There is much being said about the more recent incidents of republicans dissing veterans but few seem to remember Chesty Puller's son. In Case you don't remember Chesty Puller
Lewis Burwell "Chesty" Puller (June 26, 1898 – October 11, 1971) was a United States Marine Corps lieutenant general and one of the most decorated members of the Marine Corps. Puller is the only Marine and one of two US servicemen to ever be awarded five Navy Crosses. He fought guerrillas in Haiti and Nicaragua, and participated in battles of World War II and the Korean War. Puller retired from the Marine Corps with 37 years service in 1955 and spent the remainder of his life living in Virginia.
I was commissioned in the USMC in 1957 and stories about Chesty abounded at that time.
Then came the Vietnam War and the brave service of his son, Lewis Burwell Puller, Jr.
Lewis Burwell Puller Jr. was the son of Lt. General Lewis "Chesty" Puller, the most decorated Marine in the history of the U.S. Marine Corps. He followed in his father's footsteps and became a Marine officer.
Puller graduated high school from Christchurch School in Christchurch, Virginia, in 1963 and from the College of William and Mary in 1967.[2] He received orders to Vietnam in July 1968, where he served as an Infantry Platoon Commander for three months. On October 11, 1968, his rifle jammed during an engagement with North Vietnamese troops; Puller was wounded when he tripped a booby-trapped howitzer round, losing his right leg at the hip, his left leg below the knee, his left hand and most of his fingers on his right hand in the explosion.
The shell riddled his body with shrapnel, and he lingered near death for days with his weight dropping to 55 pounds, but he survived. Puller later recalled the first time his father saw him in the hospital. He described how his father broke down weeping and that hurt him more than any of his physical injuries. Those who knew him say that it was primarily because of his iron will and his stubborn refusal to die that he survived. He was medically discharged from the Marine Corps. He was awarded the Silver Star Medal, the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, two Purple Heart Medals, and the Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross for his service in the Marine Corps.
And guess what? The republicans in Virginia were able to dump all over that record. Read on below for part of a very nasty story.
The story goes back to 1978 five years after I arrived in Richmond to teach at the Medical College of Virginia. Five years were not near enough for me to understand the politics of Virginia after spending all those years in the struggle up North in places like Buffalo and Boston. In fact, to be honest, I still don't understand the people here very well and I guess I never will.
Lew Puller
was admitted to the Virginia Bar in 1974 and began working as a lawyer for the Veteran's Administration and on President Gerald Ford's clemency board He mounted a campaign for Congress in 1978 as a Democrat in Virginia but lost in a landslide with only 28% of the vote against incumbent Republican Congressman Paul Trible
In his book
Fortunate Son He talks about having been advisede to not run on his war record and how shocked he was to get such advice.
His passionate hopes to become a political leader and to safeguard the next generation from suffering as he had, were cut short by a decisive loss to his opponent, Paul Trible. Paul Trible was a man who, to Lewis' disgust, was elected on the strength of his pro-military stance, even though Trible had avoided serving in Vietnam.
This should sound familiar.
The bottom line is that democrats were never really good marines. Only republicans love their country.