Dear Jan,
I am certainly sorry if anyone has compared you to Hitler's daughter. This was certainly never my feeling, although the law you signed and trumpeted, as originally written, would have led and still very well will lead to a "Papers please" attitude from Law Enforcement. The law itself has been debated beyond belief and as I am certain that the law is prima facie unconstitutional this letter is not to enumerate the problems with SB 1070.
The reason for the letter follows below.
How dare you, madam! Your father, were he alive today, would be ashamed, and would be the first person to tell you that you have cheapened his memory. His service to the country, which I will assume for the sake of argument was honorable and without question meritorious, does not give him a blanket "death related to service" card, and undoubtedly does not allow him to be mentioned as if he was a combat death.
My grandfather served in the US Navy, Pacific fleet, from 1939 to 1945. He served aboard the USS Oklahoma, until Dec. 6 1941 when transfer papers to an aircraft carrier came through, so he went to spend some time in BEQ in Hawaii, a decent territorial port, you may even have heard of it, Pearl Harbor. On Sunday Dec 7 1941, you may remember what happend to the Oklahoma and a few other ships. My grandfather survived that, and was not even considered a "survivor" of the sinking, because he was mustered off the ship, even though his duty bag was still aboard. Throughout the entire course of his war 2 other ships were sunk shortly after he was transferred off of them. He survived his war to die in 1957 from a tragic accident in a cold garage in south suburban Chicago, carbon monoxide poisoning. He did not die fighting Emperor Hirohito's forces, in Japan, not even colloquially.
My father served in the US Army from 1962 to 1968, he was a linguist, Mandarin Chinese, learned one of the most difficult languages to learn in 6 months of immersive training at the DLI. He served in the Southeast Asian Theater, predominantly Japan, primarily with an NSA (or precursor agency) detachment with the Army. He monitored radio traffic out of China prior to the Tet offensive, when most military honchos were concerned that the Chinese might do in Vietnam what they did in Korea. Dad used to joke that there was no Yalu river to cross in Vietnam so the Chinese were always going to stay put (bad joke I know and relies on knowing a lot about other cultures) He was in country a number of times that I have been told is still classified, was unable to tell me if he ever saw combat operations, or even where he may have seen them. He survived his war as well, and while his emphysema was deemed as service connected because of his smoking having started while the Army was still giving away packs of cigarettes, when he died in 2005, having got to hold two of his five grandchildren a total of twice, he did not die fighting the "commie" aggressor.
Those who survive the direct conflict, madam, generally do not get to call themselves combat casualties, it would behoove you to remember this.
BTW, Gov. Brewer? Parezco con illegal?