot I have respect for anyone who commpletes a military fight school as accidents are a part of the training. When I went though flight school in 1963-64 the class in front of mine had a mid air that killed 3 people. We had about 20-25 people quit because of the accident. My class graduated 31 of the 112 that started the course. While that was a steep cut, military flight school courses are dangerous and anyone that gets through earned it as there are no free passes. Lowering standards endangers everyone. I think GWB did the right thing by going out to the Lincoln. I think the troops understood that GWB will back his words with action unlike "Slick Willie. I also bet if Byrd could have built an airfield in WVA that the a/c could have flown off to get tio the carrier he would have been all for it. By the way all the WA reps(many of whom were against the Iraq war including Patty Murray) met the Lincoln when it docked in Washington state. Did Byrd say anything about that? Talk about a left wing commie blind eye.
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Green GI
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Last Login: 2/14/2004 6:24 AM
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| Patty Murray should be indicted for treason. In a weird way, I wish that I was politically naive again because it really chaps my a$$ to hear people like Murray, Daschle, et al, spout off their rhetoric.
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Seasoned Vet
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quote:
Originally posted by sixyearvet
Whenever I see him speaking on the senate floor I'd like to reach through the TV and slap him back into last week!
HOOAH!! Roger That! [thumbUp]
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Detachment Sergeant
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quote:
If you had spent some time in the service, instead of the Klan, you might understand the significance of that moment to all the men and women aboard the Lincoln, and indeed to all the men and women in the service who shared that moment vicariously. But you chose the bedsheet instead of the uniform, and so you don't. I am half-tempted to move to West Virginia just so I could vote against you in your next election.
Although well written and to the point, the senile old Grand Dragon will not either see that or even understand. I'm sure he's quite proud that he wore bedsheets rather than a uniform.
 ALWAYS OUT FRONT
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Regular Joe
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