Served his tour in Vietnam

I read with some interest the letter by Eva Lano in the Oct. 18 issue of The Herald, (“Al Gore: Service claims don’t wash”) and feel I must reply to it. She should get her information straight before coming down on Al Gore for his service record, especially in Vietnam. I was there with the Army Special Forces, Project Delta, 1966-67 and think I can speak from more experience then Eva Lano.

Yes, Al Gore was in the rear but I wouldn’t say he was in a safe place as Bien Hoa was a prime target for the enemy just as almost all the other bases were.

Now, whether or not he ever got the pleasure of walking through the elephant grass or not I can’t say, but as far as doing perimeter duty goes, there is a darn good chance that he did his fair share while in country. Did he ever get shot at while at Bien Hoa? He probably did. We used to make fun of the guys that were stationed in the rear as it was much safer there then where I spent almost all of my tour but without them we couldn’t have functioned, period, and like I said earlier there was no safe place in the ‘Nam.

Now how much time did George W. Bush spend in country? If memory serves me right, he was home nice and safe flying jets in the Air National Guard while American men and women were dying in Vietnam. Don’t put Gore down for only serving 141 days in ‘Nam, at least he spent some time there and came home safe.

Everett