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Thanking Marine for his service
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Editor, Manteca Bulletin,
This is in regards to the letter to the editor, in the Saturday, June 20, 2009 edition of the Manteca Bulletin, entitled “Stranger hopes her Marine son is killed in Iraq War,” from Penny Winston.

Dear Editor and Penny Winston:
My husband spent 6 years in the Marine Corps and received a purple heart in the Korean War.  When he returned he spent almost 3 years at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego as a drill instructor.  His two brothers fought some of the toughest battles of the Pacific during WWII while serving their country in the Marine Corps.
 
His father served both in WWI and WWII.  We have never ever seen the need to be anything but proud of their service.

The person who verbally assaulted you and your son is ignorant beyond belief and a coward.  He must be a remnant of the Jane Fonda/Vietnam war era. These returning war heroes were spat upon and verbally and physically assaulted in horrific attempts to make them ashamed of themselves and to question their service and their country.  In my opinion, they would be the first ones to scream the loudest for protection from our volunteer forces in the case of an attack on our country.  If he disagrees with war or THESE wars, he should express his beliefs in his vote (or in a letter to the editor) and certainly not against those young people who give a portion of their youth in the service of OUR country.

I and people like me do NOT wish harm to come to members of our armed forces and have nothing but pride in them and gratitude for them.  These sympathies have been expressed many times by many people in public places; not hurled sneeringly at helpless people passing by in a car where no one else can hear them and no defense can be given.  I doubt he would have expressed himself to your son face-to-face.  He knows who is the better man.  

If this person is proud of his actions, he should come forward publicly and express his reasoning behind this act of cowardice.

To your son:  Please accept my thanks and that of my family for your service.  It has not gone unnoticed by the majority of the people in YOUR country. You are a member of a deservedly proud group of men and women who have served this country since the time of John Adams and the Barbary Coast pirates.  

Again, thank you.
Marie Evans
Manteca
June 20, 2009