The American Spectator

Reader Mail

p> THE GREAT PAPPY br> Re: Thomas Lipscomb's Pappy Boyington Show Down : /p>

Author Lipscomb has a point regarding the Left's "inclination to massification," but he omits reference to the specific vitriol directed to Boyington, i.e., the fact that as a combat pilot for the United States in time of war, he killed the enemies of the United States (see this WND article).

Much has been said of the "Greatest Generation", of whom Boyington was one of the most magnificent. But while the Left has successfully denied all American warriors who followed their World War II brothers the unequivocal gratitude of the nation for their sacrifices in the name of the nation's freedom, the temptation to retroactively withdraw that gratitude from the "Greatest Generation" is too great for the Left to ignore. The attack on Boyington's record is just one shot in the much larger war on warriors. The introduction of women into almost every aspect of the armed forces is less a matter of equal opportunity than a matter of destroying the role of men as the sometimes taker of lives versus the role of women as the giver of life.

p>My father, a World War II combat infantryman, for all his travails in the ETO never had to worry for a moment whether the people back home honored his cause, his sacrifice and maybe his life. No soldier, marine, sailor or airman since can have the same confidence. I don't know how they do it. It takes a dedication that the "Greatest Generation" never had to show. br> -- Frank Natoli br> Newton, New Jersey /p> p> If I'm not mistaken, doesn't the University of Washington boast a prominent statue of George Washington, who, in addition to being president and a Founding Father, was also a rich, white guy, a slaveholder and somewhat of a military man? Under the current reasoning, perhaps the UW student senate should forget about Pappy Boyington and instead work to change the name of the university, as well as the state. There's a legacy for you. br> --

topics:
Education, Television, Religion, Islam, Hollywood, Law, Military, Iraq, NATO, Oil